Email This Post Email This Post
Home » Dave Lewis Diary

Going for a song / Vinyl Rules!

24 March 2009 3,805 views No Comment

Dave Lewis

After all the recent stress of form filling, CV’s, Jobseekers etc, it was good to be out and about again last weekend. Main event was of course the W & H Peacock Rock And Pop and Sporting Memorabilia Auction Sale. The auction centre itself has a strong Lewis family connection. Bruv JL has spent months collating and organising the Rock And Pop sale, both my sister in law’s work there and Sam had a Saturday job there so it’s a place we know well.

Setting up the 500 plus lots could only be done after the closure of a Gun auction on Thursday night. By the 9pm Friday viewing opening time it looked excellent with plenty of Zep input including the impressive Remasters disc award, a guitar signed by Jimmy, Robert and JPJ and some very nice signed prints. The Mel Bush commemorative tour mirrors for the likes of Wings, The Jam, Slade, Bad Company etc also looked impressive and there was a fair few Elton John lots including an 18 ct Cartier ring once owned by Elton. Late in the afternoon I met up with Terry Boud and after a scan of the sale we chewed the fat in the Castle and Gordon Arms later meeting with our good ladies Marian and Janet.

There was healthy turn out on Saturday for the sale – it was good to see two of the Bedford Earls Court 6 namely Tom Locke and Phil H. Graeme Hutchinson was also in and unsurprisingly he did not go away empty handed. I had a few odd bits and pieces to sell in the auction as needs must which in the main did well. That allowed me a slight luxury of a couple of bids – I missed out on a very nice Subbuteo table football 1960’s set in the Sporting sale but did secure some splendid Frank Sinatra EP’s and singles. The lot included Frank’s 1971 hit I Will Drink The Wine which has on the B side a jaunty Paul Ryan composition Sunrise In the Morning which is amongst the finest things the man recorded in his latter years. A reminder that it’s Frank’s world…..

Bidding was brisk on the Zep stuff and the Elton ring went for over £3,000. A box of around 80 folk, blues and rock LP’s totted up a hefty £400 price. I’d had a good look through this lot and maybe was not the only one who noticed it had a copy of Dylan’s rare Great White Wonder bootleg in amongst a crop rare Joan Baez original pressings.

The sale went off very slickly and the bruv JL and family deserve a pat on the back for providing a most entertaining day was out. An Anglia TV news film crew came down on the Friday and the Monday edition of the programme included a brief report.

Winding down in the pub afterwards was most welcome as we discussed lots that went for a song, stuff we should have bid on, stuff we did (Tom Locke secured a giant framed Beatles At The BBC poster) and the finer detail of the things that makes our world go round (namely music, books, football, wine, women and er beer!). There was also much comment on Man Utd’s shock 4-1 home defeat by Liverpool.

Amongst other topics was the naming of our favourite second band – Graeme H had no hesitation in listing AC/DC. I always struggle on this – do I plump for The Who definitely the second best live band I’ve seen, or for the overall breadth of catalogue of The Rolling Stones, then again there’s the sheer creative invention of The Beatles. The Stones won it on this occasion though on another day it could change and hey what about Elvis, Nick Drake, Dylan, Paul Weller, The Faces, …Iron Butterfly…

Also in the pub was Sid Sells and old pal from way back who came on the first Wallbanger FC foreign lads holiday to Lloret de Mar a week after the Earls Court gigs. I vividly recall borrowing a pair of high waste flared trousers from Sid to wear to a swanky night club we went to and we had a good laugh about that. Also got talking to a big Who collector who had come down for the auction from Walsall, and of course I couldn’t help but tell him that yes, that’s me leaping up on stage to hug Pete Townshend and nearly knock out Roger Daltrey in the The Kids Are Alright movie.

On Sunday there was inspiration on the soccer field as we travelled to Luton to see Adam’s Brickhill Wanderers triumph against Caddington Youth – a 3-2 win from being 2-1 down at half time. Adam struck a glorious winner that fairly flew in the net. Life was good.

Coming down from all that on Sunday night wasn’t easy as all the familiar recent problems took precedent again.

But Monday I picked myself up again and amongst other things, this week signed off most of the TBL 23 text and Gary Davies waded with an excellent 1969 related exclusive interview – the fruits of which will be in the new issue. I also did an interview on the phone tonight with Frank Reddon author of the excellent Zeppelin Sonic Boob book and editor of the www.enzepplopedia.com site.

Not much to report on the jobs front currently. I’m saving some cracking black humour filled stories for my memoirs, though the latest is that I’m not cut out to be a bed retail sales manager (don’t ask!).

I will reveal that the opening interview question I was asked for the job was ‘’So did you see Led Zeppelin at the 02?’’ and the closing shot ‘’Right any other questions? OK well I’ve got one – Do you think Zep will get back together again?’’

I kid you not – said interviewer had obviously clocked the Zep reference on my CV…there’s just no getting way from it. Not sure if I gave the correct answers though as I didn’t get the job!

Sorted out a load of Zep memorabilia for a possible future Zep project and as I waded through the mountain of vinyl under the stairs I picked out a few LP’s to go on the deck amongst them Houses Of The Holy (the perfect spring album) Nick Drake Heaven In A Wild Flower compilation, Family’s 1969 gem Family Entertainment (Roger Chapman, now there was a very fine singer),The Hollies Rarities (which has a great Graham Nash tune called Wings), Joni Mitchell Court And Spark, Stephen Stills Live (the latter’s Just Roll Tapes CD has also been on – thank your Terry B), the Santana Lotus triple album and Bombers a 1970’s Polydor sampler set with stuff from Taste, Stone The Crows, Lifetime etc..

Some of the high prices various vinyl pieces attained in the Peacocks sale is testament to the lasting affection there is for this most wonderful of sound carriers. Everything from the smell of those black grooves down to the memorable art work is just perfection.

In these worrying and uncertain times there was something deeply comforting about being amongst the whole retro feel of the Peacocks Rock and Pop Auction. A throwback to much simpler days….

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.