The Fat Angel Sings

Record Collector October 2026 (RC#588), originally published on 3rd September, is experiencing a delay to copies supplied to retailers and newsagents due to a printer plant going out of business. The new publication date is currently expected to be no later than 9th September, although retail and newsagent copies may become available sooner.
————

What are the greatest Kate Bush songs? She’s got the requisite career longevity and tendency to work in “phases”: your favourite Bush track is as likely to be something that got to No 1 in 1978 (no prizes for guessing) as it is an early deep cut or a B-side picture disc from 2005. Over 14 pages this month, RC’s leading Bush-ologists — at least one of whom interviewed her at the planetarium in 1985 and is immortalised doing so on photo website Getty – choose Bush’s 50 Best Songs; and we take the radical decision to present them in order of excellence.

If we had to rank 80s synthpop outfits in order of greatness, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Blancmange would inevitably occupy the upper reaches of the countdown. Two members of same – Vince Clarke and Neil Arthur — join forces with fellow electronicist Benge for a synth-supergroup called Doublespeak. They explain their music and motives this month to RC.

There are a couple of in-depth reports this issue and they couldn’t be more different: one is on what happened to the 90s Seattle music scene, the other on the Northern soul fan who wound up owning a 7” single worth £100,000. Elsewhere, we interview Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, 1976 punks turned 1982 lounge lizards Subway Sect and 80s hardcore Cramps devotee Henry Rollins.

So much for the cover story and features. News this month includes a new exhibition celebrating the queens of punk, from Ari Upp to Debbie Harry. RC Investigates looks at records given away with breakfast cereals. The Collector is (Small) Faces expert, Nigel Adams. Value Added Facts wonders what the value is of post-Jim Morrison Doors while Diggin’ For Gold explores car boot sales and Most Wanted finds goodies under the hammer from Boy George and Mick Jagger.

Things get a bit more opinionated in, hardly controversially, the Opinion column where Catherine Anne Davies examines the threat posed by AI ‘art’. There are more opinions in the Reviews section: those heavy people (hello again, Kate) at Rise Above Relics have a splendid new compilation out and there is new (old) vinyl from Ten Years After and TRex plus old (new) material from a gentleman by the name of Nirosta Steel and new NEW music from Johnny Marr, Roger Taylor and Fat Dog. We trust you’re making notes here.
Also reviewed: books on The Alan Parsons Project, Andrew Weatherall, Neil Young, Marco Pirroni, Island Records, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sandy Denny and John Mayall; singles by The Rolling Stones, Mike Watt and others; and gigs by Iron Maiden, The Cardigans, Sunn O))), Kraftwerk, Joan Jett and more.

Heading towards the back of the mag, we visit Shop Of The Month Eel Pie Records in Twickenham; there is a Crossword to fill in and prizes to be won such as glorious Felt vinyl, a 4CD Northern soul set and Genesis’ debut album.

Finally, we (re-)introduce Irma Thomas and Michael Weston King, welcome back 80s blond indie-poppers Darling Buds, reveal the records that changed Claire Hamill’s life, pick 10 Of The Best records by Lee “Scratch” Perry and, in Not Forgotten, bid a sad farewell to William Orbit, Vicki Wickham, Derry Brownson, Bill Oddie and more.

Do listen to RC’s podcast, Needlepoint, and look out for our special editions on Yes (out now in shops), with Rush arriving this month and Small Faces/Faces coming soon.

The Frank Zappa estate have announced a 60th anniversary super deluxe edition of his debut album with The Mothers Of Invention, “Freak Out!”.

In keeping with the Zappa estate’s recent run of 50th anniversary releases – “Waka/Wazoo”, “Over-Nite Sensation”, “Apostrophe (‘)”, “One Size Fits All” and “Bongo Fury” – the reasonably-priced set is packaged in a neat clamshell box and features the original album, studio outtakes, demos, rehearsals, live tracks over multiple CDs, plus a Blu-ray featuring various mixes.

As with many Zappa releases, unpicking what’s already out there is tricky, with the period around “Freak Out!” already covered by a bunch of releases. Released in 1985 as part of The Old Masters: Box One, Mystery Disc was a compilation of early Mothers material compiled by Zappa himself. The following year a second volume appeared as part of the next Old Masters box and in 1998, Rykodisc combined the two to make a single Mystery Disc (reissued in 2012 by Zappa Records).

“Joe’s Corsage” appeared in 2004, a collection of early Mothers demos, interviews and live tracks recorded in late 1965 and early 1966. Two years later, the Zappa estate released “The MOFO Project/Object, available as either a 4CD or 2CD set (the 2CD features seven tracks not on the 4CD – go figure). If you could prise the CDs from the packaging of the 4CD set, it was designed as an ‘audio documentary’ of the making of the album, by way of backing tracks, alternate mixes and edits, outtakes, live recordings and interview excerpts.

So what’s new on the 5CD+Blu-Ray “Freak Out! (60th Anniversary) set?“

Disc one features a new remaster of the original stereo mix by John Polito of Audio Mechanics. Disc Two has the first official release of the pre-master mix, an early version of the album from April 1966, newly mastered. And disc three features the original 1966 mono mix, first time available since 1969. Three songs – ‘How Could I Be Such A Fool’, ‘Who Are The Brain Police?’ and ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ – are taken from mono mix tapes in Zappa’s vault, the remainder are taken from a needle drop, mastered by John Polito.

Discs four and five are where things start to get complicated, they include:

• The entirety of the two shows the Mothers performed opening for Lenny Bruce at the Fillmore, San Francisco, on 24th and 25th June 1966. Tracks from these shows have previously turned up on Mystery Disc (‘Band Introductions At The Fillmore West’ and ‘Plastic People’) and the 4CD MOFO. (‘Motherly Love’, ‘You Didn’t Try To Call Me’, I’m Not Satisfied’ and ‘Hungry Freaks, Daddy’).
• Two tracks from a show that Zappa sleuths have surmised is the Fillmore, San Francisco, 24th February 1966. The version here of ‘The Downtown Talent Scout’ was previously released on “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 5 (1992).
• Full, seven-song rehearsal tape from early 1966 – snatches of conversation and ‘How Can I Be Such A Fool’ appeared on Mystery Disc, but this the first time the other tracks have been released.
• Eight demos recorded on 20th October 1965 at Original Sound Studio. Three of them – ‘I’m So Happy I Could Cry’, ‘Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder’ and ‘How Could I Be Such A Fool’ were on Joe’s Corsage. Meanwhile, a brief section of the ‘Trouble Every Day’ demo was used in ‘Watts Riot Demo/Fillmore Sequence’ on the 2CD MOFO. All other tracks previously unreleased.
• Five previously unreleased mono vocal reference mixes.
• Three tracks from the final night of recording, the ‘freak session’. ‘Freak Out Zilofone’ was on the 2CD MOFO, the others appear to be unreleased, but time will tell. Any Zappa fans in the know, comment below.

The Blu-Ray will feature Atmos and 5.1 mixes alongside, 192/24 and 96/24 high-res audio of the album, plus the contentious-sounding bonus track ‘Groupie Bang Bang’.

The set also includes a booklet and a reproduction of the double-sided fold-out ‘Freak Out! Hot Spots Map’ by Zappa himself that was originally included in the November 1966 issue of the Los Angeles Free Press.

“Freak Out! (60th Anniversary)” is also available as a 5LP vinyl set, which includes the 1966 pre-master mix, the 1966 mono mix and a single-disc which collects highlights from CDs 4 and 5 of the super deluxe edition. There’s also a 2LP multi-coloured edition featuring the original 1966 stereo mix, which is currently only available from Zappa’s official shop.

“Freak Out! (60th Anniversary)” is out on 25th September 2026.

A new Joy Division box set, “Eternal (Live)”, brings together 16 live performances across 14 CDs.

“Years in the making”, the audio in this set is sourced from audience recorded cassettes, soundboard tapes and broadcast recordings, all mastered at Abbey Road Studios. 

The content includes two previously unreleased shows Hope & Anchor and Acklam Hall and three previously unheard recordings, The Factory, Lyceum, Moonlight Club (2 April). It also features the band’s final live performance, at High Hall Birmingham in 1980, where they played “Ceremony” for the first and last time on stage. This was two weeks before Ian Curtis died.

The box also includes two DVDs giving fans 16 discs. They feature two hours and 30 mins of live shows including the previously unseen Plan K, Brussels concert and two concerts and soundcheck from the Apollo Theatre, Manchester that have only been partially released on VHS (in 1982) and a brand new edit of Joy Division – A Malcolm Whitehead Film.

“Eternal (Live)” comes as a 12-inch large format lift-off lid box set. There’s no luxury book mind you, just a “16-page booklet” with notes by Simon Armitage and photos by Anton Corbijn, Kevin Cummins and others.

It’s probably a case of buyer beware with this box set, since according to the label “audio quality across these sources varies widely. Most of the audience recordings sound exactly like what they are – recorded by a fan in the crowd – and multiple concerts have been widely bootlegged”. But they go on to say that they “have every confidence that Joy Division fans will revel in these official bootlegs, and be overjoyed by the higher quality recordings, especially with those that are previously unheard”.

“Eternal (Live)” will be released on 25th September 2026, via Warner Records.

Phil Lynott is best known to most as the frontman of Irish rockers Thin Lizzy, but now, 40 years after his death, his solo work is being celebrated with an 8CD box set called “The Story Of My Life”.

The box set features both of Lynott’s solo albums – 1980’s “Solo in Soho” and 1982’s “The Phil Lynott Album” – alongside remixes, rare demos, alternate versions and archive recordings, many available officially for the first time.

The box set is also home to an unreleased album called “Fatalistic Attitude“. This was effectively an early version of “The Phil Lynott Album“. It was prepared for release in January 1982 but was considered “too dark” for release and reworked and released eight months later. Using Philip Lynott’s personal acetate copy of the original album (now a private collection) “Fatalistic Attitude” restores Philip’s intended running order, including two songs that were removed. Several tracks were also re-recorded or remixed, most notably ‘Ode to Liberty (The Protest Song)’, which features Scott Gorham on guitar; another point of difference.

This earlier version also includes an unreleased solo cut of ‘Hate’, originally recorded as a demo by Thin Lizzy in 1978, and ‘Somebody Else’s Dream’, which was later issued as the B-side to the single ‘Together’. “Fatalistic Attitude” is also being made available as a standalone vinyl LP.

The box set also sees the first release of solo demos by Lynott as well as tracks recorded by his post-Thin Lizzy bands, Blackmail & Grand Slam, along with unreleased collaborations with Gary Moore, Junior Giscombe, Paul Brady, Huey Lewis and previously unheard rehearsals for Lynott’s 1982 solo tour.

“The Story Of My Life” has been compiled by Thin Lizzy archivist Nick Sharp and released with the full support of the Philip Lynott estate. It features an extensive booklet with new sleeve notes by Mark Blake, alongside the usual rare photographs and images of memorabilia.

“The Story Of My Life” and the “Fatalistic Attitude” vinyl LP are both released by UMR/Mercury on 30th October 2026.

“Sacrosanct” is the new studio album from Simple Minds. Read more about the album, here the first single and check out the various formats,

The 8-track album is an apparent retreat to the band’s art rock/new wave roots, but you can decide for yourself by listening to ‘Beginner Boys’ the first song which has been made available today.

Other tracks include opener ‘Elysium’, ‘King Of The Underworld’, and ‘Our Secrets Are The Same’ which “directly explores the lifelong bond between Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill”

We called the album “Sacrosanct” because after a lifetime of doing this — nearly fifty years of writing songs together — it’s stopped feeling like a career and started feeling like something closer to faith. Calling the record “Sacrosanct” isn’t an exaggeration. It’s just honest. Jim Kerr

A deluxe ‘mediabook’ CD edition includes five bonus tracks (and gives away future ‘singles’) and there’s neon green and black vinyl variants as well. As well as offering ticket pre-sale access (see tour info below), the official store offers exclusive silver marbled vinyl and signed bundles.

Simple Minds have also announced the UK leg of their V Tour (dates in May next year) which will include special guest Gary Numan. They will also headline BBC Radio 2 In The Park which takes place in City Park in Stirling in 10 days, on 13th September.

“Sacrosanct” will be released on 29th January 2027 via BMG Records.

The Doors will release a new live album later this year. The band’s two surviving members, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, supervised the upcoming “Unbound and Dangerous” with the band’s longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick.

The “Unbound and Dangerous” collects tracks from the Doors’ 1970 Roadhouse Blues tour, which began shortly after the release of the band’s fifth album, “Morrison Hotel“, in February.

Densmore and Krieger, along with the band’s keyboardist Ray Manzarek (who died in 2013) along with singer Jim Morrison (who died in 1971), recorded several shows on the tour, resulting in the concert LP, “Absolutely Live“, in July 1970.

“I knew Jim was ‘dangerous’ from the beginning,” Densmore noted in a press release announcing the album. “Talented and dangerous.” “He seemed to want to challenge everything. Then there were his words. That’s what seduced me … those words were about freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to be free. He wanted to free us all. What a gift. This live album captures that wild spirit.”

“I’m not sure why the Doors were considered dangerous,” added Krieger. “It was the ’60s, man, anything goes, and we didn’t really think of Jim as being dangerous.

“Once the Kennedys were gone and Vietnam was happening, that was the danger, not the Doors. The closest we came to being dangerous was in Miami or in Cleveland when the audience went crazy.”

“Dangerous equates to excitement,” said Botnick. “The fans came in the thousands to Doors concerts looking for danger and excitement. Jim was always reading the room and knew how far to push the envelope … there was always, ‘Will he do something really dangerous?'”

Most of the songs on “Unbound and Dangerous” were recorded during stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

One song, “Soul Kitchen,” comes from a 1969 performance at Hollywood’s Aquarius Theatre. (In addition to “Absolutely Live”, recordings from the tour have appeared on other live albums over the decades.)

The Doors’ arrival on the rock scene in 1967 marked not only the start of a string of hit singles and albums that would become stone classics, but also of something much bigger – a new and deeper relationship between creators and audience. Refusing to be mere entertainers, the Los Angeles quartet relentlessly challenged, confronted and inspired their fans, leaping headfirst into the heart of darkness while other bands warbled about peace and love. Though they’ve had scores of imitators, there’s never been another band quite like them. And 50 years after their debut album, The Doors’ music and legacy are more influential than ever before.

The set will be released on October 23rd, and features concert performances culled from the Doors’ 1970 Roadhouse Blues tour.

This compelling documentary about one of rock’s most dynamic, exciting and sadly unsung heroes of rock and roll, Steve Marriott, via the use of previously unseen photos, memorabilia, and home movies.

Showcases revelatory interviews with Humble Pie’s Peter Frampton, Jerry Shirley and Greg Ridley, the Black Crowes’s Chris Robinson, Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, John Waite, Bad Company/Free drummer Simon Kirke, Quiet Riot’s Kevin Dubrow, Ricky Byrd and Marriott historian John Heller.

Includes rare fiery performance footage of The Small Faces and Humble Pie, drawing the viewer closer to this wonderful and underrated artist. It also Features a bonus concert of the 1973 Winterland show.

This beautiful deluxe 3 disc digipack includes a Blu-Ray, DVD and CD
Marriott is remembered for his powerful singing voice which belied his small stature, and for his aggressive approach as a guitarist in mod rock bands Small Faces and Humble Pie. Marriott was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of the Small Faces.
Marriott became a popular, often-photographed mod style icon through his role as lead singer and guitarist with the Small Faces from 1964 until the end of 1968.

Marriott was influenced from an early age by his heroes including Buddy Holly, Booker T & the MG’s, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters and Bobby Band.

The midwest, particularly the part of the midwest Eric D. Johnson hails from, is a largely flat expanse. Zipping through it on the highway, you’ll see cities and towns rise up in the distance, but blink and you’ll miss other man-made rejoinders to horizontal living dotting the landscape, hill after hill, built from the refuse of the past: landfills. Some of these hills make for great sledding spots, parks, and trails. Others turn organic waste into compost. “The Landfill”, Fruit Bats’ album from Merge Records, is something else entirely: a mountain dominating the landscape of Johnson’s heart.

“The Landfill”, the upcoming album from Fruit Bats, expected June 2026, is one to play on your next roadtrip, while you’re at the beach, or for a solo dance party while cooking dinner. It opens with “The Saddest Part of the Song,” a more energetic opening than one may initially expect from the title of the song.

This introduction to “The Landfill” demonstrates Eric D. Johnson’s combination of the emotionally raw with musical elements of fun and vibrancy. Even in lower moments of the record, singing of lost love and lost opportunities, the rhythm section and delightful tones from the electric guitar and keyboard keep listeners afloat while processing some of the more difficult themes presented by the lyrics. A favourite song from the record, “Fishin’ Vision” belongs on playlists like “Bass Pro Shop Diva,” “Sunlight Through Raindrops,” and “Driving Through the Mountains.”

The title track concludes the project with reflective acceptance. Johnson marries mournfulness and hope in the same breath with “The Landfill,” singing, “This is the end of the movie…what such a sad, sweet story…I always knew you would end up somewhere good.”

releases June 12th, 2026

All lyrics by Eric D. Johnson

The Who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Who By Numbers with an expansive new super deluxe edition featuring 92 previously unreleased audio tracks, a restored concert film, new mixes by Pete Townshend and a 100-page hardback book. Unlike The Who’s three previous albums, ‘Tommy’, ‘Who’s Next’ and ‘Quadrophenia’, ‘Who By Numbers’ is stripped down, back-to-the-basics rock and roll. There are no themes, no operettas, no stories running through multiple songs.

Instrumentally, it’s comparatively bare-bones; most of the songs are just guitar, bass and drums, played to perfection. Lyrically, the album as a whole is as good as anything Pete Townshend has written, though much more understated, thematically. Even the album cover, John Entwhistle’s connect-the-dots drawing, is almost child-like in its simplicity.

Due for release on October 30th, the reissue revisits the band’s introspective 1975 seventh studio album across a 5CD/1 Blu-ray boxset, alongside separate 3LP, 2CD and coloured-vinyl editions.

Originally released in October 1975, The Who By Numbers marked a notable shift in Pete Townshend’s songwriting, trading the grand narratives of Tommy and Quadrophenia for a more personal and often vulnerable collection of songs. The album reached No. 7 in the UK and No. 8 in the US, and spawned the hit single “Squeeze Box”.

Reflecting on the record in the new set’s accompanying book, Townshend says: “The Who By Numbers” is a tricky album to talk about. It’s the only one where I allowed songs that were so personal to be used by The Who.”

Roger Daltrey adds: “In some ways, The Who By Numbers is my favourite [Who] album. For me, songs like ‘Imagine A Man’, ‘How Many Friends’ and ‘However Much I Booze’ expose our vulnerabilities, and the album is wonderful for that.”

You can hear the previously unheard “Imagine A Man (Pete Vocal, Early Mix)” 

Among the archive highlights are eleven Townshend demos, studio tracking sessions from Ramport and Shepperton Studios, alternate vocals, guide tracks, early mixes and a selection of newly created acoustic “stripped” mixes.

The box’s live material focuses on a fascinating period in The Who’s history. Disc Five presents the most complete release to date of the band’s June 12th, 1976 performance at Swansea’s Vetch Field, recorded during the Who Put The Boot In tour and notable as Keith Moon’s last major show before a British audience.

The Blu-ray also includes video of The Who’s December 6th, 1975 concert at the Metropolitan Stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. Attended by nearly 77,000 fans, the show set a record at the time for the largest indoor rock concert audience and has now been restored from original 2-inch videotape. The performance stands as one of the few surviving visual documents of The Who’s final major tour before Moon’s death in 1978.

As well as newly remastered versions of the original album, the Blu-ray contains brand-new Atmos, 5.1 surround and stereo mixes overseen by Townshend.

The release is accompanied by a 100-page hardback book featuring rare photographs, memorabilia and new liner notes by Townshend and longtime Who archivist Andy Neill.

Lily Seabird has shared the title track for her new LP, Lightspheres on Their Way, which is out this Friday on physical formats via Lame-O Records Regarding the new track, Seabird said: “Lightspheres” are so many things throughout this record, UFOs, memories, dreams, people, an unknown force pushing and pulling us through. Without being too specific I think in a lot of ways this song deals with the feeling of loving someone through a great distance.

“I was also thinking a lot about Brent Mydland,” she continued, “who was the keyboardist of the Grateful Dead from 1979-1990, the end of this song is really inspired by his song ‘I Will Take You Home,’ specifically the studio version which is on “Built to Last” (1989). Recording this song was really fun and figuring out the arrangement me Daniel and Rick really worked this one out together. The outro of this song is my favorite part which we completely improvised and kept.”

Seabird also announced new December tour dates, “Lightspheres on Their Way” Released soon .