23.1.22 Argentina has gone to town over the death of an actress

 So I'm leaving 81 Renshaw after yesterday's afternoon gig (those of you on twitter knew about this at tea time yesterday, if you're on Facebook you'll be under the impression I couldn't be arsed as it was a weekend - simple truth is I hadn't checked whether the post had actually posted, so now I know where the readership comes from. Clue - not Twitter) -

- and I have a browse. I can't help it, it's nature, it's how I'm built, how I'm wired. I manage once again to not buy the vinyl copy of John Cale's Music For A New Society with a simple, "You don't really need it, not at the moment, how much did you send on that book yesterday?"

It's not a matter of finance, or of perceived value, it's an acknowledgement of obsession and an addiction to getting the next thing. Bought something new and shiny and wonderful? Sound, what's the next thing you think you need?

Wonder why I don't do drugs? It's that. It's the fact that I know how obsessive I am. And cowardice. The two together.

Anyway, front of store, next to the aforementioned Cale album, a box holding three fairly bulky 'grab bags': 50 7" singles for a fiver. No idea what's inside the bag, could be anything. Anybody seeing a world where I don't buy one of these bags?

Neil and Al were telling me that they'd bought a large quantity of singles from a DJ, swept through looking for the really valuable stuff (if any) and then decided the workload was too huge. So, grab bags. My take was, if there are a couple of decent singles in there then it's paid for itself. They pointed out that people were coming back and buying more bags, which doesn't shock me.

Sunday Girl by Blondie. George McCrae's Rock Your Baby, Kenny rogers' The Gambler (the scousest song on earth, once again, you can't explain that but it's true). M's Pop Muzik. Dollar's Who Were You With In The Moonlight which is possibly still terrible but it's on picture disc so...

So many others but the two that really got me were by the same artist. 

Two singles from the truly wonderful at times David Essex.

Easy to think of Essex as nothing but a light entertainer, a chirpy cheery cockney chappy who had a sitcom for a while and showed up on Eastenders but god the lad had some moments:

There's obviously That'll Be The Day and Stardust, which we've already covered at length. And there's his first solo single, 'Rock On' which is genuinely one of the oddest and most brilliant singles of the 70s. Prior to that there's the musical theatre, which post Girls Don't Play Guitars is obviously a subject very close to my heart. He's in Godspell, he's on War Of The Worlds, he's on the original Evita soundtrack. 

Which is what we're talking about first.

Oh What A Circus. When this came out, Don't Cry For Me Argentina had already been a number one. Then this comes out and it may have different words but it's the same tune, it's the same song, on the same subject. The 14/15 year old me (I've checked them label, it's 1978) had never heard anybody do anything like this. It's an answer to a previous song from the same show. Mind slightly blown.

We've already talked about how I didn't warm to the idea of a musical where every word was sung. So I didn't warm to then idea of Evita (despite Another Suitcase In Another Hall - brilliantly corrupted in a Carter USM lyric to 'fail up another suitcase with another haul', I'll come back to Carter, I'm sure - being a massive hit and a great tune) (Tortuous grammar, too many bloody brackets)

J's upstairs, probably wondering why I'm now onto my fourth play of a tune from Evita. Or not, I think she may just accept that these are the things I do for no apparent reason.

I'm not necessarily converted to Andrew Lloyd Webber's shows in their entire. I watched Cats, the movie, didn't like it. But neither did he, so there's that. But bloody hell, when the lad writes a good tune he writes a really good tune. That's genuinely not a new attitude from me. Memory? How bloody good is memory.

And then, not from a show but it feels like it should be: 

Genuinely got excited about this one, one of the minority of the records in a picture sleeve (most had been rehoused in cardboard with an inner plastic lining, the tools of a working DJ), hoped that it would be the blue vinyl version. A minor thing but it felt vitally important at that moment. It was the blue vinyl version. 1979. This is what David and his people think is a single release. And it's massive (as I recall). No idea what's behind it, don't know if the album is a concept of some kind, not really bothered if I ever find out.

It's another song I remember Chris playing and being very positive about (same as bat Out Of Hell) and again, I was that bit too po-faced to accept. I was into serious music, this very much wasn't serious music. It's gloriously bonkers and the world's a little better for it existing.

Next? Think I'm going for B.A. Robertson's Bang Bang. Always had a soft spot for that.

The joy of the lucky dip.