Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

I remember my dad buying a copy of Wish You Were Here on cd when I was a teenager. I'd been properly into music for a little while and remember thinking how strange it was that he'd just go out one day and spend £15 on a new cd when I'm sure he could have found it cheaper with a bit of hunting. But I guess he was just in the mood to hear the album again and fancied buying it. Pink Floyd had always been a favourite of his, probably more-so than Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the other two bands I'd assumed were his top-three from back in the day, based on his record collection. He'd shared a place with some friends when he was younger, and they took turns buying new records, hence his patchy collection. Wish You Were Here was one of the ones his friends had bought, so he'd gone a good number of years without playing it (I think this all happened after the release of the Pink Floyd best-of, Echoes, so perhaps hearing two of the songs on there made him want to play the rest).

I borrowed the cd and had a listen in my room at some point afterwards and enjoyed it. I've always had a bit of a soft-spot for middle-era Pink Floyd (the early days do nothing for me, not that familiar with the tail end); Black Sabbath are my favourite of the three "dad bands", and Led Zeppelin have their moments (and in the right time and place can sound amazing), but Pink Floyd just had something about them. In my rough memory of the timeline, I'd bought myself a live recording of The Wall in early 2001, and Echoes was November 2001, so this would be after that. 

I enjoyed Wish You Were Here. I loved how long Shine On You Crazy Diamond was, and how (almost obnoxiously) long the song is before any vocals come in; the saxophone was amazing and the way the guitars nearly sing the chorus was brilliant. Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar felt angry, or as angry as you could expect from a band that weren't metal. The title track was just a truly incredible song, a little pool of normality in a sprawling (in song length, not quantity), quite difficult album (in a lot of ways). I don't know if there is any generally accepted ranking of their discography, but I can imagine this one is number two or three in most cases. I didn't know that going into it at the time (I knew Dark Side of the Moon was number one, I'd always assumed The Wall was number two. It was years before I heard Animals).

Like my father before me, I also went for years and years without hearing Wish You Were Here again. He certainly went longer; the gap for me would've been about 16 years. I found this copy in one of the greatest charity shop hauls of all-time (18 albums by Floyd, Zeppelin, Dylan and REM for £6, all in incredible condition. It was like someone had discarded the record collection of someone as anal as me, but marginally younger than my dad). I couldn't believe my luck as I flicked through the records, ignoring my infant daughter in her pushchair as I pulled out classic record after classic record. I don't remember which album I found first, or when I realised I was onto such an incredible find - after a while I stopped being surprised to find great albums and was even eventually a bit disappointed there weren't more Floyd and Zeppelin. I certainly don't remember thinking "yes, Wish You Were Here!", it was more likely "another Floyd, great". The sleeve is in amazing condition given its age, and the previous owner used to keep the records in paper sleeves rather than the picture sleeves, so the inner sleeve looks new.

This Christmas just gone, between waves of pandemic, I visited some more charity shops and was very pleased to find a copy of Wish You Were Here on cd (meaning I'd have mp3s of it too), along with a standard version of a Manics album on cd that I needed. I think I was actually more excited to find those than I was the vinyl, mainly because the rest of the haul that morning was a bit shit. I plan to buy all the Pink Floyd albums in time, but I see them more of a cd band than a vinyl one. That said, I'm of course pleased to have a handful of their best on vinyl.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £0.33 second-hand
Bought: Blue Cross charity shop, Kidlington
When: 01/12/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

ONSIND + Ghost Mice - Split

 

I have a huge amount of time for ONSIND. As soon as I got into them I started listening to all their songs on Bandcamp - that was around 2011 so this 7" would have been on there (although isn't there any more). I started buying any of their records I could find, and this was a very pleasant surprise on my first trip to All Ages. As a side note, I should have visited All Ages much sooner into my time living in London, but I was rarely that far north except in the evenings for gigs; I later realised that it was worthy of dedicated trips on its own. I've also not been there anywhere near enough - not only do they stock all the punk records you could possibly want, but they also have a good selection of metal and obscure heavy stuff (two genres I'm leaning more into these days).

The second ONSIND song, That Takes Ovaries, also ended up on their superb second album, Dissatisfactions. They've stopped playing it after taking some criticism for the blunt lyrics, but certain lines aside the point they're trying to make remains as valid as ever and is often one that comes to mind when watching some bands. The first song, Call Me If You Ever Feel Too Old to Drive, is a perfect ONSIND song and worth the price of the record alone.

Ghost Mice are on the second side of the record and that's really about the most I know about them, other than that they're from the USA. To sum them up very briefly, they're too nasal and high pitched for me to really find them enjoyable. I do love their energy though. They sound a bit like a Chuck Ragan song played 50% too fast, which you can either choose to take as a compliment or not, depending on how that summary lands with you. Their third song, Exit #2, paints a nice picture.

Format: 7", insert

Tracks: 4

Cost: £4 new

Bought: All Ages, Camden

When: 03/10/12

Colour: Black

Etching: no

mp3s: no