The story behind this somewhat different Spoke release begins approximately fifteen years ago when Col obtained two boxes of acetates and reel-to-reel tapes at a Chelmsford auction house. Being unlabelled and having no means to play them, they were stored away for a good few years until a fellow vinyl nerd who also happened to be a vintage audio tech-head offered his services. The service provider came in the form of Ben … Continue reading Acetates and Reel-To-Reels
Tony Hatch Producer Tony Hatch is best known in the UK today as the composer of classic TV theme tunes such as Crossroads, Emmerdale Farm and Neighbours. Some people will also remember him as the 70s Saturday night talent show blueprint for Simon Cowell, delivering uncompromising and occasionally very blunt criticism of acts who appeared on the hit TV talent show ‘New Faces.’ Graduates of … Continue reading Trails 1101 Tony Hatch: Producer
John Cameron Composer and Producer John Cameron speaks about the recording of the Frog single and other aspects of his career eloquently and modestly, frequently laughing at the hectic nature of it whilst recognising the weekend prior to this interview had been no different. Conducting an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall for Donovan on Friday night, attending a fiftieth birthday party on Saturday and … Continue reading Trails 1102 John Cameron Composer and Producer
One spring day, bored with secretarial life, Sylvan read a horoscope that advised her to ‘follow every golden opportunity’ that month. As you could only do in those magically innocent and exciting days of no qualifications whatsoever, she applied for jobs at Annabelle’s night club as a disc jockey, and Moyses Stephens as a florist. She also sent off a demo disc of her singing and playing … Continue reading Trails 1203 Sylvan Mason: Composer and Performer
The Open Mind – Magic Potion Coincidentally with Dakotas, The Open Mind were also initially named after a Native American Indian tribe. The Apaches were formed by Tim du Feu, Mike Brancaccio, Philip Fox and Ray Nye. Ray When Ray Nye left Terry Schindler was drafted in and they changed their name to The Drag Set and released a single. Shortly thereafter they changed their name to The Open Mind and … Continue reading The Open Mind/The Dakotas
‘I’ve been buying records since I was four years old beginning with January by Pilot in 1975. In 1985, somewhat older but not much wiser I started making music out of other people’s music with 1/4″ tape loops, cassette recorder pause buttons and an Atari 800 based sampler. This coincided with a headlong dive into ‘60s psych and ‘70s prog thanks largely to my 80s … Continue reading Trails 1305 Soundhog: AKA Ben Hayes
As the 1970 acetate labelled Dream of Dreams proves, the Revolution label added an extra ‘s’ to the official release pluralising it to ‘Dreams of Dreams,’ but that mistake has never bothered heavy psych record collectors. Popsike lists copies sold for £526.00 and £678.77 in 2013 and 2014 respectively, but forty four years on why does the only record ever released by Smoke still create … Continue reading Trails 1406/07 Dreams of Dreams: The Smoke Story
