WHAT I COLLECT....
You could quite safely call me an 'anorak'. When I see just about anything Rolling Stones related, I consider buying it. The tatty and much repaired old exercise book in the picture is my 'catalogue'.
I got 'the bug' in the summer of 1990. I was 23. I've been a music lover since I was about 12, but I thought I'd been all through the 'obsessed fandom' thing in my teens. (With David Bowie. I loved/still love David Bowie.)
The first Stones record I got, I think, was an excellent, original "Sticky Fingers" I bought from a guy who was giving up part-time DJing, and selling off his collection, around 1988. In 1990 I went on holiday to Morocco, and read Phil Norman's "The Stones". I came home and I decided to buy the entire Stones catalogue on CD. I started with 'Exile On Main St'.
All through the 1990s, only the original Abkco issues of the pre-1971 catalogue were available, and the post-1971 catalogue were all on 'Nice Price' from CBS. (Younger readers: CBS-Epic is now a big chunk of Sony Music!) It's broadly known now (it was pretty broadly known even then!) that neither of these series (Abkco or CBS) of CDs were what one could call 'state of the art' remasters, but were the only CDs of The Rolling Stones available. Somehow it took me 12 years to complete the 'recorded works'. Frustratingly, The Stones stubbornly refused to retire, and kept releasing new albums, just as I was catching up!
I was (still am, really) also annoyed by the fact that Abkco's CDs were the US editions ('London' rather than 'Decca'), with the exception of the debut album. To complete the collection, one was obliged to buy bafflingly pointless compilations like "Flowers" and "December's Children (And Everybody's)".
Of the CBS CDs, some titles (like "Love You Live" and "Sucking In The Seventies") proved very hard to find. But I finally did, and had the lot (about 50 discs, plus Abkco's 3 disc box set "Singles-The London Years") by 2002.
Imagine my dismay, later that year, when Allen Klein decided that Abkco would issue their SACD remasters. Properly transferred. In the British editions. Now that I'd laid out god knows how many hundreds of pounds for the old lot. Same sinking feeling again in 1994, when Virgin overhauled the post-71 catalogue. Bugger.
I've stuck with my original set, though.
I've a thing for books. There seems to be hundreds of published titles on the subject of The Rolling Stones. These last 20 years I've filled a big wooden chest with them. I've got lots of mint condition 'coffee table' books, many rare and unusual titles, a signed copy of '2Stoned' by Andrew Loog Oldham.
Posters/lithographs: I've scarcely an inch of wall space left now, covered with all manner of stuff. My favourite is undoubtedly my lithograph of "Sticky Fingers". I also have lithos of "Exile.." and "It's Only Rock N Roll".
Bootleg CDs/DVDs: Some great items, like the hard to find "Cocksucker Blues". Also excellent quality audios of the Marquee, 1971, Hyde Park, etc. Bootleg vinyl, I've just the one: "Philadelphia Special II" on the famous Swingin' Pig label. It's a cracker, though.
T shirts: Dozens of them. You name it. Rarest is one I got in 1994 at a concert held at Cheltenham racecourse to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Brian Jones. A real 'one off'.
Can't think of anything else for now, although I'm sure there's stuff I haven't mentioned. What I do know is that I'm not finished collecting, and probably never will be. There will always be something else.....
You could quite safely call me an 'anorak'. When I see just about anything Rolling Stones related, I consider buying it. The tatty and much repaired old exercise book in the picture is my 'catalogue'.
I got 'the bug' in the summer of 1990. I was 23. I've been a music lover since I was about 12, but I thought I'd been all through the 'obsessed fandom' thing in my teens. (With David Bowie. I loved/still love David Bowie.)
The first Stones record I got, I think, was an excellent, original "Sticky Fingers" I bought from a guy who was giving up part-time DJing, and selling off his collection, around 1988. In 1990 I went on holiday to Morocco, and read Phil Norman's "The Stones". I came home and I decided to buy the entire Stones catalogue on CD. I started with 'Exile On Main St'.
All through the 1990s, only the original Abkco issues of the pre-1971 catalogue were available, and the post-1971 catalogue were all on 'Nice Price' from CBS. (Younger readers: CBS-Epic is now a big chunk of Sony Music!) It's broadly known now (it was pretty broadly known even then!) that neither of these series (Abkco or CBS) of CDs were what one could call 'state of the art' remasters, but were the only CDs of The Rolling Stones available. Somehow it took me 12 years to complete the 'recorded works'. Frustratingly, The Stones stubbornly refused to retire, and kept releasing new albums, just as I was catching up!
I was (still am, really) also annoyed by the fact that Abkco's CDs were the US editions ('London' rather than 'Decca'), with the exception of the debut album. To complete the collection, one was obliged to buy bafflingly pointless compilations like "Flowers" and "December's Children (And Everybody's)".
Of the CBS CDs, some titles (like "Love You Live" and "Sucking In The Seventies") proved very hard to find. But I finally did, and had the lot (about 50 discs, plus Abkco's 3 disc box set "Singles-The London Years") by 2002.
Imagine my dismay, later that year, when Allen Klein decided that Abkco would issue their SACD remasters. Properly transferred. In the British editions. Now that I'd laid out god knows how many hundreds of pounds for the old lot. Same sinking feeling again in 1994, when Virgin overhauled the post-71 catalogue. Bugger.
I've stuck with my original set, though.
I've a thing for books. There seems to be hundreds of published titles on the subject of The Rolling Stones. These last 20 years I've filled a big wooden chest with them. I've got lots of mint condition 'coffee table' books, many rare and unusual titles, a signed copy of '2Stoned' by Andrew Loog Oldham.
Posters/lithographs: I've scarcely an inch of wall space left now, covered with all manner of stuff. My favourite is undoubtedly my lithograph of "Sticky Fingers". I also have lithos of "Exile.." and "It's Only Rock N Roll".
Bootleg CDs/DVDs: Some great items, like the hard to find "Cocksucker Blues". Also excellent quality audios of the Marquee, 1971, Hyde Park, etc. Bootleg vinyl, I've just the one: "Philadelphia Special II" on the famous Swingin' Pig label. It's a cracker, though.
T shirts: Dozens of them. You name it. Rarest is one I got in 1994 at a concert held at Cheltenham racecourse to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Brian Jones. A real 'one off'.
Can't think of anything else for now, although I'm sure there's stuff I haven't mentioned. What I do know is that I'm not finished collecting, and probably never will be. There will always be something else.....
