Welcome to the RPM Record Club, week ending Friday 21 October 2022, your stable, reliable, cool music selecting collective. And, oh look....perhaps not whilst listening to last weeks selection of tunes, but the truly terrible Truss is gone. Surely time for an election...

In the mean time, I think we need some tunes; over to....

Jayne -

"Hoping all’s well with you RPM members; here are my three for this week…"

Nina -

"Hi folks, hope you're all well.

Is it just me or have things descended so far beyond farcical it's surreal?

Music, there's always music...Here's my 3."

Dave -

"Hi everyone, hope you all had a good week. Here’s my 3."

Piers -

"I have just returned from a twilight walk in the Woods at Bintree where amidst Amanita muscaria and the calls of tawny owls something reminded me of this…"

"What a lovely autumn it is turning out to be. Of course, the car is full of conkers, but this week we have also very successfully foraged for Sweet chestnuts, walnuts, and hazelnuts in this mast year. (Well, not quite full, but you know….) "

Tony -

"Glad that I got my picks off a day early last week - I went down with my second dose of the dreaded lurgy the day after, but am ok now. (Glad to hear that, Tim) Unfortunately I was obliged to watch the circus come to town as it unfolded. I was tempted to chose a version of "Gone Gone Gone" by Plant and Krauss but decided to let the others have a go at marking the carnage. Here's my mixed bag for this week with best wishes to all of you still clinging to the wreckage."

Alan -

"Various Artist/Compilation/Label Sampler albums............ dontcha just love 'em? They were an opportunity to explore new musical genres and artists and, on occasion, pick up unreleased or rare tracks. I'm sure many RPMer's have Islands 'Nice enough to eat' and/or 'You can all join in' but there were also fine collections such as Track Records 'Backtrack' series, Atlantic's 'Age/New Age of...', CBS's 'Rock Machine...' and all before the essential garage, punk and psychedelia collections courtesy of Nuggets, Pebbles and Back from the grave. Over the next few weeks I'll be submitting some goodies from these and other comps and here's 'Volume 1' of my choices."

Barbara Randolph- 'I got a feeling' (from 'A collection of 16 original big hits-Volume 6' released late 1968. Tamla Motown label) - "Here's Barbara's great dancer, initially released in the US on the Tamla subsidiary 'Soul' label on the 14th September 1967. Unlike many Tamla releases of that era, this single is definitely 'soul' and nestled comfortably alongside labelmates Jnr Walker, Earl Van Dyke and Shorty Long. Barbara was the adopted daughter of actress Lillian Randolph and, aged eight, appeared in the 1953 film Bright Road before, aged 15, both she and Lillian joined Steve Gibson's vocal group The Redcaps until Barbara left to go solo, signing to RCA in 1960. Her career took a promising turn in 1964 when she joined the Platters for their 'New soul of the Platters' album and, in 1967 she appeared in the movie classic 'Guess who's coming to dinner'. She also signed for Motown in '67 and released just two singles on Soul ('....Feeling' and 'Can I get a witness') as well joining the 1968 'Motown Sound' tour alongside The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Hugh Masekela. Despite being considered as a replacement for Florence Ballard when she was unceremoniously dumped from the Supremes (Barbara was probably too much competition for Ms Ross methinks) there were no further Tamla releases and Barbara moved on for another brace of (unreleased) singles on Lee Hazlewood's LHI label and toured Vietnam supporting the US troops before retiring from the music biz in the early seventies. There was a rerecording of '.... Feeling' on the Lightning label in 1989 but it was the original Soul issue which had found favour with the burgeoning Northern Soul clique in the mid eighties. Barbara passed away in 2002."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV_cs-T2Y-Q

The Poets- 'I am so blue' (from 'Rubble Volume 6- The clouds have groovy faces' released mid 1986. Bam Caruso label) - "An almost unrecognisable Poets of 1964's punker 'Now we're thru' and '65's 'That's the way it's got to be' fame, by July of that year they had 'mellowed' sufficiently to release this (almost) ballad which only sold a minimal number of copies. Decca had given them their usual short term contract and three singles was about as many as they allowed groups to make a commercial breakthrough. Producer Andrew Oldham, however, kept faith with the group and quickly signed them to Immediate but, after just a couple of (fine) singles they returned to Decca for their majestic swan song double sider, 'Wooden Spoon/In your tower'. The lack of success saw the group disband soon after it's release but the continuing popularity of their singles in the 60's clubs scene saw most of the original line up reform in 2011 for just a couple of dates but, soon after, a series of illnesses saw three of the original band members pass away with only rhythm guitarist Tony Miles still with us, albeit he now lives on the Costa Brava where he runs a radio show and occasionally records in his own studio."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvnGqKPvDA

Ill Wind- 'Full Cycle' (from 'Baubles Volume One- Down to Middle Earth' released mid-1988. Big Beat label) - "Initially the final track on the groups debut album, 'Flashes', released in December 1968 on the ABC label. The first pressing of 10,000 were recalled after it was found the version of 'High Flying Bird' contained a glitch and that a sleeve pressing problem had rendered the rear text and photos unreadable. A further 2,500 were pressed and, until a lone reissue in 1987 and a further slew of issues in Europe and the US in the early 2000's, that was the sum total of their debut. Even now, the reissues attract good prices, especially the double album release which includes early demos and live tracks. I remember reading an interview once where it was stated 'Every band has a classic two minute single in them' but here, Ill Wind prove that every psychedelic band needed an extended piece in order to cut the mustard. The band hailed from Boston and, after playing every local dive and supporting acts such as the Who, Them and the Byrds, they were installed as the resident band at the famous Boston Tea Party club. The band replaced their original girl singer, Judy Bradbury, with the crystal tones of Conny Devanny whose vocals bring Grace Slick, Barbara Jean Hudson (Ultimate Spinach) and Barbara Robison (Peanut Butter Conspiracy) to mind. Perhaps their debut arrived a year too late to break through, a problem no doubt made greater by ABC having copies of 'Flashes' pressed at a multitude of pressing plants, hence the pressing/sleeve problems, which saw fans unable to find copies despite constant requests to ABC from Boston's record outlets. Despite the album being produced by then hot Tom Wilson, the band were disappointed by the labels, and Wilsons attitude and broke up in late 1968, and although they did reform a few months later it became apparent that the bands momentum had been lost and there were no further recordings. Devanney later recorded with cult artist, and movie soundtrack provider Michael Kamens Rock and Roll Ensemble before establishing a successful booking agency and appearing regularly as part of various large format dixieland jazz bands.

Here's a 'live' version I found which was recorded for the US Underground radio programme, coupled with the album track 'Dark World' featuring solo lead vocals by Conny.......... a real find for me!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0oVkrwcL-w

"Just three weeks ago the Daily Mail were trumpeting:

"Kwasi Kwarteng delivers a genuine Tory Budget that spells the end of Treasury doomsters"

But Saturday 15th October's headline bemoaned:

"How much more can she (and the rest of us) take?

And: if the answer is 'Jeremy Hunt'....................... what was the question? (Three business failures, couldn't even export marmalade to Japan, sold his one profitable enterprise and pocketed £14 million, investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commision twice, failed to become PM twice and now he holds the PM a 'hostage to fortune' until such time as the MP's dare sack her and instal a new PM without 'truss-ting' their members to vote in someone else.) In 2016, Hunt called for a reduction in the number of foreign doctors working in the NHS after the UK left the EU. At the Conservative Party Conference later in the month, Hunt pledged, by 2025, the NHS would be "self-sufficient in doctors".

John -

"Hi Everyone, Hope you're all safe and well. Here are my three for this week."

Tim -

"Unintentionally all instrumental this week...perhaps because I'm lost for words..."

'Til Next Time...