One of the things about doing this blogging lark for so many years is that I find myself in second hand stores/charity shops looking for stuff that I think might be of more interest to readers than myself. I’m not doing it anywhere as often as the old days as the prices for vinyl have, for the most part, gotten out of hand with so many folk nowadays latching on to anything that is an original pressing and in decent nick.
Today, I’m looking at a 12″ single that I paid £3 for maybe some six years or so ago. It’s now going for a minimum of double that on t’internet reflecting the fact that it didn’t sell all that well as would have been withdrawn pretty quickly after its release.
The Merton Parkas are a band I only know of thanks to it being where Mick Talbot began his career. You can see from the record sleeve that this was a band who firmly nailed their mast to the Mod movement which enjoyed a bit of a revival in the late 70s when it was linked to The Jam and the release of the film Quadrophenia.
The Merton Parkas released four singles and one LP in 1979. all on the Beggars Banquet label. Only one of them scraped into the Top 40. Within 12 months it was all over for the band, but of course Mick Talbot would, in the early to mid 80s, become one of the best-known musicians in the UK thanks to being one-half of The Style Council.
This particular 12″ was issued in 1983 – I guess as a cash-in to Talbot’s new found fame and popularity. It features all four of the singles and two of the b-sides:-
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – You Need Wheels
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – The Man With The Disguise
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Give It To Me Now
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Put Me In The Picture
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Plastic Smile
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – In The Midnight Hour
Enjoy.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 