UPDATES 3

As usual I took a number of these albums on holiday with me, and on listening to them on headphones I heard a couple of things that I hadn't noticed before. 

For the Elvis Costello post 'The Imposter', I'd segued the two sides of 'A Town Called Big Nothing' into one track, but listening to it again I felt that I could do much better, so I've completely redone the mix.

The opening track on The Rutles 'Yellow Submarine Sandwich' was obviously sourced from a scratchy 7" vinyl single, and so I've found a CD quality copy to replace that. 

jman mentioned that there was a track that I could have included on my Family Cat post, as they recorded an otherwise unavailable number called 'Fearless' for John Peel in 1990, so that's now included on Disc I. 

And finally, not exactly an audio fix, but I noticed that the Tom Jones album was tagged as Tom Jnes, so if you can't fix that yourself then you can download the corrected file of that, and the other three, from Soulseek or Mega.  

pj

Elvis Costello - The Imposter (2017)

In the 80's Elvis Costello's songwriting was so prolific that as well as releasing albums under his own name and with The Attractions, he also issued a number of singles under pseudonyms like The Imposter, The Emotional Toothpaste, and The Coward Brothers with T-Bone Burnette. 'Pills And Soap' was one of his better songs, and it did appear on the 'Punch The Clock' album, so I've used the extended b-side for this post, and that was followed by another excellent 7" in 'Peace In Our Time'. Costello teamed up with his producer T-Bone Burnette to form The Coward Brothers for 'The People's Limosine' single in 1985, and a couple of years later The McManus Gang recorded 'A Town Called Big Nothing', featuring Costello's dad Ross McManus on trumpet, and included here is an exclusive mix of both sides of the single. Sometimes Costello used his alter egos for b-sides to singles from his main band, and so songs by Elvis Costello And His Confederates, Napoeleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard and The Emotional Toothpaste appeared on the flips of Elvis Costello & The Attractions singles. After a gap of 30 years The Imposter made a come-back in 2017, with a cover of Paul Simon's 'American Tune', followed by a song used in the 1998 film 'Soft Sand, Blue Sea', which was pressed in a run of 500 copies and sold on the 'Imperial Bedroom And Other Chambers' tour. This is now an extremely hard-to-find rarity and cannot be located anywhere on the net, so I've extracted the music from the film itself just so we can hear a brief idea of the song. One of the highlights of this collection is being able to hear the title track to the 'Imperial Bedroom' album, which never appeared on the original release, and so enjoy these mysterious Costello recordings, some of which have remained hidden away for some time, and with the resurrection of the name for Elvis Costello And The Imposters new album 'The Boy Named If' then it's time they were brought out again and enjoyed. 

Track listing

01 The Stamping Ground (b-side by The Emotional Toothpaste of 'You Little Fool' 1982)
02 Imperial Bedroom (out-take by Napoleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard 1982)
03 Pills And Soap (extended b-side by The Imposter 1983)
04 Peace In Our Time (single by The Imposter 1984)
05 Withered And Died (b-side of 'Peace In Our Time')
06 The People's Limousine (single by The Coward Brothers 1985)
07 They'll Never Take Her Love From Me (b-side of 'The People's Limosine')
08 Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo (b-side by The Costello Show of 'Don't Let Me Be

                                                                                                                 Misunderstood' 1986)
09 A Town Called Big Nothing (The Big Return) (single by The McManus Gang 1987)
10 Shoes Without Heels (b-side by Elvis Costello And The Confederates of 'Blue Chair' 1987)
11 True Love Ways (b-side by Elvis Costello And His Confederates of 'Brilliant Mistake' 2005)
12 I Can't Turn It Off (by D. P. Costello from 'Unfaithfull Music & Soundtrack Album' 2015)
13 American Tune (single by The Imposter 2017)
14 Lucky Dog (b-side by Sgt. Larry Singer of 'American Tune')
15 Bright Blue Times (10" single by The Imposter 2017)

Flip City - Radio Soul (1975)

As a follow-up to the recent Elvis Costello post, here's  more from him from his very early days as part of the pub-rock band Flip City, alongside Mich Kent on bass, Steve Hazelhurst on guitar, keyboards, and sax, Malcolm Dennis and later Ian Powling on drums, and Dickie Faulkner on percussion. They were gigging from the early 70's to around 1975/1976, and during that time they visited a number of studios to lay down demos of some of Declan McManus's songs, as well as covers from artists such as Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. These were mostly at the Attic Studio in the Hope And Anchor pub, but they also scored a session at the BBC's Maida Vale studio, where they recorded three tracks. They sound quality is excellent throughout, and it's fun to hear early versions of songs that would later become staples of his repertoire. Steve Hazlehurst wrote 'On The Road', so he gets to sings that one, but the rest are in Costello's instantly recognisable vocal style, which was obviously well in place before he embarked on his solo career. There are a few Flip City bootlegs around featuring some of these tracks, and they often include a live set from The Red Cow if you want to search them out, but these demos are good enough quality to have been released as an album in 1975 if they'd found an interested record company. This particular complilation was edited down from an original post by hungrypirate to remove multiple versions of some of the songs, and I've also excised the Dylan and Williams covers to leave a concise 41 minute albums of mostly band originals, with just an obscure cover of a 1961 Chis Kenner song, and a version of The Amazing Rhythm Aces' 'Third Rate Romance'.   

Track listing

01 Exiles Road 
02 Baseball Heroes (very early version of 'Miracle Man')
03 Third Rate Romance (Russell Smith)
04 Living In Paradise (later appeared on 'This Year's Model')
05 Radio Soul (early version of 'Radio Radio')
06 Pay It Back (later appeared on 'My Aim Is True')
07 Imagination Is A Powerful Deceiver (possible the inspiration for a rewritten 'Alison')
08 I'm Packing Up (Chris Kenner) 
09 (Please Mister) Don't Stop The Band
10 Wreck On The Slide
11 On The Road (Steve Hazlehurst)
12 Sweet Revival

All songs by Declan McManus unless otherwise stated.

Elvis Costello - Radio Sweethearts (1980)

Even though I've followed Elvis Costello throughout his long and varied career, I've alway had a soft spot for the music that he released in the first three years of hs solo career. Those first few singles were so unlike anything else that was out there at the time that they shone out like a beacon. If you bought them when they came out, as I did, you found that there were even more gems tucked away on the flips, and when the albums started to appear these songs were often conspicuous by their absence. His first few singles for Stiff Records ('Less Than Zero' and 'Alison') failed to chart, but his debut album was an immediate success, gracing the UK Top 20, which was quite a achievement for a New Wave album. The backing for the recordings was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a country outfit living in England, whose members would later go on to join Huey Lewis and the News and the Doobie Brothers. Costello put together a new band for his next single, and Steve Nieve (piano), Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass) recorded 'Watching The Detectives', his first UK hit single. Replacing Bodnar with Bruce Thomas, and Goulding with Pete Thomas, The Attractions were born, and Costello's most creative period began. This album collates all the b-sides, freebie singles, and one solitary movie soundtrack recording that were issued between 1977 and 1980, and is more for the UK visitor, as quite often UK non-album singles were added to the US editions of his records, although there is much to savour here no matter where you live.   

Track listing
      
01 Radio Sweetheart (b-side of 'Less Than Zero' 1977)
02 Watching The Detectives (single 1977)
03 Stranger In The House (free single with 'This Year's Model' 1978)
04 Neat Neat Neat (Live) (free single with 'This Year's Model' 1978)
05 Big Tears (b-side of 'Pump It Up' 1978)
06 Crawling To The USA (from the soundtrack of 'Americathon' 1979)
07 Radio, Radio (UK single 1978)
08 Tiny Steps (b-side of 'Radio Radio')
09 Talking In The Dark (free single with 'Armed Forces' 1978)
10 Wednesday Week (free single with 'Armed Forces' 1978)
11 My Funny Valentine (b-side of 'Oliver's Army' 1979)
12 Girls Talk (b-side of 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' 1980)
13 Getting Mighty Crowded (b-side of 'High Fidelity' 1980)
14 Ghost Train (b-side of 'New Amsterdam' EP 1980)
15 Dr. Luther's Assistant (b-side of 'New Amsterdam' EP 1980)
16 Hoover Factory (b-side of 'Clubland' 1980)
17 Just A Memory (b-side of 'New Amsterdam' EP 1980)
18 Clean Money (b-side of 'Clubland' 1980)