Relevant Record Cafe - Cambridge

Photo: Ben Attenborough

By the time I moved to Cambridge it was an independent record shop free zone. We had a HMV and a Fopp, both of which survived when HMV entered administration in 2011; Zavvi until its demise on Christmas Eve 2009 (coincidentally the only day I ever bought anything in there, completely unaware that it was about to shut for good) and a branch of Head briefly operated in 2012/3. Visual evidence of past emporia still exists, such the Hot Numbers mural on Kingston Street (right), the name having more recently been brought back to life in the form of a thriving coffee shop - and more - on parallel Gwydir Street.

Photo: found0bjects.blogspot.co.uk

At the other end of the latter street can be found the seemingly abandoned store front for Roll On Blank Tapes (left), where a hand-written price list reveals that a C30 Ferric tape would have set you back 55p; an extra 10p would have got you an upgrade to Chrome. A MiniDisc sign in the window shows that the shop did try to diversify but it was too little too late.

Nearby Mill Road also saw the first permanent branch of independent chain Andy's, its founder Andy Gray, having previously traded at Cambridge market. Gray currently runs BGO records, a reissue label named after Andy's sister store, The Beat Goes On, which focused more on second-hand and rarities. King Street was also home to numerous record shops; as I understand, Parrot was, to steal a phrase from Graham Jones, the last shop standing on that particular street, closing in 2002.

And it's Mill Road where the Relevant Record Cafe has taken up residence. As the name suggests its more than just a record shop, with a cafe on the ground floor and the all-important vinyl in the basement, Note: vinyl. There's not a CD to be seen, and if you don't have anything to play vinyl on panic not, as Relevant stock a range of turntables (only this morning I saw a couple walking along Mill Road, each carrying a freshly purchased Steepletone turntable). The vinyl is split roughly 50/50 between new and second-hand. The 'new' is a healthy split between recent releases and back catalogue. The second-hand section would have made my own quest to rebuild my collection far simpler, spying as I did things such as the Quadrophenia soundtrack for a very reasonable £9. And not a tatty sleeve to be seen; all the second-hand LPs would by my reckoning be graded as VG at the very least; and unlike buying online you can see & feel exactly what you get.

They've included a small seating area in the basement - a nice panoramic shot can be found here, courtesy of @ChrisRandWrites - which doubles-up as an in-store performance area (and for such occasions you can make use of the cafe's alcohol licence). And rather brilliantly Relevant is operating extended opening hours, meaning that after spending much of Black Friday scoffing at videos of people fighting over 40" TVs I was able to drop in at 7pm that evening to pick up the 'Morrissey Curates The Ramones' RSD release.

Welcome to the area Relevant - not least for encouraging me to write a blog post for the first time in over a year!

Relevant Record Cafe, 260 Mill Road, Cambridge
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Andrew Matheson - Monterey Shoes

Andrew Matheson
Monterey Shoes
Ariola ARL 5025
£1
Filed between The Matadors (self-titled) and Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 'Greatest Hits'






Released while fellow former Hollywood Brat Casino Steel's band The Boys were still a going concern (but still a year before the Hollywood Brats LP, recorded in 1973, had been granted a UK release), Matheson's solo LP is far less punk although it wouldn't sound too out-of-place if spun alongside 'new wavers' such as Joe Jackson and Graham Parker.

The Corpse Grinders - The Legend of the Corpse Grinders

The Corpse Grinders
The Legend of the Corpse Grinders
New Rose
99p + £2 p&p
Filed between and Alice Cooper 'Killer' and The Corpse Grinders 'Valley Of Fear'



Given the band's links back to the New York Dolls I'm surprised that I went this long without ever hearing The Corpse Grinders (and just to make sure, I bought their 1982 LP 'Valley Of Fear' at the same time).

The most immediate thought: was Rick Rivets mimicking Johnny Thunders' guitar style or was it his style first from when he was an original Doll? There's nothing in this LP to elevate the Corpse Grinders to anything other than a footnote but it's decent enough Dolls-esque trash.

Lords of the New Church - self-titled

Lords of the New Church
Self-titled
Illegal Records ILP009
£1.04 + £2 p&p
Filed between Lords of the New Church - self-titled and Lords of the New Church 'Method To My Madness'



Oops. Ah yes, forgot I already had this one. I got a little carried away placing bids on various LPs one seller had listed; was outbid on most but this was one of two LPs that eventually came my way. But at least it has a different cover to my other copy.

Lead-out grooves & Porky Prime Cuts

Back in 1999, my band Taxi Driver issued a 7" single. It was mastered at Abbey Road and, following a fine tradition, we had the engineer engrave a message into the lead-out groove. Should have been simple enough. However we were mortified to find he made a key grammatical error:

'Your in the jungle baby'.

A conversation in the pub with that band's singer lead to me having a late-night look at the lead-out grooves on some of my other records. Often the artist has a specific message engraved here, or the mastering engineer with leave their own mark (the best-known being that of George "Porky" Peckham, engraved as a 'Porky Prime Cut'). As well as the above our single also included the word 'Orlake', something which I subsequently also found on 'The Best Of Hanoi Rocks'. A little bit of research shows this to have been the pressing plant used, and it closed for business in 2007.

Some of the best examples:

Jane's Addiction self-titled: 'What made you look here?';
Dave Kusworth 'The Bounty Hunters': 'Cherchez vous wives, weddings and roses' (this was the title of his next LP);
Jacobites self-titled 'Hey that's my tie thing' & 'somebody just stepped on my french fries';
Jacobites 'Robespierre's Velvet Basement': 'Guten morgen Nikki ich bin ein hamburger';
Jacobites 'When The Rain Comes': 'The cheques in the post. Love Dave Barber';
Wreckless Eric 'The World According To Wreckless Eric': 'There's no message here! Why!' & 'Due to lack of inspiration -!';
The Only Ones 'Out There In The Night': 'Meow' (the song was about Pete Perrett's cat).

Engineers spotted include:
'Porky prime cut' (George Peckham) - Deaf School '2nd Honeymoon'; Jacobites self-titled and Robespierres Velvet Basement; Nikki Sudden 'The Bible Belt'.
'Arun' (Arun Chakraverty) - Dexys Midnight Runners 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels'; The Boomtown Rats 'The Fine Art Of Surfacing'.
Jonz (John Dent) - The Only Ones self-titled
Tim D Masterpiece (Tim Dennen) - Belle & Sebastian 'Dog On Wheels'

The Kinks - Well Respected Kinks

The Kinks
Well Respected Kinks
Marble Arch MAL612
50p
Filed between The Kinks 'Best of 1964-65' and The Kinks 'Village Green Preservation Society'


There's a charity shop that can't seem to make its mind up when it comes to pricing up vinyl. I assume it comes down to whoever is there on the day. For example on one visit they had Prince's '1999' LP available for a very optimistic £25; at the same time they were putting out a large collection that had presumably just been donated and I left the shop with half-a-dozen Northern Soul compilations for 95p each and a tip-off that they were putting more out later in the day.

For over a year I kept an eye on a copy of 'Silver Missiles & Nightingales' by the Suicide Twins, which they had priced up at £8.95 (actually about right judging by eBay), in the knowledge that I was probably the only person in Cambridge likely to buy it. It eventually made it to the 50p section and subsequently into my possession.

This was one of a handful of 60s LPs that I picked up for 50p, although on my next visit the 50p section had suddenly risen to 95p. That's inflation for you.

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy

John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Double Fantasy
Geffen K99131
£1
Filed between John Lennon 'Shaved Fish' and John Lennon 'The John Lennon Collection'



Despite not having heard of John Lennon at the time, I have some very clear memories from December 9th 1980 as the news of his death the night before came through from New York. I was 10 at the time and the only member of the Beatles I knew of was Paul McCartney – perhaps not surprising given that in the preceding years he had been the only one in the public eye, not least with 1977’s ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, with Lennon having only just emerged from his self-imposed five year hiatus and the solo careers of George Harrison and Ringo Starr peaking back in the early 70s (the latter had yet to take the narrator’s role on Thomas The Tank Engine, otherwise I may have known who he was).

Music was not that prevalent in our household and the impact on me cannot be understated, as a whole new world seemed to open up. That evening the BBC broadcasted the 1965 film ‘Help!’ and something was almost immediately triggered throughout our home. My dad bought Double Fantasy and my older brother invested in the Red and Blue albums. It was shortly after this that I also started to buy records, pocket money permitting (my earliest purchases incidentally were ELO's Greatest Hits and viral video star Kim Wilde's debut album). Music for me became an obsession and rather than waste my teenage money on cigarettes I spent more and more on records. In 1985 I bought my first guitar and by 1988 I had a vague idea of how how to play it. I stumbled onto a stage for the first time the following year.

This can all be traced back to that day thirty-two years ago - my musical epiphany if you must. Hardly a replacement for the world when compared to the loss of someone of Lennon's status, but hugely important to me on a personal level.

Mention of this LP on Twitter recently also led to a suggestion that the lyrics towards the end of 'Watching The Wheels' echoed the final pasages of 'Catcher In The Rye'. I knew this was the book Mark Chapman was carrying on that fateful day but was unaware of this other potential link - more can be read at http://www.dpdotcom.com/freebie/TTMGRexcerpt.pdf.