A blast from the radio past

From the sporadic nature of my blog posts, you can probably guess that the school holidays have arrived and I've finally got some time on my hands. Hence I've uploaded my second show to Mixcloud in as many days. For reasons of storage space on my systems, external hard drives, clouds and elsewhere; a large number of the sixty or so shows I made for the now-defunct Internet radio station Only80s.co.uk have been deleted. But of those that remain, I plan to upload a range of the best in the near future. These will not be as vinyl-heavy as the Vinyl Verdict Radio Show, though 12-inch versions will almost always be from the original records.

So today's archived show, first broadcast in August 2015, is an episode of 'Undercover 80s' - one of several hour-long shows devoted to songs released in the 1980s that were cover versions, or were alternative versions of 80s songs. This show features Tina Turner's recording of 'Don't Turn Around' - which preceded the reggae version by Aswad in 1988, the 1981 rendering by Elvis Costello And The Attractions of George Jones' 'Good Year For The Roses' and epic 12-inch cover version by Blancmange in 1984 of ABBA's 'The Day Before You Came'.

In the near future, I also plan to upload a show featuring my October 2015 interview with Warren Ringham, trumpeter and bandleader of the UK's first James Bond tribute band. The interview, recorded for Only80s, was timed to coincide with the release of the Bond film 'Spectre'. If you'd like to hear the interview now, it is available on the band's own website - Q The Music Show. I will be speaking to Warren very soon to get an update on the band's activities. This second interview will also be included in the forthcoming radio show.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my shows and I welcome any comments, song requests or suggestions you may have for the content of future shows. Many thanks for your interest.

Hidden treasures delivered to my door - and then to your ears

In the course of obsessively collecting vinyl, I've unearthed a number of interesting cover versions - usually buried on a B-side or as an extra track on a 12-inch single. This was the case when I received my latest parcel. Among the 12-inches by the likes of Cameo, Debbie Gibson and others, was 'Mary's Prayer' by Danny Wilson. And tucked away on the B-side was their very pleasing rendition of the David Bowie song 'Kooks' - which originally featured on Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' album, of course.

And then I thought that the world needed to hear these hidden treasures. But an 'ordinary' 80s show or jukebox-type radio show - like the ones I've been producing now for the last couple of years - perhaps wouldn't be the right outlet for such discoveries. And so as I result, I've finally set up my own Mixcloud channel, which is also called Vinyl Verdict. With the permission of the founder of the now-defunct online station Only80s, I now plan to also upload some of my archived shows from them for your listening pleasure.

Obviously my ultimate aim is to start broadcasting shows live, although all of my shows are recorded in real time 'as live', so as to give me as much experience as possible in dealing with computer glitches! So for the moment, click on the hyperlink to listen to my first show on Mixcloud. The show features tracks by all the artists mentioned in this post - along with one or two non-vinyl tracks. Having just discovered the 18-year-old newcomer Daisy Clark, and her lovely version of 'Hopelessly Devoted To You'; I had to include this track, as well. So if you like what you hear and/or you have some ideas about what I might want to include in future shows, please leave a comment. Thank you!