An Introduction

I first became interested in 4AD, a UK independent record label founded in 1980, towards the end of the '80's. I was falling in love with the music of Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, Pixies, Bauhaus and The Birthday Party and was surprised when the 4AD label sampler "Lonely Is An Eyesore" came out in 1987 that all these bands were from the same label.

After visiting a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition of some American's collection of art, I came to thinking of all this musical art that 4AD have released that may one day drift into obscurity unless someone shows it as art. So now I'm on a crusade, to collect the first ten years of 4AD's releases and exhibit the collection on 4AD's 50th anniversary in 2030. This is a big task which will have some interesting twists and turns along the way.

Thursday, 31 December 2015

The sands of time keep on dropping away, darn it!

Can anyone remember where I was this time last year?

Well I was desperately trying to get my want list down to below 900 items. Time is running out quicker than you may at first think between now and 4AD's 50th anniversary in 2030. I know what you are saying, 900 items in 15 years, that should be so easy. But I'm still discovering as many new items as I am finding, as last year's countdown to the new year showed. 

I really wanted to be able to strike off a 100 items per year and at least stay ahead of the falling sands. All year I have been giving myself a hard time as the reduction in my wantlist just didn't seem to go down that much month on month. 

Now at the end of 2015, a year on from trying to get below 900 items ....and failing and now have my wantlist down to...wait for it....

893

Hold on though, despite the awful lack of stuff to buy at record fairs and shops around the country, I have been buying online all year through (well except for December as I was a little strapped for cash). So I have I ended up only 13 items lower than this time last year. All year I've been perplexed as to why this is happening until I looked at how many items I have acquired this year, nearly 130. 

This is why I don't have much time left until 2030. It doesn't help of course that I have such problems finding the stuff I need to get on top of everything else. Thankfully I got some great Aussie releases, thanks to a cousin in Oz (thanks Sophie and Tom) and travelling family. Postage from Australia is so expensive!

There's a few things I ought to be adding to this blog by now. I have some amazing posters, I have actually got some complete releases now other than Cocteau Twins Peppermint Pig and Bauhaus's Dark Entries. I have actually visited and had a nice discussion with an actual professional trader, so it would be nice to get a trader's perspective from him. And, of course, I still have many duplicate items that I need to give away, including a very nice Japanese Cocteau Twins vinyl edition of Treasure, worth a reasonable amount I'll tell you. So I have plenty to blog about in 2016



So a Happy New Year to you all and all the luck for this year in all your crazy collecting ventures!
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