Amsterdam Russ

That's better! Maybe a turntable glitch.

Hahaha - whatever the price, it's what the market is prepared to pay. And when a shredded Banksy goes for £18 million, you know the collecting market is in a frenzy. Good luck to JM (if it is his) or the owner selling it on commission. These are fantastic days for sellers.

Just asking... Is it me or is JM's sound clip of Cecil pitched up to some degree?

The winners of the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year have been announced, and the chosen selections are stunning! The winning image was taken by Laurent Ballesta. Story and winning photos here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/october/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2021-winning-images.html

What did the shop owner offer up when asked about it?

The Royal Society of Biology has announced the winners of its annual photography competition, which attracted more than 1,600 entries. First prize went to Vishwanath Birje for his photo of ants feeding on honeydew excreted by a yellow aphid. Source: BBC News / © Vishwanath Birje Pics here: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-58828861

Just out of interest - was anyone able to provide you with any info?

Another PhD on 'Northern Soul'! If you don't mind me asking, what's your hypothesis?

Enjoyed it - and a fine section from Paul.

Oh, my God! Where did you here this?

Courtesy of The Guardian... Source: The Guardian / © Anup Shah/TNC photo contest 2021 Check out all the finalists' photos here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2021/sep/29/winners-of-the-2021-nature-conservancy-photo-contest-in-pictures

Out on the bike to the local nature reserve yesterday on what was probably the last summery day. Not much in the way of pics, but I did have the thrill of briefly watching a sparrowhawk twisting and turning at great speed in pursuit of a finch. What the outcome was, I don't know. I also saw a buzzard land on a bush about 20 metres away from me, it's wings outspread and flapping as it tried to find its balance on a branch. That would have made for a great photo - if only the buzzard hadn't spotted me and flew away rapidly before I could even get camera to eye. And the sight of a family of partridges crossing my path unexpectedly added to the day. Again though, the things were too quick and I only managed to fire off one shot, which, unfortunately, came out blurry. I've posted it anyway. Beyond that, goldfinches were aplenty. They, though, spot you at 100 yards and flit away almost out of reach of my 300mm lens (hence the pics below are heavily cropped). Still, all in all, a fine way to spend an afternoon.

I was going by the date told to me by a band member.

Late 68 or - more likely - early 69.

Maybe a tenner. Having said that, there are people out there who collect these kind of acetates and boots, some of which, so I believe, are considered rare in their own right.

Yes, acetate describes the chemical substance used to coat (lacquer) the metal disc.

Absolutely true - if the boot acetate is valued at more that 300 quid. I'm curious - can you post up a scan or a pic of the label?

Acetates/lacquers/dubs - serving various purposes, such as in-house recordings to determine what might or might not get released in-house recordings to be listened to by production staff/producers/executives to determine if the track should even go that far in-house recordings to be listened to by production staff/producers/executives to determine if a recorded track is of sufficient quality - production-wise or musically in-house demos, using bare instruments - such as piano, drum and vocals - to get a feel for a song to see if it had potential for recording by an artist or band demos cut by promoters/labels/bands/groups/artists - which could be touted around to labels/owners/producers (etc) as a portable/mailable means of enabling potential buyers of songs to hear new material studio cuts of a track that producers/managers/label owners could listen to at their leisure to determine if the current take of a track was working or needed reworking vanity recordings at studios where you and your band could go and record a tune at yoyr own expense and then come away with a disc. There are plenty of other uses for acetates, which I hope people will add to. Based on most of the criteria above, here's a selection from my own small collection of acetates that broadly fits in to those categories.

The links on the YouTube vid are to digital-only sources, and I checked on MC's FB page. Same thing there as well. That's a shame. Maybe they'll get round to pressing it up at some point.

Digital only?

<Deleted - doh!>

Got to say Delegates of Soul for me every time. Charles Mintz really lacks the finesse of DoS and is just too rough and ready. No wonder it's rarer.

Balcony view this evening, dark and moody, perhaps foreshadowing the end of summer - although I hope we’ve got some more to go yet.

That’ll be like 40 years ago then. I know, doesn’t seem that long ago to me either.

A toad lily. I only know because I did a reverse image search on Google. Info here: https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/perennial/toad-lily/