I do have two that come to mind right away Billy Bragg - Peel Sessions (very non-313 I know) I was writing for a local music rag and was sent out to interview him. I've been a fan of his for ages (ever since Talking About Poetry to the Taxman came out) and took along three or four record to the interview. He was having an in-store singing session for his, at the time, new album Mermaid Avenue. I had to get in line with everyone else in order to get an item signed so I did. I was flipping through the records trying to decide which record I would ask him to sign. Seemed like most people had the "William Bloke" or "Mermaid Ave." So I pulled out the Peel Session record - which if you've seen Peel Session records they are unmistakable. He looked at it and said, "Whoa! Haven't seen that one for a long time." I was a bit chuffed because ever since I got it around 1987 I played it religiously and for years after it was my absolute favourite record, of which I told him. He was signing all the records with a thick silver ink marker and if you've seen the Peel Session records you know they are silver and black. So he signed his name really large across the entire box of band names that are on the cover in silver ink - which I have always thought looked really cool. It's one of my most prized records. The interview, however, never occurred because he was nursing a sore throat and had to keep his talking down to a minimum to perform later that night. That was his excuse, I know he's always been shy of the press though. No matter - I was happy just to hang out with him the rest of the afternoon.
The other is also Larry Heard. I had him sign "Alien", again, my favourite by him. I was part of a production team that did a semi-regular house night and as sort of a present to me from my friend (the DJ/promoter) he booked Larry Heard in 2005. We all went out to dinner the night before and my friend made sure I was seated next to Mr Heard. Had a nice, if somewhat nervous, conversation. The following night was the gig so I, again, grabbed a few Mr Fingers/Larry Heard records but decided on "Alien". We were standing behind the stage when I asked him if he was willing to sign a record. I did feel like a total dorky fanboy but he very nice about it. He's actually one of the nicest DJs I've ever met. When I took "Alien" out of my bag Larry told me that it's one of his favourites from his entire career because it's so different from everything else he had done. We chatted briefly about the record and then some other people asked him to sign some items, which he did just as pleasantly as he had with me. A total gent. Since I've been working in the music business in publishing and licensing for a few years I do have a bunch of other signed items but they are even less 313 related. One other item I have signed, that isn't really 313 but was a funny experience was when I was in Bristol a number of years ago - 2004 or '05 I think. I was invited there because I had licensed a piece of music and the artist invited me over to the UK for some potential other business. While I was there I given the tour of the city (basically where all the 2nd hand record shops are). My friend introduced me to one called Prime Cuts which was in the basement of a vintage clothing shop. It was a choice little shop with a good selection. I got to talking with the shop owner, Mike Savage, and as it turned out I was familiar with a book he helped write called Naked Vinyl. I spent a great deal of time in his shop that day and made a plan to find a copy of the book there in Bristol and have him sign it. I went around to about 10 different book stores and finally found a copy. The next day I went down to his shop and he signed the book: "From one Michael to another, Enjoy these big titties!" Naked Vinyl is a book about album cover art featuring nude women. LOL Then, as I was doing a bit more digging around his shop it began to rain rather hard. Being in the basement, his shop began to flood and sections of his store were in danger drowning. So, he put me in charge of the cash register while he went about getting records off the ground and bailing water. Made for a very interesting afternoon. MEK On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 5:17 PM, ja...@iridite.com <ja...@iridite.com>wrote: > .....so, how many of you out there have signed records in your > collection? I don't mean ones you've picked up in a store (I still > kick myself after all these years remembering passing up a complete > set of signed and sealed Transmat and Fragile releases in Ruadub > because they were £1 more expensive than the normal copies and I had > the majority of the tracks anyway)...I mean the ones you've actually > taken the time and bother to drag down to a club night where somebody > you totally respect is about to play and you run up to them with a > silver or black marker and...well, you know the rest :) > > Tonight, whilst going through my vinyl for the first time in a LONG > time, I found: > > Mr Fingers - Amnesia - of course I was new to the signing thing then > and had brought a ball point pen instead of a marker and poor old > Larry had to sort of inscribe the cover as the pen wouldn't write - > this would have been roughly 1994-1995 when he played live (DX7, Emax > II and live vocals- I recoreded the gig on DAT and of course, it > didn't work) in the Volcano club on a Thursday night (where the club > scene in Trainspotting was filmed fact fans!) > > Orlando Voorn - 1987 DMC MegaMix - signed at his Art School gig back > in 2001 just before I moved over to Amsterdam - he ended the show by > coming out of the DJ booth, dancing like a crazy man and then > scratching in the next track by leaning back into the booth whilst > still dancing - pretty impressive stuff! > > Of course the hardest part after making a fool of yourself is getting > the said record home in one piece..or home at all! > > Come on you lot, what you got? > > Jason >
