Have you ever seen a more appropriately coloured vinyl than this? Squint your eyes and those black streaks on the vinyl look exactly like the forks on the cover. I heard this one was getting a reissue for Record Store Day 2013 and figured it would be a nice one to have. Sadly, very few copies made it across the Atlantic and I went without. When pictures of that brilliant splatter vinyl started appearing on the internet I was especially gutted.
Fast forward to December 2013 and Rocket From the Crypt were playing their first London show since their reunion and I was very excited to be going. I managed to get into RFTC after they broke up and had to made do with the live DVD of their last show all those years. Looking back at festival line-ups from my youth, they'd played a bunch of times but I'd consistently missed them (meaning that December show would also make up for some bad choices in the past). Anyway, the show was incredible and I had an awesome time. At the merch stall, as well as their tour-only 7" (which I'll write about another time) they had copies of Live From Camp X-Ray and Group Sounds on the same coloured vinyl as had appeared on RSD. I don't know whether these are identical to the RSD version, extra stock or further represses but I jumped at the chance to get them. I only had enough cash for one, so I opted for Camp X-Ray; it's partly for the reasons beneath but partly for that incredible coloured vinyl.
Live From Camp X-Ray was my first RFTC album (in a shockingly late 2007). I was in Paris just after new year and stumbled into the giant Virgin Megastore on the day their January sale was starting. The bargains were ridiculous - boxes on cds and records everywhere and pretty much everything was 5€ (about £3.35 at the time). I left with 15 cds and records that day. I hadn't planned to go record shopping but, as is often the case, the record shopping found me. One of those cds was Camp X-Ray. I enjoyed the album and found myself wishing I hadn't taken so long to get into RFTC. Better late than never. Highlights are I'm Not Invisible, I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know and Too Many Balls (even if the way the song ends always bothered me). Annoyingly, there's a loud pop during Bring Us Bullets and I'm not sure if that's on every copy or just mine. Still, it's nice to have this one on vinyl, even more-so such a well-coloured vinyl.
Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £15 new
Bought: gig
When: 06/12/13
Colour: Transparent orange with black and white splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no
