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| This album too is 45 |
I couldn't even be arsed to come up with a different way of holding the sleeve up for the photo shoot; it's basically an original high quality Swede garment with the designer label ripped out and my own (inferior) brand stitched poorly into the back of the neck - the kind that'll make you itch like a man on a fuzzy tree.
So, the Sweet. What can I say about them that I haven't bored you all to death with a million times before? Suffice it to say that The Sweet's Biggest Hits was the first album I bought with my own money. And in 1972 that was a whole hill of beans, well £2.18 anyway. And I played it ten times a day. Minimum. Why wouldn't I? Unlike singles which needed flipping over every three minutes (a bit like pancakes) RCA Victor SF 8316 (I still remember the catalogue number) would play for nearly twenty whole minutes before I had to drag myself off the bed and put the needle on the other side.
And I love the way it's called Biggest. It stops at Wig Wam Bam: less than four weeks after its release they would put out Blockbuster (#1), closely followed by Hell Raiser (#2) and Ballroom Blitz (#2). Now they were big: combined sales of those three singles alone was in excess of 1,000,000 copies (and that's just the UK): monster big.
Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on Swede Towers and see if I can't recycle some more of his ideas and cut and paste them over here. Keep 'em peeled.
Wig Wam Bam
My lawyers will be in touch.
ReplyDeleteCan we settle out of court?
DeleteImitation is the sincerest form of flattery m'Lud
DeleteAllegedly.
DeleteWell, I had to do a double-take there! This could be a new viral phenomenon. Actually, it would be really lovely to see photos of everyone holding up one of their treasured old albums and taken in this style. What have you started, TS?!
ReplyDeleteAs for that feeling about the first album we ever bought, you're spot on about the special joy of not having to flip it over for at least twenty minutes. And, didn't you find, each side of an album had a completely different 'character' - or at least a distinct individual 'feeling' you associated with each side - perhaps because usually Side 2 contained one extra long song (of my first handful of album purchases, these long tracks were the Clash's Police And Thieves, the Stranglers' Down In The Sewer and Buzzcocks' Moving Away From The Pulsebeat)
I would love to see you do it C. However, Swede's legal people may have something to say.
DeleteSo true about each side having a different character. (I got rid of almost all of my vinyls couple of years ago .....)
DeleteEven 'Slider'?
DeleteI think C is right, we've suddenly all become a bit less anonymous of late so why not go for the full Monty with the album shot as well (figuratively speaking of course) - TS's legal team will be kept busy for years.
ReplyDeleteJust remembered that as part of PE in the early '70s we had to choreograph a gymnastics routine to Blockbuster. Best lesson ever!
Sounds like it could be up there with Pan's People shimmying to Bankrobber by the Clash!
DeleteYou are right although we didn't have the bank robber striped shirts - That was a really truly awful piece of literal choreography.
Delete