Rock 'n' Roll Vinyl 10 Inch 18 Items

The tracks from the group’s two 1984 EPs together on a swanky 10-inch vinyl LP. Inner bag features liner notes by Kris Needs incorporating new interviews with all three Delmonas and a series of great photos by Eugene Doyen.

Sarah Crouch, Hilary Wilkins and Louise Baker started singing together as a unique spark of spontaneous magic inextricably linked to their boyfriends in the Milkshakes, then rocking a garage-punk antidote to shiny synth-pop and brash chart stars with a direct lifeline back to rock’n’roll’s original simplicity and wildness. After Billy Childish and Bruce Brand formed the Pop Rivets in 1978, the guys hooked up with Micky Hampshire and Russell Wilkins to found the Milkshakes. Sarah shared a student house with boyfriend Micky plus Billy. After she and Hilary, then dating Russell, sang backing vocals on the Milkshakes’ rollicking Beatles-translated take on the Shirelles’ ‘Boys’, Louise’s arrival turned them into a girl group pretty much by accident.

“I loved the music the Milkshakes were playing,” Louise recalls. “Loved the small, intimate venues and most of the bands that played with them, especially the Prisoners. I’d gone with the Milkshakes to Belgium and was somehow persuaded to get up on stage and sing something. Next thing I knew, there was some kind of plan to get the three of us in the studio.” At first the three girls were called the Milk-boilers, renaming themselves the Delmonas by the time Ace Records’ Roger Armstrong and Ted Carroll suggested recording the EPs that furnish this collection. “I think we were asked to each think of three songs and turn up,” says Louise. “I mostly listened to music from the 60s: lots of girl groups, Irma Thomas, Dusty Springfield, Bo Diddley, Velvet Underground, Kinks. Bruce had the best record collection; Mel Tormé was in there somewhere and one of my faves. Sarah came up with doing the Doors cover.”

‘Comin’ Home Baby’ was written as an instrumental before Bob Dorough added lyrics and Mel Tormé recorded it in 1962. The Delmonas’ finger-clicking, noir-dynamic version kicked off their first EP with authentic-sounding 60s production resonance, iced with mysterioso organ. The Cookies scored a hit with Goffin & King’s ‘Chains’ in 1962, the Beatles’ version providing the Hamburg Star-Club template for the Delmonas’ energised rendition. The first EP, “The Delmonas Volume 1”, rounded off with two songs from the Childish-Hampshire songwriting partnership: ‘Woa’ Now’ and ‘He Tells Me He Loves Me’, the latter recalling the New York Dolls covering the Shangri-Las’ ‘Give Him A Great Big Kiss’, mainly because it has similar chords.

“The Delmonas Volume 2” opened with Sarah’s idea of covering the Doors’ hit. “We thought, ‘How would the Kinks have played it?’” she affirms. ‘Hello, I Love You’ had got the Doors into hot water with the Kinks’ publishers for its resemblance to ‘All Day And All Of The Night’. The Delmonas home in and highlight that similarity, adding bonkers psychedelic drop and evocative new coda. Their surf-tinged version of the Milkshakes’ ‘I’m The One For You’ is followed by the swampy screaming of ‘Peter Gunn Locomotion’, a cover of a 1963 single by Freddie Starr in his pre-stand-up comedian days as singer with the Midnighters. The set closed with the sultry organ-led vamp of the Milkshakes’ ‘I Want You’, the nearest the Delmonas get to the slowies Sarah helpfully points out they referred to as “shag songs”.

All these tracks would re-appear on their “Dangerous Charms” album, along with out-takes and recordings from a BBC session, before the original trio splintered, leaving Sarah and Hilary to return for further adventures as Ludella Black and Ida Red. The eight tracks here capture a moment when three fun-loving friends got to live out some musical fantasies and had a blast doing it. 37 years later, it sounds just as contagious.

Vinyl LP pressing. Brought up on the radio shows of such legendary rock 'n' roll DJs as the moondogging Alan Freed, Mad Daddy, and, later, the ghostly Ghoulardi, it was hardly surprising that The Cramps'Lux Interior and Poison Ivy began trawling thrift stores for juvenile delinquent tunes, lip-curling bad boy rock 'n' roll, strange exotica, bizarre novelty 45s, dysfunctional doo-wop, psychedelic weirdness, and instrumentals made by madmen. In America in the 1950s and 1960s there seemed to be small-town versions of such vinyl madness everywhere that, by 1970s, were remaindered and - to the majority of people - unwanted. To the fledgling Cramps this was nothing short of heaven. The duo filled their house with novelty memorabilia, schlock horror furniture, and a record collection to die for. Lux eventually gravitated to his own Purple Knif radio show and The Cramps delivered their versions of some of the stuff they'd found. The duo name-checked many a 45 along the way and seeking them out and sampling their eccentricities is nothing short of mind-blowing. This 24-track collection positively effervesces with eccentricity. As with every installment in the series, these tracks are divided into four themes: The Rock'n'Rollers, New Dance Trend, Instrumentals, and The Mad Daddies. Every track pirouettes dangerously and at times haphazardly around the expected. These are songs for strange times by artists who can definitely be considered strange people. Gems and nuggets that sparkle even more bright in the manufactured music maelstrom of the 21st century. The population of Badsville welcomes you aboard. Includes tracks by Gary Link & the Rock-a-Fellas, Buddy Starr & the Starliners, The Saints, Jamie Coe, Bo Toliver & His Timers, Dossie Thunderbird Terry, The Vocaleers, Celestine, Young Jessie, Creel Sisters, The Phaetons, Burt Keyes with Teddy McRae & His Orchestra, The Downbeats, The Stereos, The Ramblers, The Storms, The Renegades, Nightmares (Jimmie Maddin Orchestra), Don Johnston, Jivin' Gene and the Jokers, Freddy Montell, Terry Corin and Her Boyfriends, and Mr. Undertaker.

Transport yourself to the vibrant soundscape of 1964, where a momentous chapter in musical history unfolds with the unveiling of an unreleased gem – an inaugural demo recording meticulously crafted
for presentation to the discerning ears of Micky Most. Marking its grand debut on a 10” picture disc vinyl, this hitherto undiscovered single emerges from the shadows to celebrate its illustrious 60th anniversary.
Immerse yourself in the authentic cadence of British beat rock, as the charismatic vocals of frontman Peter Noone intertwine with the very original lineup of the iconic Herman's Hermits, then simply known as Herman and the Hermits.
This collector's edition vinyl not only invites you to savour the timeless allure of a bygone era but also to revel in the artistic genesis of a legendary band, encapsulated in the resplendent grooves of rock 'n' roll history.