Secret Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Recorded live at Shepherds Bush Empire in 2003, this exhilarating double album showcases Buzzcocks in top form, blasting through 32 of their iconic punk anthems. With key early and founding members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle on guitar and vocals, along with Tony Barber on bass and Philip Barker on drums, the energy is palpable across the entire setlist. Now available on double vinyl and with a bonus DVD featuring the full concert, interviews with Pete and Steve, sound check footage, and more, this is a must-have for fans and it offers a thrilling glimpse into the raw power and enduring influence of one of punk rock's most pioneering bands.

Review: Glittering is not really a word that comes to mind when you think of legendary experimental outfit The Fall but their career was certainly just that. This special live album certainly shows that and comes with some special liner notes as well as being pressed up to nice heavyweight 180g vinyl. It includes tracks from across their whole discography and all served up with that realness, rawness and sense of spite and visceral energy that defined the band with tracks like 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul' and 'Why Are People Grudgeful?' sounding as good as always.

Review: We all lost a big one in 2018 with the death of Mark E. Smith. One of the most prolific songwriters of the preceding decades, and the only constant member of The Fall, he channelled humour of the disenfranchised, rage of the people, punk sensibilities and experimental tendencies to create something that genuinely sounded fresh. Amazingly, it still did by the time he bid us farewell. That's some longevity of vitality, and when a band has such a lifespan it's almost impossible to even consider a Best Of type release. White Lightening is as close as you'll get, then, focusing on ten tracks recorded by the outfit, in various iterations, between 1978 and 2001 - amazingly, charting two-thirds of the 40 year story in a way which, while not necessary expansive, really conveys exactly what they were about at different points in that career, and throughout their entire era-spanning run.