This playlist is 87% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

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Döhmann Helix One MK III Turntable with Vacuum Hold-Down

Previewing at The 2026 AXPONA Show, I’m not sure whether the $150,000 price tag included the Wilson Benesch Graviton Ti arm, Tessellate Diamond cartridge, Supatrac Nighthawk 12** arm with DS Audio Grandmaster EX cartridge, analog front end feeding the ARC Ref 10 phono (or DS Audio TB-100 tube equalizer), the new ARC Ref 20 preamp, ARC Ref 330 mono amps, Wilson Audio XVX loudspeakers, cables from Transparent and the Olympus Ultra racks from Critical Mass Systems… or not.

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Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here. 🙂

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Lyric of Playlist 152

Sad Alex! 🙂

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00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

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00.41

NEW ORDER – The Village (Kilkenny Rose Hill Hotel, 24.4.83) – Power Corruption and Lies, Definitive Edition – Warner Music – 2020

It gets off to a slightly shaky start at what was a legendary night in early years New Order history, with Barney and Hooky acting as a modern day comedy double act for the evening.

The onstage antics were definitely inspired by seeing the hotel’s flyer in the afternoon… and I don’t remember Liam turning up.

Me on photos duty, none of which I would have remembered until Steve Morris sent me photos I’d taken this night… with my writing on the back… followed by the above Movement Definitive Edition then including the video. I remember the afternoon soundcheck chat and Ozzy leaving the mixing desk mid gig and standing next to me but the things you forget…

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05.03

PAUL HAIG – Trip Out The Rider – 7″ – Impotent Fury – 2010

‘Packaged in a fancy pants paper cut sleeve that is hand screen-printed, foil embossed and limited to 500 copies. Rumoured to be the first of six vinyl releases… ‘ – Discogs

His albums surface only very occasionally these days and any teaser singles even less so. This 7″ – driving with the zest of his early years – appears to have been the most recent but he’s a ‘signature’ voice we should hear more of.

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07.41

LINES OF SILENCE – Lines In Opposition (Radio Edit) – Lines In Opposition, LP – Sprechen – 2026

These sleeves aren’t getting any easier to look at. An experimental krautrock band (Can? Neu?… ) out of Todmorden, UK – ‘a hotbed of UFO activity and home to the UK’s highest ever beach‘ – and I slightly cheated the vinyl thing here, as the Radio Edit is only downloadable, with the full version on the just released vinyl album. Should have gone with the latter.  

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11.12

SILICON VALLEY – X-Cell – Cold Waves Of Color Volume 3, v/artists LP – Color Disc – 2016

Whoever they were/are, they seem to have only released six singular tracks over a period of forty two years(!) * and on Color Disc label, v/artist albums only. A side hustle, the SV releases are not.

* Makes Got-Ta-Scatta look prolific.

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15.09

CLOCK DVA – 4 Hours (7″ Version) – 7″ – Fetish – 1981

Adi Newton is a voice that sits you up but they’d had a bucket load of self and semi released material before I tuned in with the Thirst album that includes this their debut 7″.

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18.59

THE EVENT GROUP – Approach Work (Pt B) – Approach Work, self released, cassette only – ? – 1983

For any kids picking up on this, the voice you hear here is of England cricketing legend of yesteryear, Freddie Truman, also featured on the main Approach Work track already playlisted on 41 Rooms and the cassette’s cover, obviously, where he nearly looks like he’s got his ever present pipe on the go. And as for the church bells on the track… maybe adding to the image of a village green setting? Search out the band’s Feb ’82 Riverside TV appearance at some point. An entertaining watch at the time and another release for me to upload (the images anyway) to Discogs at some point, maybe.

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25.11

UT – Evangelist – Split 7″ – Blast First – 1989

Yep, also the lead track from the 1987 album, In Gut’s House but I’ve gone for the, split with Dinosaur Jr., 7″ and as mentioned before here at 41 Rooms, a band I’ve grown to like more now than I maybe did back then. Cheers for the 41 Rooms iD snippet, Nina!

Supporting The Fall, Bedford Boys Club, 1.10.83

Photo credit: Dec Hickey

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27.57

YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – Include Me Out – Colossal Youth, LP – Rough Trade – 1980

In YMG world this is them nearly rocking out!

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29.50

KAREN MARKS – Cold Café – 7″ – Astor – 1980

Out of Australia and her only release at the time but the price tag the single has acquired through the years since (one of a few on this show), brought about a 2019 EP of tracks also recorded back in the day. Definitely an ‘indie’ sound.

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32.42

DEENA WEBSTER – Scarborough Fair – 7″ – Parlophone – 1968

A folk standard I seem to remember hearing fairly regularly when I was young, so in one guise or another it must have cropped up on the radio and TV, though I never had the urge to buy it until I heard Deena’s version in more recent years and though she maintained the tempo of the song’s more traditional singers it’s everything backing her wasting no time in getting ‘busy’ that helps this version get my vote. ‘Bustling folk’, so let’s hear it for Deena and her arranger…

“I chose none of the singles (from the album Is Tuesdays Child) apart from Scarborough Fair.” The track was one of the first arrangements for another artist by Barbara Moore. She was best known for her work as a singer with The Ladybirds and, when she arrived at the studio, many of the musicians thought that she’d come to help with backing vocals. She remembers that when she got onto the rostrum to conduct,
the baton “it fell out of my sweaty little palm and ended up on the bass drum – that relaxed the whole atmosphere”. At the end of the session, Moore received a standing ovation from the 60 string and
horn players present. – Record Collector/Ian Shirley, #424, Jan 2014 edit

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35.38

AL STEWART – Turn Into Earth – 7″ b-side – Decca – 1966

The flip may from Stewart’s debut release and his vocal ‘swagger’ makes this a rarity, in that it’s the only time I can think of where I’ve preferred a Yardbirds song performed by others… not that there are many of those.

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38.29

MASSIVE ATTACK – Angel (Live) – Stream only – 2006

Performed as part of UK Channel 4’s first season of Live from Abbey Road series, with the Bristol band and Horace Andy managing to give the track even more gravitas and tension than on the its studio recording. No small feat.

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43.15

CALLERS – Bloodless Ties – Life Of Love, LP – Western Vinyl – 2010

Sara Lucas’ vocal is just sublime, even if that bass guitar keeps hitting a note that I DO NOT LIKE.

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47.39

PLATON DAVYDOV (feat OLEG KIRILKOV) – Sadness * – Stream only? – 2019

Violins…

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49.02

MARTYN BATES – I’ll Wrap Your Hopes – Letters To A Scattered Family, LP – Integrity – 1990

Poetry, with a rippling outro. 🙂

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53.01

FINK – Memorise Your Senses – The City Is Coming To Erase It All, LP – R’COUP’D – 2026

It took this his ninth album for me to have even heard of him, so I might have to rewind on him.

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56.41

BÔA – Duvet – 7″ – Cinema-Kan – 2018

Or bôa… and on listening to the 1998 debut album, The Race Of A Thousand Camels, that first included this song, a band even at that point sounding like they might have been fighting to be two bands? I’d never heard of them until this track recently bumped into me but you then do a bit of a dig and Duvet has 43million Youtube hits… so you have to do a bigger dig. Here they sound not unlike The Sundays but that bigger dig explains some of the above.

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01.00.00

RENAISSANCE – Back Home Once Again – 7″ – Warner Brothers – 1977

And what were the chances? Looking for something to follow Boa’s Duvet I decided on this 1977 single from Renaissance, a ‘prog folk’ band who for a couple of years in the late ’70s I had a real liking for. It turns out that Bôa’s drummer, Lee Sullivan is the son of Renaissance’s former drummer, Terry Sullivan. Who’d have thunk, eh?

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01.03.03

HANNE HUKKELBERG – Do As I Do – Little Things, LP – Leaf – 2005

Promo’d (albeit as a CD only) as the single off the album at the time, so this was the ‘teaser’ – and it’s easy to see why. Cute! 🙂

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01.06.39

08/15 – 1000 Gelbe Tennisbälle – 7″ – Sterbt Alle – 2025

If you had thoughts of releasing music on the subject of 1000 yellow tennis balls then someone’s beaten you to it. A 300 run re-release of their 1981 and only single. 🙂

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01.11.25

COLDCUT – Beats + Pieces (Mo’ Bass Remix) – 12″ – Ahead Of Our Time – 1987

With a nod to Steinski, they were ahead of most of the others.

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01.17.15

RAE & CHRISTIAN – Check The Technique (feat Tony D, Jazzy Jeff and Agent 86) (edit) – Mercury Rising, 2LP – LateNightTales – 2013

Minus the wonderful Veba’s vocals but with Mark Rae’s hip hop credentials they still produce.

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01.21.10

THE JUJU ORCHESTRA – What Is Hip (Mo’ Horizons Hipstyle) – 12″ – Remixes – Agogo Records – 2006

TC (RIP) spending some time in the studio with the youngsters.

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01.26.55

SAD ALEX – Ice Ice Baby (But You Have Anxiety) – Stream only – 2025

The only way Vanilla Ice was going to get on 41 Rooms was via som break borrowing… and songwriter Alex Saad has done just that.

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01.28.59

SIMPLE MINDS – King Is White And In The Crowd – 12″ b-side – Virgin – 1982

Thankfully still here holding on to their futurist feel, even if the sound is housed in a contender for Worst Record Sleeve of all time. So, you’re only get the reverse… and that’s bad enough.

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01.34.27

WAMDUE PROJECT – King Of My Castle (Original Version) * – 12″ – Eruption – 1998

More kings! Unusual for a dance track with nothing special in the vocals department to chart mainstream but this did just that. Maybe some intrigue and charm in the ‘Must be the reason why I’m king of my castle‘ lyric as it chugs along? Sometimes there’s just no knowing…

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01.39.04

JOHNNY MAESTRO & THE CRESTS – I’m Stepping Out Of The Picture – 7″ – Scepter Records – 1965

If there’s a world in music I won’t stop finding ‘new’ gems it’s the rare/northern etc soul scene. I heard this gritty and restrained-in-equal-measures brassy belter for the first time only recently, via Beth Arzy (Jetstream Pony and others) capturing herself in front of a DJ spinning this tune.

Re-released a couple of times in the intervening years, I won’t though be getting an original copy any time soon, as that could be anywhere between $800 and for a promo copy, $1700!

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01.41.17

JIMMY RUFFIN – It’s Wonderful (To Be Loved By You) – 7″ – Tamla Motown – 1970

Motown still in their prime in these years and come the mid-late 70s I had the grand notion of collecting every UK Motown single between TMG 501 and TMG 801… but I soon gave up the ghost, though this one made it into the fold.

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01.43.58

McFADDEN & WHITEHEAD – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now * – 12″ – Philadelphia Int – 1979

Reminds me of Bedfordshire clubs of the time, and footballing mates and girlfriends and not a care in the world.

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01.49.53

THE TYRREL CORPORATION – Going Home (Original Mix) * – 12″ – Cooltempo – 1992

Had three or four biggish tunes that gave them an identity of sorts.

Not sure why great train robber, Buster Edwards is here but this was a 15.8.92 ad, most probably in Record Mirror.

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01.55.08

NEW ORDER (Again!) – World In Motion (1990 No Alla Violenza Mix) * – 12″ – Factory – 1990

It’s World Cup time again! So, for only the second time (I think) in 41 Rooms’ history it’s New Order twice in one show – and the last time was Show 1! With a break in there nicked from somewhere I can’t quite grasp and Barney’s vocal deservedly getting some real breathing space here in between the Italo piano, will it do the job for us footie fans this time around? Who’d be an England fan, eh? If we’re still in the mix by show 153 we’re doing OK.

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Show 153 will be alive July 5.

Dec x