Welcome…

Britain’s last great alternative music movement or

War! What is it good for?

Proceeds from Record Store Day releases by U2, Bowie and the Manics will be donated to the War Child charity

REN HARVIEU

REVEL IN THE DRAMA BELLA UNION 3 APRIL

Lost Shops

#10 BORDERLINE RECORDS, BRIGHTON

NATIONAL ANTHEMS

An invented scene? A derivative blind alley? A catch-all for any mid-90s UK band with guitars? Britpop was something, yet no two people agree exactly what. Michael Stephens revisits “the last big movement in alternative music” to find some songs that will live forever and other tunes not good enough…

TALES FROM THE FRONTLINE…

WRITER BEN WARDLE STARTED INDOLENT RECORDS OUT OF HIS OFFICE AT RCA IN THE EARLY 90S, JUST IN TIME FOR BRITPOP. HERE, HE REMEM BERS THOSE HEADY DAYS

Simon says

The Bella Union boss recounts the story of how the back-in-the-studio Texans Midlake became a valued and best-selling member of his label’s family

Can vinyl and streaming coexist?

The relationship between vinyl and streaming is a complex one, but, as Huw Baines discovers, they are both committed to working things out

The Completist

Could the journey that you go on to procure your vinyl collection be just as important as the act of owning it? Pete contemplates one of life’s imponderables

Sonic the pop-up

Thurston Moore launches a brand new record shop in leafy Stoke Newington

THE ART OF THE 12 "

Pet Shop Boys, The Beloved and the Thompson Twins released some of the most quintessential 80s 12" singles. But what would Neil Tennant, Jon Marsh and Tom Bailey say were their own inspirations?

THE VINYLIST JON PICKLES

Jon’s so committed to his vinyl, he owns five turntables…

most valuable vinyl

THE CHARLATANS

Now Spinning

12 tracks on rotation as Storm Dennis did its worst, best enjoyed with a can of Buxton Stormbringer, a tumultuous full-bodied stout with rich coffee and malt flavours

It’s Twins!

Classic Cocteaus albums are back on vinyl

DISQ

John Earls meets the Wisconsin five-piece at the centre of shaking up Saddle Creek’s sound

crate digging with… The Lovely Eggs

With their new album, I Am Moron, due out in April, the two-piece psych-punk band’s singer Holly Ross picks out 10 records she simply couldn’t live without…

#35 Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull’s fifth studio album was something of a

JEFFREY LEWIS

The New York City songwriter and comic book artist tells Gary Walker why he’s captivated by this collision of sunny 60s pop and nightmarish tales of death, witches and black butter…

1O Questions For… JONATHAN WILSON

The musical polymath tells Felix Rowe about recording his new album in Nashville, producing Father John Misty on acid and stepping into the shoes of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour

SLoW MOTION

Tame Impala’s majestic new album The Slow Rush sees Kevin Parker absorbing sounds and production techniques from everything available to him. Despite becoming a festival headliner, he tells John Earls he still isn’t fully happy with what he’s achieved in the past decade

GARDEN STATE

Having predicted Brexit and environmental collapse from day one, Cornershop were determined to stay positive on their first mainstream LP for a decade. John Earls hears from Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres about how that’s been tough to achieve

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Three albums in, Newcastle’s Lanterns On The Lake were burnt out and needed a break. They return refreshed, leaner and not afraid to speak from the heart on their strongest record yet. Gary Walker hears why they’ve never been happier

It is a travelling album. I’m looking again at humans and maternal love. I feel like I’m less… I don’t know if angry is the right word, but I’m more at peace

Nadia Reid’s third LP, Out Of My Province, is both her best and most ambitious yet, expansive, warm and open. She tells Jonathan Wright how the record’s songs came to life on the road and in the studio

THE ESSENTIAL: Britpop

The term may have been a tenuous catch-all that bands turned their noses up at, but the mid-90s Britpop boom saw the UK music scene at the centre of a feelgood factor not witnessed since the 60s. Ben Wardle is mad for it…

Britpop Collectables

The holy grail is Oasis’s 1993 one-sided 12" white

Radiohead

A colossal global hit early in Radiohead’s career threatened to destroy the band when they had barely even got started. For their second album, The Bends, as Neil Crossley explains, they dug deep to create a soaring, deeply textured record that would unexpectedly elevate them to new heights

THE UNFORGETTABLE SIRE

Hear the words Sire Records and you’re probably imagining CBGB’s legendarily revolting toilets. But the imprint that came to define Carter-era New York is a whole lot more than just punk, with many chapters to its meandering 30-year run. Gareth Murphy, ghostwriter of Seymour Stein’s autobiography, tells the bigger story

Hum YOU’D PREFER AN ASTRONAUT

The third album from the lesser known Illinois alt. rockers Hum is in rare supply. Glen Bushell boosts demand

LIVE AND UNPLUGGED

MTV Unplugged was the most talked-about series in the channel’s history, selling 100 million albums. With it came landmark performances from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton and R.E.M. As the show’s albums get a relaunch, John Earls speaks to Unplugged’s creator and the artists who made it a sensation

Sister Ray SOHO

Immortalised on the cover of an Oasis LP, the Golden Mile survivor defiantly stays ahead of the curve. Huw Baines finds out how

Broken Greek

Taken from the music journalist and broadcaster’s pitch-perfect childhood memoir, this chapter sees our nine-year-old protagonist enter a record shop for the first time with enough pocket money to buy two 7-inch singles

COUNTER CULTURE

Del Day wonders whether guitar music as we know it is dead. Now, his shelves are flooded with albums by a new, more refined crop of players

Brazil

Brazil is a goldmine destination for the adventurous collector, as Russ Slater observes

The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers’ improvised, often inspired, blend of rock, blues, country and jazz receives the lavish 10LP boxset treatment. Ben Wardle tunes in

Robert Forster

DANGER IN THE PAST/CALLING FROM A COUNTRY PHONE

Nina Simone

EMERGENCY WARD

The Sonics

HERE ARE THE SONICS!!!

Joni Mitchell

SHINE

The Handsome Family

ODESSA/MILK AND SCISSORS

Embrace

THE GOOD WILL OUT/DRAWN FROM MEMORY/IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN

Karen Dalton

THE KAREN DALTON ARCHIVES

The Monochrome Set

STRANGE BOUTIQUE/LOVE ZOMBIES

Ofege

HOW DO YOU FEEL

Chapterhouse

WHIRLPOOL

Roland S Howard

TEENAGE SNUFF FILM/POP CRIMES

Roedelius

TAPE ARCHIVE ESSENCE 1973-1978

The Deviants

DEVIANTS III

Various Artists

BOB STANLEY AND PETE WIGGS PRESENT THE TEARS OF TECHNOLOGY

Mystery Kindaichi Band

THE ADVENTURES OF KINDAICHI KOSUKE

Nightmares On Wax

SMOKERS DELIGHT

Mark Korven

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Ennio Morricone

WESTERN

Jung Jae-il

PARASITE

Ezra Furman

SEX EDUCATION SEASONS 1 & 2

Baxter Dury

Dury’s new album has been described as “a 10-song gaze into the black hours and the characters and behaviours that swirl around them”. Who is Jonathan Wright to argue?

Stephen Malkmus

TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES

U.S. Girls

HEAVY LIGHT

Cornershop

ENGLAND IS A GARDEN

Moby

ALL VISIBLE OBJECTS

Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela

REJOICE

Islet

EYELET

Caribou

SUDDENLY

Wilsen

RUINER

Luke Haines & Peter Buck

BEAT POETRY FOR SURVIVALISTS

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

MANCHESTER CALLING

Aoife Nessa Frances

LAND OF NO JUNCTION

Porridge Radio

EVERY BAD

WHAT’S ON IN THE SHOP

SHEFFIELD

Horse Lords

THE COMMON TASK

Morrissey

I AM NOT A DOG ON A CHAIN

Disq

COLLECTOR

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan

NAVARASA: NINE EMOTION

Sorry

925

Brian Fallon

LOCAL HONEY

The Boomtown Rats

CITIZENS OF BOOMTOWN

Pictish Trail

THUMB WORLD

Deap Lips

DEAP LIPS

Hilary Woods

BIRTHMARKS

Circa Waves

SAD HAPPY

Waxahatchee

SAINT CLOUD

The Ox: Last Of The Great Rock Stars

PAUL REES

Heavy

DAN FRANKLIN

Tales Of Boomtown Glory

BOB GELDOF

Conversations With Tom Petty

PAUL ZOLLO

DREAM MACHINES

A timeless speaker that brings high-quality sound and vintage styling to your home

MEET THE MAKER AVID HIFI

Celebrating its 25th year in turntable manufacture, AVID HIfihas built an astonishing range of audiophile products with unique engineering principles. Everything stems from Conrad Mas’ determined quest to build the perfect turntable. Gary Walker and John Pickford visit the company’s Cambridgeshire HQ to find out whether he’s succeeded

Thorens TD202

Paul Rigby takes a close look at this manual turntable aimed squarely at the lifestyle user

TEAC TN-3B

John Pickford runs the rule over a fully-featured deck with classic styling and an excellent tonearm

CLOSER

A tender ballad about fast-track urban gentrification closes out Sound Of Silver. Gary Tipp seeks planning permission

WELCOME…

Record Store Day celebrates its 13th birthday this