I JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH.

So here it is then.

That very valuable Depeche Mode single.

And before you get all excited and think 'Oh I've got one of those', you haven't.  Read on McDuff.

They say that every day you learn something?  

I've been buying, selling and collecting all types of media now since the mid 1970's.  Way before the internet age.  Back then you just had mail order, Record Fairs and Record Collector Magazine mostly to get information from.  Sometimes it was difficult and many mistakes where made.

Over all these years i'm still doing it but it's gotten a lot easier now.  I've learned a lot and although I'm not an expert I have a pretty good idea now of what I'm looking at what it's value is.  Depending on what it is, obviously.  If you were to show me 200 50's Jazz albums e.g. I wouldn't have a clue.  

Nowadays I just use eBay now and again when I can be bothered to do so.  eBay irritates me a lot.  Don't start me on the last millisecond bidders and those who 'watch' something that's £1.99.  It's just sad and I've never really understood the logic behind it.  All that's a rant for another day (maybe).

I don't buy to sell any longer. Haven't for a very long time.  Unless I see something that I know will sell in a Charity Shop or something like that.  I still have 1000's of items left over in storage from the old mail order and fairs days. I'm getting through them slowly but surely.

I picked this one out a few days ago and had a look at it.  Assumed it was just the standard UK 7" which (depending on condition) is valued at around £10 - £15.  Always remember that what something's value is and what you might get for it can be two entirely different things.

Back in the day I did develop contacts all over the world that I would buy from and trade with.

I noticed this one had a 'Made in Australasia' notice on it.  Both label and sleeve. Bit odd I thought as why not just 'Made in Australia'?  I can't recall where and when I got this but had a contact in Australia and it probably came from them.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1403706-Depeche-Mode-Enjoy-The-Silence

Off to Discogs then.  As you do.  Most strange as there appears to be an Australian release and an Australasian release. Both had different labels and slightly different sleeves.  Collectors are anal about those sorts of things.

Most the Australasian version had ever sold for was around the £40 figure.  Mine probably is VG/VG condition. Bit of wear on the sleeve but nothing major so I listed it on eBay at a £14.99 starting price.

Within about 5 minutes 3 offers had come through.  One was for £200.  Most pleasantly surprised. I accepted, obviously.

I contacted one of DM Fan groups to ask about it and they replied (thanks Ian) that it is very rare and that probably only about 50 are known to exist.  He suggested that £200 was a bit low but it was fine by me.

Done a bit of research then on Australasian releases.  As I'm sure you know Australasia isn't a country.  It's a region that includes Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands. It can also include the likes of Malaya, Singapore, New Guinea etc. 

According to Ian this specific single was intended for the Indonesian market and pressed in very small quantities and is thus highly sort after by Depeche Mode collectors.

So there you have it.  The mystery of the DM single solved.

SHORT BOOK REVIEW.

 

Dragonslayer 

by

Wayland Drew

Movie adaptation  based on the screenplay.

My old memory being what it is I can't remember if I've actually ever watched Dragonslayer? It does seem to be my sort of thing so I probably have and just don't recall?

Tie in's can sometimes be a bit of a mixed bag and some of them are admittedly awful but  this one was a fairly decent read.  Nothing spectacular but not too bad at all.

I've never heard tell of the author but according to Google he's a Canadian who has written a few tie in's as well as a lot of original material.

This one is a fantasy but appears to be set, roughly, in post Roman Britain and concerns the battles of an apprentice Wizard against a Dragon that is terrorising a town.  It's got everything you'd expect of something like this but the author does add a significant amount of background to the tale including viewing the action from the Dragon's perspective and examining the conflicts between the townspeople and the growing Christian influence on them.

It all ends happily ever after.  The boy saves the town, gets the girl and grows into a man in the process.  But's it's all done well.

Fantasy by numbers maybe but I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

My copy also has a nice inner section featuring some colour stills from the movie.  

ON HOLOCAUST CONUNDRUMS (PART 86)

My usual statement before one of these posts.

I'm not a Nazi and I'm not a Holocaust Denier.  Just a History Geek.

Watched a program on TV a few nights ago about life in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi Occupation.

Bizarrely it was about what the people living there did to make food as the supplies they were given (presumably by the Nazi's) was highly rationed.

Now, riddle me this.

We are told that the Nazi philosophy was to kill every single Jew on the planet.  Man. woman or child.  We are also told that the purpose of the Warsaw Ghetto was just as a staging post where the inhabitants could later be shipped on to concentration camps to be either worked to death or gassed straight away.

It begs the question, at least  it does for me, as to why the Nazi's gave them any food at all? Why make any attempt whatsoever to keep the inhabitants alive when the only purpose for most of them was for onward transmission to certain death?  Why not just leave them all there to starve to death? Would that not have been the main purpose anyway?  That they are dead?  Using trains and personnel to transport them would have been a colossal waste of time and money when they were going to die anyway?

We are told that the Nazi's considered Jews as non human? Did non humans deserve to be fed?  Especially at a time when Germany was being bombed and it's own people were starving.  I would have thought they would have given whatever spare food supplies they had to their own people rather than to a people they hated and were marked for death anyway?

One of the many things we are told as fact that just doesn't make sense.

ON OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN

Really saddened to hear of death of Olivia Newton John.

In 1977 when Grease was released I was either 13 or 14 and The Clash already had or were just about to change my life forever.

I remember going to see it at the old Avenue Cinema on Royal Avenue in Belfast.  It's long gone now.  I went with my old friend John Gray and recall we had to queue outside for ages.

There's no denying what a phenomenon Grease was then and to some extent still is.

It was everywhere.  You couldn't escape it.

I loved it.  Still do and have watched it more times than I care to recall.

More innocent times then.  The songs are timeless to everyone no matter which genre you're a fan of.

ONJ was stunning.  Anyone at that age and that time that denies they had a massive crush on her lies.

'Hopelessness Devoted' is a beautiful song and she nailed it perfectly. It's still one of my favourites.  Ever.

I watched a stage show of it once in London many years ago and enjoyed it too.  Lots of the audience were dressed like characters from it.  Some bloke from Steps was in it but I had no idea who he was?  The girl who played Sandy was really good and did the role justice.

As you get older is all about deaths sadly.

Another part of my adolescence is gone and it makes me sad.

R.I.P. Newtron Bomb.

AFTER THE WATERSHED

I've been using the Internet basically since there was an Internet so I do know what I'm doing there now. I obey all the sensible rules.  Don't open email attachments from strangers and all the other stuff that just makes common sense.

Facebook is the only Social Media site that I'm a member of and I do enjoy using it most of the time.  Unlike many others I'm not one of those users who stupidly accept every 'friend' request I receive and like everyone else I get a few every day.  If it's not someone I personally know, a family member, a friend of a friend or at the very least someone I've had some sort of contact with I ignore and delete straight away. There are lunatics out there and they are best avoided.

Anyway, a few days I received a message from one of my Polish acquaintances on Facebook Messenger.  Someone I've chatted to in the past and an all round genuine guy.  His account had obviously been hacked in some way.

There was no attachment or dubious link or anything like that.  To my horror what the message contained was a compendium of pictures of child sexual abuse.  I deleted it immediately as soon as it registered with me what it was.  It was appalling.  Probably the vilest thing I've ever had the misfortune to see. 

Now I'm not an angel and don't pretend to be.  I watch 'normal' porn like probably a fair percentage of the adult human race.  Not all the time but once in awhile.  I'm not apologising for that or making an excuse for it.  It's pretty normal I'd imagine.  But this was something else.  I've never come across anything like what was in those pictures ever before and hope to never do again.

The problem now is that I can't 'unsee' it and it's effected me terribly.  I can't get it out of mind at all no matter how hard it try.  I keep thinking about those poor kids forced to commit those terrible acts.  Surely they must have parents?   What makes a parent agree to subject their children to that sort of thing.  It must effect them the rest of their lives.  In nothing but negative ways.  What are the adults that take part thinking about?  Have they no guilt?  They must be aware of what they doing and how totally wrong it is?

I'm trying really hard but no matter what I do those imagines are now in my mind and are there forever.  I'm also worried that they are now hiding somewhere on my PC?  You hear about that sort of thing happening.  

I've been trying to find a Charity or somewhere that deals with this to at least have a chat with someone about the trauma I feel.  Because it's real.

So far no luck with that but I had to write about it just to get something out there.

It's a Godless, horrendous world we live in it really is.

IN THE CORNER OF SOME FOREIGN FIELD

'Someplace to stay

Enough to eat

Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street

Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears

And what's more

No one ever disappears

You never hear that standard issue kicking in your door'

'You can relax on both sides of the tracks

And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control

And everyone has recourse to the law

And no one kills the children anymore'

I have a few problems with Roger Waters these days.  His vocal anti-Israeli views and trendy far left politics are completely at odds with what I believe but just sometimes his lyrics really just hit the spot.

Like these.

I don't watch the News much now.  It depresses me.  Seems to be wars or disruption everywhere.  It's always bad news.  

The World just seems to thrive on division.  Be it race, religion, nationality, gender, whatever.  It saddens me.  Someone like me isn't allowed an opinion anymore or I'm branded as a Nazi amongst other things.

Here in the UK the murder of baby Star Hobson by her mother and her mother's 'partner' recently was heartbreaking.  

Just how could anyone, let alone two people torture and murder an innocent 16 month old baby is beyond belief.  

What sort of people are they?

Most of the world has some sort of religious beliefs. Christianity, Islam, Judaism or one of the thousands of others.  Most have some sort of deity figure to believe in.

As Christian I fail to understand how a kind, loving God lets something like this happen.  I know how my Minister would answer that question.  He would say God gives us all a choice in how to live our lives and that freedom of choice defines how we are and how we act.  I don't know?

The Bible also says (somewhere) that every individual and that every act they commit has a purpose.

Begs the question - 'Just what in the name of f*ck' was the purpose of this one?'

I'll leave it there.

'SHADDERS. ON ME LUNGS.

Was watching 'Alfie' late last night again for the umpteenth time.  The Michael Caine version obviously.

It's one of my favourite movies and I watch it on a fairly regular basis.

It's actually pretty uncanny just how many of my favourite films that have Michael Caine in them.

It never gets old and some of the subject matter is still pretty relevant even today.

It does irritate me a little that it's often described as a Comedy?

Yes, it is pretty funny at times but at other times it reaches some very dark places especially considering it was made in 1966.

The abortion scenes are as disturbing and unpleasant now as they were then.  How they made it past the censors in 1966 is another matter.

I take something new from it every time I watch it.  Life lessons for all.  

The fact that Alfie becomes a sad, pathetic figure at the films end was a brave choice considering what had come before.

I did watch it on Laserdisc.  The format of choice.

Also good that Carter USM used samples from it throughout their 2nd album '30 Something' and the young Julia Foster was stunning.