Running up to Record Store Day 2019: Part One, the 10" single

In the run up to Record Store Day 2019, I thought it would be nice to dig out some of the more unusual items in my record collection and tell you a bit about them.

Today, it's all about the 10" single.

Over the years I have acquired four 10" singles which, thanks to their size in relation to the 12"s and 7"s, sit in glorious isolation at the front of my rack of 12"s.

The second 10" (we'll get to the first one in a bit...) I bought was Sonic Youth's '100%' in 1992. It was pressed on orange vinyl and was a concentric groove record, which I (eventually) realised meant that two different tracks were pressed onto one side of vinyl inside each other rather than in parallel.

In practical terms, this means that if you put the needle down on side A you can never be entirely sure if you'll be getting '100%' or 'Creme Brûlée'  or, on side B, if it's going to be 'Genetic' or 'Hendrix Necro'. If you get the one you don't want, you have to lift the needle off and put it down slightly behind or in front of where it was to get the other track. I mean, there's probably a more precise way of doing it, but I'm not a sound engineer.

I was 13 when I bought this single, and there was no Google so I had no idea why there was this random element to my listening pleasure. For ages I just thought it had been pressed in a weird way. Which, I suppose, it had really.

In addition to being a concentric groove 10" on orange vinyl, the record was individually numbered. It just screams early 1990s indie exclusivity. Even though Sonic Youth were signed to Geffon, which was hardly an indie label. It was post Nirvana's Nevermind, and as such, how things were done.

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's Amber Gambler EP differs from the Sonic Youth 10" in a number of ways. Not just aesthetically and sonically, but also because it was released on a genuine indie label, Ankst, in Cardiff. But, as with the Sonic Youth single, it was also released on orange (or 'amber') vinyl.

It's typically Mynci in many ways, and captures the band at the point where they were about to leave Ankst to sign to Mercury in a bid for the big time.

Not only did the deal with Mercury lead to such knowing singles as 'Young Girls, Happy Endings', it also severely hampered the band in their desire to sing in Welsh. On their albums for Ankst, they'd made a point of singing half in Welsh, half in English, but Mercury weren't up for them doing that and compromises had to be made.

The Amber Gambler EP, as their final release for Ankst, represents the band at their weird and wonderful varied best. 'Lucy's Hamper' is a lovely slice of folk whimsy, there's a psychedelic take on country, and a lengthy piece of piano led orchestral. All in all, it is quite wonderful.

The oddity that is the 10" single is best reflected by the one off collaboration that is Taylor Meets The Headcoatees, which I eventually tracked down in Leeds' Jumbo Records. I'd previously heard Brian from Mancunian enfant terribles Bette Davis and the Balconettes play 'Meet Jacqueline' during one of his DJ sets at the Night & Day, and felt it was a particularly dance floor friendly slab of big beat garage infused pop. The patrons of the Night & Day didn't agree with me though.

This is effectively a re-mix 10", with the likes of 'Meet Jacqueline' and 'Have love, will travel' being given the big beat and drum'n'bass treatment alongside slighter and more tenuous bits of sonic experimentation. The double disc remix of Mirah's works, released as Joyride a number of years after this 10", works in a similar way: Remixers having fun with unfamiliar material to create a series of soundscapes often unrecognisable, frequently weird, but generally always interesting. As in both cases, once was probably enough.


The picture disc 10" of Voice of the Beehive's 'Perfect Place' is, at once, both the first and final 10" single I purchased.

I originally bought a copy from what was the only record shop in Hazel Grove at the time. I remember it as a very small, slightly dingy shop on the A6 that was very random in terms of what it stocked. It was staffed by a fantastically curmudgeonly man who always seemed to be either chatting to one of his friends in person, or chatting to one of his mates on the phone whenever I went in, which was generally on my way home from school. This would mean that I would have to wait ages to get served. Aside from any passing friends of this bloke, I would always be the only person in the shop so, in retrospect, it came as no surprise whatsoever when the shop closed down a few years later.

I purchased 'Perfect Place' at the height of my Voice of the Beehive period, so I would have been about 12 I think. Alongside the excellent title track, the single also included a non album track 'Shine Away', which was great, and two live tracks - a slightly sweary 'I say nothing' and an average take on James' 'Sit Down' (to be fair, I never liked the original either).

I basically played it to death and then, having tired of it, sent it to the charity shop when I was about 15. I later re-purchased it from Imbroglio in Sheffield sometime in my twenties.