Behold! The ever-growing list of my documented discs! And cassettes and other media, but that doesn't alliterate as well. Tumblr doesn't want me having more than 100 links on one post, so happy hyperlink hunting!
Sorted alphabetically (not including "The"s) by artists first name... eh, I'm sure you'll figure it out or use the Ctrl+F. It's a beefy list and only getting bigger, so clicky to expand 👇🏻
#1-9: The 411
A is for... Alex Clare / Alicia Keys / Amy Winehouse / Annie Lennox / Anohni and the Johnsons / As December Falls
B is for... The Beautiful South / Big Brovaz / The Black & White Minstrels / Black Grape / Blur / Bomfunk MC's
C is for... Caro Emerald / Cher / Christina Aguilera / Culture Club
D is for... D12 / David Bowie / Deacon Blue / Del Amitri / Destiny's Child
E is for... Enya / Eve
F is for... Florence + The Machine
G is for... Go Home Productions / Golden Avatar / Gwen Stefani
H is for... Hawkwind / Helen Reddy / The Hoops
I is for... Isobel Campbell
J is for... Jick the Rapper
K is for... Kelly Osbourne
L is for... Leigh Mary Stokes / Level 42 / Lorna & Laister / Luciano Pavarotti / Lutricia McNeal
M is for... Marc Almond / Mark Lanegan / Master Shortie / The Melinda Lightfoot Quartet / Melody Gardot / Mis-Teeq / mix CDs / Muse
N is for... Nicki French / Nicki Minaj / Nina Simone
O is for... Orson / OutKast / Ozzy Osbourne
P is for... The Panpipers / Peggy Lee / P!nk
Q is for... nothing (yet!)
R is for... Republica / REZ
S is for... Scissor Sisters / Skin / Skindred / Skunk Anansie / Soft Cell / Spice Girls / Spiritualized / Stereophonics / Steve Jones / Sting / Sugababes / Sweet Female Attitude
T is for... Teletubbies / Tori Amos / Tracy + The Plastics
U is for... unknown artists
V is for... The Vaccines / various artists
W is for... Woman Wants Tall Man
X is for... nothing (yet!)
Y is for... Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Z is for... The Zutons
Bonus Other Stuff
Hardware:
Blank cassettes
Blank minidisc DVDs
Boombox
Camera
HMV CD lens cleaner
MP3 player
Non-Music Stuff I Found:
Books
Movies & TV
Videogames
If you made it all the way down here hoping for an "everyone else seems to be doing one of these introduction to me posts so I guess I'll do it ^.^" essay, I am sorry for your crushing disappointment.
Various Artists - The Best Party in the World... Ever! (Virgin Music Group, 1997)
Found In: St. David's Hospice Care (Newport, Wales)
Price: £2
Listen, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to wrangle a load of white people (to get them back into their enclosure or similar), I can confirm as a certified Mayonnaise Mama that this cassette mix will absolutely do the trick.
The most overused phrase in the music compilation industry has to be "The Best [generic playlist title] in the World... Ever!" to the point where I'm genuinely stunned that nobody has copyrighted "... Ever!". Having listened to a lot of similarly-titled compilations, I am happy to accept that this is the one that deserves its title. The one and only.
Anything that closes off a party with funeral banger Always Look on the Bright Side of Life deserves every superlative in its title.
Tracklist:-
Cassette 1, Side 1:
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy - N-Trance feat. Rod Stewart
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
Spice Up Your Life [Morales Radio Edit] - Spice Girls
Ecuador - Sash! feat. Rodriguez
Samba de Janeiro - Bellini
Freed from Desire - Gala
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate
Stayin' Alive - N-Trance
Y.M.C.A. - Village People
Abba Medley - Starsound
Don't You Want Me - The Human League
Cassette 1, Side 2:
The Jean Genie - David Bowie
The Best - Tina Turner
Walk This Way - Run DMC feat. Aerosmith
Get Down Tonight - KC & The Sunshine Band
Celebration - Kool & The Gang
Everybody Dance - Chic
D.I.S.C.O. - Ottawan
Lambada - Kaoma
Macarena - Los Del Mar
Miami Hit Mix - Gloria Estefan
Cassette 2, Side 1:
Wannabe - Spice Girls
I Wanna Be the Only One [Boskat Main Mix] - Eternal feat. Bebe Williams
Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
Party People... Friday Night - 911
Fastlove [Forthright Edit] - George Michael
Baby Come Back - Pato Benton feat. Robin & Ali Campbell
Baggy Trousers - Madness
Boombastic - Shaggy
Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) - Cyndi Lauper
Beatles Medley - Starsound
I Get Around - The Beach Boys
Cassette 2, Side 2:
Reet Petite - Jackie Wilson
The Locomotion - Little Eva
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Hi Ho Silver Lining - Jeff Beck
Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Come on Over to My Place - The Drifters
I Only Want to Be With You - Dusty Springfield
The TIme Warp - Damian
Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit - Gina G
5, 6, 7, 8 - Steps
Cotton Eyed Joe - Rednex
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Monty Python
Various Artists - strEEt mix '96 (Cold Front / K-tel International, 1996)
Found In: St. David's Hospice Care (Newport, Wales)
Price: 25p
What is this cover design. It's like a baby's first Photoshop firey apocalypse nightmare and I can't decide if I love it or not.
Wait, never mind, the back cover slaps. I get the vision now.
Cool tracklist too, love R. Kelly putting out the job description for his perfect woman right before his child bride Aaliyah sings her Kelly-written statement about how the age of consent doesn't matter. RIP Aaliyah, you would have popped off on Surviving R. Kelly.
Tracklist:-
Homie, Lover, Friend [Lookin' for My Homie Mix] - R. Kelly
DJ Danny Tenaglia - Mix This Pussy (TRIBAL United Kingdom / IRS Records, 1994)
Found In: Farplace Animal Rescue (Woolston, Southampton)
Price: 33⅓p (3 for £1)
MR. SECONDHAND-SOUNDS: What are you doing?
ME: Taking a picture for Tumblr... because it's called Mix This Pussy... get it?
MR. S-S: No further questions. As you were.
"Danny Tenaglia, renowned producer / remixer and quite possibly the world's most educated DJ... took these indivisual elemets and fused them into one continuous program with the personal touch only he could add. Every mix from song to song is Danny spinning live to tape."
And it's pretty damned good you know. Aside from the gaps between tracks which seems like it might have just been a mid-90s peril. Or possibly my CD player?
Tracklist:-
Is This Real? - Visions [not on tracklist]
Ragga [Jungle Dub] - Jeek!
Eye 2 Eye - Kiwi Dreams feat. Darrell Martin
It All Begins Here - Ofunwa
In the Presence of Angels - The Spiritual Experience
(I Want To) Take You Home Tonite - Sextravaganza
Come Drums - Sextravaganza
Some Lovin' [Danny's New Hook Mix] - Liberty City
U Dig [U Dub Mix] - Eastmen
Feeling Free [Masters and Servants Mix] - Liquid City
Mind Power [Take a Blunt Mix] - Roy Davis Jr.
Atom Bomb [It's the Bomb / Doomsday Mix] - DJ Pierre presents Doomsday
X - Junior Vasquez
Give Myself to You [Grand Ballroom / Buzzard / Dub Mix] - The Daou
Various Artists - Pretty Woman: Music from the Film (EMI, 1990)
Found In: Brookfield Car Boot (Horton Heath)
Price: 50p
I saw Pretty Woman for the first time on Disney+ a few months ago. It's a pretty good movie, honestly, except for the ending.
I think everyone with an internet connection knows this little factoid by now, but apparently the original movie was much darker and the ending would feature Julia Roberts (I forget her character's name so we'll just call her Julia) scrabbling for the promised £5k cash in the street as Richard Gere's character (whose name I think might be Edward?) flings Julia and the cash out of his limo and back to a life of drugs and prostitution.
The supposedly "happier" ending has Possibly Edward instead declaring his love for Julia by saying he always treated her like a person, and never like a prostitute, as though this earned him gold stars and brownie points rather than exposing that he doesn't actually think of sex workers as people.
But hey, at least they didn't have Julia die nobly of AIDS so that was pretty good for 1990 I guess.
Stereophonics - Just Enough Education to Perform (V2 Music Ltd, 2001)
Found In: Farplace Animal Rescue (Woolston, Southampton)
Price: 33⅓p (3 for £1)
There's a parallel universe where Kelly Jones' poetic lyrics, chaotic handwriting and fun doodles were only ever in a zine somewhere in Cwmaman, rather than in a quintuple-platinum album. Much as I love indie art, I think we're all the richer for it.
I know it's not exactly a revelation (on the front page of the same newspaper that broke the "Water = Wet" story) but I love this kind of CD insert. Lyrics are the bare minimum for me, I feel actually viscerally cheated if they're not included, but handwritten lyrics with doodles AND some behind-the-music context? Stereophonics, you sure know how to make a lady feel special.
Sugababes - One Touch (London Records, 2000)
Found In: St. David's Hospice Care (Newport, Wales)
Price: 20p
I don't remember New Year being a Y2K bop, so it must have been the most recent single to drop before the album released, which would be why it got name-checked on the little sticker. It's not bad, but it is Jarring to hear a song about having your heart broken "last Christmas day" on a non-Christmas album. There ought to be some kind of law against that.
Anyway, here's the best line-up of the Sugababes. Heck yeah.
Loose CD and cassette insert booklets
Found In: Titchfield Car Boot (Titchfield)
Price: 50p each
Car boots are the absolute BEST for picking up this kind of thing. I was tempted (when am I not?) to swipe the lot because What If, right, What If I find copies of the discs missing their inserts? I can reunite them!
Fortunately, common sense won out and I instead just got the inserts for Chumbawamba (because I love them) and Current 93 (because it looked cool).