The weekend starts here

Picked up a handful of classic disco era 12-inch singles from a charity shop a couple of weeks ago. This is exactly the sort of thing I hope to find in these shops because I bought very little of it at the time but really enjoy this stuff now. The pick of the bunch by a mile was Weekend by Phreek (or Patrick Adams Presents Phreek as the label has it). Information on Phreek is pretty scarce on the internet but this record is rightly regarded as a disco classic.

Of course, if you’re going to sit at your computer and listen to it it’s far too long at 8 minutes so I suggest you get up and boogie.

Phreek - Weekend (1978)

+ve -ve

Here’s the other record I bought last Friday. It’s the 12-inch version of the third Positive Noise single Positive Negative. This is another one I missed at the time. I loved their debut single Ghosts/Give Me Passion but wasn’t sure about the follow up Charm/And Yet Again (which I must post here one day) and never really investigated further. That’s a shame because these songs are much more up my synthy post-punk alley.

Former vocalist Ross Middleton had left to form Leisure Process by now so the band line-up is:

Russell Blackstock – Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals
Graham Middleton – Keyboards
Frazer Middleton – Bass Guitar
Les Gaff – Drums

Positive Noise - Positive Negative (12-inch version) (1981)
Positive Noise - Energy (1981)

I’ve also got some live Positive Noise which I will feature soon.

New discovery

I recently discovered there is a record shop I didn’t know about just under 7.3 miles from my house (according to AA Route Planner) that’s been there for years. I took a trip over there yesterday afternoon and didn’t give myself anywhere near enough time for a good rummage before having to dash off and pick the kids up from school. I did, however, pick up a couple of 12-inch singles which will be featured here over the next few days.

The first is a collaboration between Vince Clarke (of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure) and Paul Quinn (of Bourgie Bourgie and several other bands/collaborations. See here for more information).

Somehow I missed this record in 1985 so these songs are new to me but this is just the sort of thing I hope to discover when I go record shopping.

Vince Clarke Paul Quinn - One Day extension (1985)

Vince Clarke Paul Quinn - Song For extension (1985)

The other groovy 12-inch single to be featured soon.