Return from Utrecht...again!

Every time I come back from the fair, the same clichés come to mind:...The sheer size of it is just plain nuts (500+ dealers) and it really pisses all over what passes for major "International" fairs here in London.

The aches and pains of crouching, stretching and walking up and down the isles in a crazed daze looking through the Zillions of singles, in the hope of finding that special classic that makes the trip worthwhile, is madness...BUT yes, I found some great and sometimes surprising stuff, but also some hilarious disasters!

The whole trip didn't start too well as I had to make changes to my original plans and went to Brussels the day before for work commitments, and in the confusion I forgot my 3 day passes in London! But what could have been an issue was swiftly sorted out with great friendliness by the organisers and I didn't have to go through with plan C, which involved hanging on to the under-carriage of dealer's van to gain entry...(In fact there was a plan B as well). So by 9 am on Friday, I was in...
And the result? Well, I came back with over 50 singles, including one absolute Corker from someone who was a household name in the UK in the 70s...I'll keep schtum about it until I review it (hopefully on Monday), in the meantime I'll just divulge that it involves motorbikes...

Here are some of the other ones:

Black Fire -Come On And Do It (RCA Ger 1975). This is in fact the Dutch Black Fire, they renamed the song and gave the new sleeve a certain Pantherman feel to it. Click on the link above to go to the original review and soundclip.
Mustang -Wild Mustang (-Good Teens soundalike on blue vinyl)
Pagliaro -Lovin' You Ain't Easy (in a rather fetching French Pic. sleeve)
Kraaijeveld -Yes Tonight Josephine
Stamford Bride -Rise Sally Rise
Baby Face -Watch Your Step
A collection of BubbleGlam singles with a...er... "European feel": 2 by Jackpot including Is Everybody Happy (Incredibly dodgy, but with stomping sounds that are the closest to crunching goosesteps yet -they're German after all), Crackerjack -Tambourine (also German), Cissy by Yellow Cat (Dutch but sound German!)
Holy Mackerel -Rock'A'Bye (Barry Blue/Green)
Carnaby Street Runners (Kasenetz/ Katz, similar in concept to Mike Berry's Biggles single)
Fogg -Dancin' To The Music (Ger pic sleeve)
Duck Deluxe -I Fought The Law (RCA Demo)
Blackfoot Sue (German single with Glittery Obituary on the B side)
Smoke-Shagalagalu (yes, it's BubbleGlam folks...)
Starbuck - Heart Throb -Bradleys (A great single)
Wild Angels -Jo Jo Ann (from Out At Last)
Wild Angels -Sally Ann (NOT from Out At Last!)
Time Machine -Turn Back Time (French Psych with pipes from the Andes!!! -on Rubble volume something or the other)
Merlin-Wild Cat (Nice German pic sleeve)
Catapult (UK issue on Bradleys!)
Park Lane -The Party (Produced by Pete Koelewijn, the A side rocks and it has a different version of The Rockets' Rock 'n Rioll Drummer Part 2 on the B side
Dump -Will you Still Love Me Tomorrow
The Dogs -I've Been Down Down Down (a 68' call to rarms transplanted to 1974)
Hans Van Hemert -Because of The Cats -(a cracking Glam single)
TimeBox -Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye (lovely mint UK copy of this nutty masterpiece)
Bang -Questions (German pic sleeve of a Blue Cheer -like/ Teen hard rock band)
The Boer Four -The Boers Have Got My Daddy on Surf City Recordings!!!????
Magnet -Something To Remember me By (Ex Downliner Sect in semi-Glam crunchin mode)
Giggles -Just Another Saturday Night (Great German pic sleeve on this one)
Zips -You're So Good To Me (Yum Yum). This is in fact Pip Whitcher and Roger Lomas (The Sorrows, The Eggy, Renegade). As Zips, they also released Bye Bye Love (with a great B side) on RAK in the UK, but I didn't know about this one, which comes in a gear German pic sleeve. Musically, it's a stange mix of Adrian Baker Beach Boys fixation and Lomas/ Whitcher Heavyness with Glam seasonings.

I'll be reviewing some of these over the next few weeks, let me know if you have any particular request...