David Bowie - Always Crashing in the Same Car

Special Item: Official David Bowie Fan Club/Newsletter Package from the 1970's

David Bowie - Sister Midnight

David Bowie Fan Club/Newsletter Collection from Mid 1970's

Punk Legends The Vibrators Celebrate 37 Years Of Punk Mania With New CD Release 'On The Guest List'

One of the most legendary punk bands still bashing heads and flinging their sweat on stage, the Vibrators, are joined by a slew of VIP guests to celebrate 37 years of PUNK MANIA with the release of their new CD 'On The Guest List'! To be released by Cleopatra Records on May 7, 2013, 'On The Guest List' features 13 all new tunes written and recorded by founding Vibrators members Knox and Eddie with longtime bassist Pete and engineering by original Vibrators bassist Pat Collier. Special guest appearances by members of Supersuckers, MC5, UK Subs, The Damned, The Stranglers, The Dickies and more!

Knox explains the origins behind the band's new album, “The Vibrators' drummer, Eddie, called me towards the end of 2011 and wanted me to come up with songs for a new Vibrators album. This would be the band's 17^th studio album of new songs, plus three old favorites. The idea was for us to perform the tracks and then guest artists would play an instrument or sing back-up vocals. The band duly went into Perry Vale Studios (owned by Vibrators original bass player Pat Collier) in March 2012 and spent a week or so producing tracks with myself and Pete (bass) singing the lead vocals. Over the years, the band has done a lot of recording with Pat so it all proceeded very well. Mixes of the songs were then sent off to various musicians either we knew (Chris Spedding, Hugh Cornwell, Campino, Leonard Graves Phillips, Walter Lure and Brian James) and others to see if they'd be interested in contributing to being 'On The Guest List' and this is the result.”

With a career lasting 37 years, vocalist/guitarist Ian “Knox” Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis and drummer Eddie originally formed the Vibrators in February 1976, and their first gig was supporting The Stranglers at Homsey Art College in North London. They supported The Sex Pistols at the 100 club and were one of the bands playing at the now legendary 100 Club Punk Festival, where along with doing their own set they supported guitar hero Chris Spedding. Chris, in turn, recommended the band to his then record label RAK. In early 1977, the band signed with Epic Records and supported Iggy Pop (with David Bowie on keyboards) on a UK tour. Their classic single “Baby Baby”, followed by their first album 'Pure Mania' which spent five weeks in the UK Top 75, peaked at number 49. Through the years, after a number of member changes, and numerous critically acclaimed, teeth gnashing, gob smashing releases, in March 2010 the Vibrators returned to being a three-piece: Knox (guitar/vocals), Pete (bass) and Eddie (drums). In their long career the Vibrators have toured with the likes of Iggy Pop, Ian Hunter, The Flaming Groovies, Die Toten Hosen, and have had their songs covered by The Exploited, UK Subs, GBH, REM, Die Toten Hosen, to name but a few. In 2010 the band did more than 130 gigs! Now in 2013, the Vibrators celebrate 37 years of making records and touring heavily with the release of 'On The Guest List'. Get ready for many more years of PURE PUNK MANIA!

Says bassist Pete, “Making the album has been an exciting experience. We recorded our parts in London with Pat Collier and sent the tracks to the US where guest artists recorded their parts without any input from us. To collaborate this way is risky because, we as a band and songwriters, can have different views on how the songs should sound from the artist who adds their parts to our songs. But hearing the finished album, we are happy with the finished songs. Well done to all our guests.” 

Tracks include:

1. “View From My Cadillac” featuring Walter Lure (The Heartbreakers)
2. “2^nd Skin” featuring Chris Spedding
3. “Automatic Lover” featuring Ty Segal
4. “Every Dog” featuring Brian James (The Damned)
5. “Prisoner In The Mirror” featuring Wayne Kramer (MC5)
6. “Turn Up The Heat” featuring Tomomi Nabana (Detroit Seven)
7. “Rain To Town” featuring Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers)
8. “Baby Baby” featuring Campino (Die Toten Hosen)
9. “Birdland Is Closed” featuring Ross The Boss (The Dictators)
10. “One More” featuring Tony Lovato (Mest)
11. “My Stalker” featuring Eddie Spaghetti & Dan “Thunder” Bolton (Supersuckers)
12. “Rock 'n' Roll Clown” featuring Bill Davis (Dash Rip Rock)
13. “The Ohio” featuring Nicky Garratt (UK Subs)
14. “Whips And Furs” featuring Leonard Graves Phillips & Stan Lee (The Dickies)
15. “Long Beach Police” featuring James Donovan & Lome Behrman (The Dead Tricks)
16. “Voodoo Eye” featuring Mickey Finn (Cold Blue Rebels)

Says Eddie, "Having completed the album there was a sense of dread that the guests would mess it up, but the finished result met with great approval. As usual, Knox's songs were all great and he is always open to ideas and other people's interpretations, so the recording was great fun. Pat always has an innate understanding of what we're after and gives his time and ideas freely. Then of course Pete is a superb player and singer. What more could you ask for!"

In support of the release of 'On The Guest List' a worldwide tour has been scheduled throughout 2013 with stops in the States during the months of September and October. In closing Knox has this to impart, “I'd like to thank all of the people involved in the project including the people who turned us down – until next time!”

The Vibrators 'On The Guest List' CD worldwide release date: May 7, 2013 – Cleopatra Records

 CLEOPATRA RECORDS, Inc.
11041 Santa Monica Blvd #703
Los Angeles CA 90025
www.CleopatraRecords.com

The Stooges: Head On - A Journey Through the Michigan Underground

If the MC5 were Detroit's political spokesmen for the disenchanted youth of the 1960s, then the Stooges were the loutish kids, heckling from the back of the room. While conventional wisdom says they could barely play their instruments, the Stooges left an indelible mark on the world of punk rock, and the band's initial three albums-The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power-are bona fide classics. In The Stooges: Head On author Brett Callwood treats the band's story not just as an early chapter in the career of its famous front man, Iggy Pop, but from the Stooges' beginnings at the end of the 1960s, to its end in the early 1970s, and to its reunion in 2003 through the present.

"Writing a Stooges biography was a no-brainer for me," Callwood states. "My first book is about the MC5 and in researching that while still living in London, I had traveled to Detroit / Ann Arbor and fallen in love with the whole area and its music. I had made many friends and established many contacts that were and are associated with both the MC5 and the Stooges, so that made the process easier to get started. Also, when I wrote this book there wasn't a decent Stooges book on the shelves. There are a lot of Iggy books out there, but mine is the first full Stooges biography."

In compiling this exhaustive account of the band's history, Callwood interviewed all of the central and sometimes Stooges members, including Iggy Pop, Ron and Scott Asheton, James Williamson, Mike Watt, Steve Mackay, and Scott Thurston, and largely lets the band tell its own story in numerous long quotes. Callwood details the band's genesis as teenage friends in Ann Arbor, their time living together in their legendary party houses in the 1960s, and the recording of the three original Stooges albums. He examines the addition of James Williamson to the band on Raw Power and how it changed the band's sound and dynamic, along with the band's fateful meeting with David Bowie on its first British tour. 

As Iggy broke out as a solo artist during the 1970s and 1980s, Callwood charts the Asheton brothers' post-Stooges experiences, with Ron's turns in The New Order, Destroy All Monsters, and Dark Carnival, and Scott Asheton's time with the Farleys and Sonic's Rendezvous Band. He also provides an overview of Iggy's solo career, the seeds of a reunion that were planted with a collaboration on Iggy's Skull Ring album, and the eventual reformation of the band and the recording of their fourth album, The Weirdness, in 2007.

Originally published in the U.K. in 2007, The Stooges: Head On has been revised to expand on the original story and also to consider Ron Asheton's untimely death in 2009 and his musical legacy, the band's fate without Ron, and the Stooges' long-overdue introduction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

"Scott didn't want to talk at all for the first edition... He rarely does interviews," said Callwood. "However, after his brother passed away and I was writing for this American edition, he talked to me and really opened up. It was a very moving, humbling experience."

Wayne State University Press is a distinctive urban publisher committed to supporting its parent institution's core research, teaching, and service mission by generating high quality scholarly and general interest works of global importance. Through its publishing program, the Press disseminates research, advances education, and serves the local community while expanding the international reputation of the Press and the University.

Available September 2011, Published by Wayne State University Press

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