Alexei Sayle: 'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Parts III & IV)

Here's the second single version of this song, a 12" to follow the 7", now with profanity! Seriously, nothing this dirty had made it to British vinyl since Derek and Clive recorded "The Critics". This 12" and the previous 7" were released in 1982 but didn't chart; by the following year Sayle had increased his public profile thanks to appearing in "The Young Ones" and "Gorky Park" so Springtime reissued the song, which peaked at #15 in the UK singles chart in March 1984.

'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Part III)
'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Part IV)

12" single audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Alexei Sayle: 'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Parts I & II)

Oi that Cortina's a sweet ride innit?

'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Part I)
'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (Part II)

7" single audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Various Artists: The Comic Strip

This 1981 live album recorded at the club of the same name in Soho and released on the Springtime label contains a startling number of comics who proceeded to devour British comedy as we know it in the 1980s. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders bust out the American accents for "Psychodrama"; Nigel Planer does his Neil character (soon to hit the airwaves on "The Young Ones") performing a song at Wembley; stand-up Arnold Brown does a set; Nigel and his comedy partner Peter Richardson do a number of bits as the team The Outer Limits; two other future Young Ones, Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, rip the place apart performing as 20th Century Coyote; and Alexei Sayle is the M.C., performing stand-up between the other acts and closing the night with the "song" that became an unexpected hit single, "Ullo John! Got a New Motor?" This is a truly great compilation, and Rik Mayall's performance simply must be heard to be believed; the "Dangerous Brothers" bit is basically a vaudeville sketch on amphetamines and is one of the funniest, most insane things ever recorded.


Alexei Sayle "Introduction"
The Outer Limits "Commercials"
The Outer Limits "Lenny Flowers"
20th Century Coyote "Rik's Poems - First Attempt"
Alexei Sayle "Alternative Childhood"
Arnold Brown "Why Not?"
The Outer Limits "Page 3 Girls"
20th Century Coyote "Rik's Poems - Second Attempt"
Alexei Sayle "Break"
The Outer Limits "The Cabaret Biz"
Alexei Sayle "Some Jokes"
French & Saunders "Psychodrama"
The Outer Limits "Neil at Wembley"
Alexei Sayle "Dayjob"
20th Century Coyote "I'm Evil"
20th Century Coyote "The Dangerous Brothers"
Alexei Sayle "Stream of Tastelessness"

Album audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Vlog #1: Misprinted LPs and the Stickers That Love Them

Here's the first Vlog from yours truly for this Fuji Puzzle Box blog, and it's all about LP covers that were misprinted and then fixed with stickers - one before sealing, one after! Featuring Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 by Chick Corea (ECM, 1971) and Reads Peter and Paul by August Plinth (Vox, 1973). August Plinth? Who could that be? Why that's a poet who recorded at least seven private press LPs of spoken word, whose work I hope to be sharing with you very soon!

Владимир Высоцкий в записях Михаила Шемякина / Vladimir Vysotsky: The Mikhail Shemyakin Recordings

I just got a parcel from Russia and it's GODDAMNED EXCITING. Here's an unboxing video I made for the 7CD box set Владимир Высоцкий в записях Михаила Шемякина / Vladimir Vysotsky: The Mikhail Shemyakin Recordings, from Bomba Music.

Vysotsky was, if you must, the Soviet Union's own Bob-Dylan-Marlon-Brando, an actor and folk singer, considered persona non grata but grudgingly tolerated by the Soviets, beloved and endlessly cassette-bootlegged by the Russian public. He had a Russian friend in exile in Paris, painter Mikhail Shemyakin, and when Vysotsky would visit Shemyakin (always to visit, never to defect), Shemyakin would make home recordings of Vysotsky performing. There's a lot of those tapes; this 2013 box set runs 5 hours 21 minutes and contains 104 songs. (Bomba also released it on vinyl the same year; both the CD and vinyl versions are reissues of an original 1987 vinyl box set on the Apollon Foundation label, New York, copies of which are now a little scarce.)

I was introduced to Vysotsky’s work thanks to the movie White Nights, which includes a scene where Mikhail Baryshnikov dances to recording of Vysotsky performing his song Кони привередливые (Fastidious Horses), and it’s one of the most gloriously gutwrenching songs ever recorded - like Vlad had “Die of total organ failure” on his to-do list that day but put it off for a few minutes in order to record this song. That specific performance is not included on this box set, but another great performance of the song is included on CD 7.

Кони привередливые is variously translated as "Fastidious Horses" or "Capricious Horses". Here’s Vysotsky performing it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zGf4hlzgYg

High Wire Radio Choir

At the recommendation of David Ossman I picked up a used copy of this baby on Discogs, and it’s stone brilliant. San Francisco’s High Wire Radio Choir only existed for a late seventies / early eighties moment, but founding member Doug Ferrari later stuck it out on the road as a stand-up. For background don’t miss this post from The In Crowd blog as well as this 1992 profile of Ferrari from the Los Angeles Times.

Teenage Mutant Love

Big Bellied Woman

High Wire Hotel

K-Sell

7" audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Will Jordan: Ill Will

Here’s an excuse for me to plug Gerald Nachman’s essential history of pioneering stand-up comedians of the 1950s and 1960s, Seriously Funny – it contains a concise career overview of Will Jordan, one of the “sick” school of stand-ups and an inspired and technically brilliant mimic, who had his own special corner of purgatory carved out for him when other comics lined up to steal his best bits:

https://books.google.com/books?id=B_Yzl5uXacwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=will%20jordan&f=false

Jordan didn’t just invent the Ed Sullivan phrase “really big shew”, he invented “Ed Sullivan”, the caricature, more famous today – and more bizarrely endearing – than the real man. This is his stand-up LP on the Jubilee label from 1961, presented by Hugh Hefner. Jordan appeared on other LPs in the 1960s, including Tapped Wires with Rhoda Brown in 1963, but this was his only solo album. It’s surreal and really enjoyable – but I bought it, and you’re going to listen to it, because of THAT COVER, which is a gift that keeps on giving. In your waking hours. In your sleeping hours. For the rest of your life.

When I First Started in Show Business

Somewhere in South America

Ike on Television

All Rabbis Have Perfect Diction

Sammy Calls His Best Girl

Those British War Movies

The Pres. (of the Actor’s Union) Speaks

The Japanese Prison Camp

The German Teacher

Frankenstein

How Sir Ralph’s Picture Got in Lindy’s Window

LP audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.