Listen Like Fans- For The Love Of INXS
Listen Like Fans is a podcast made by INXS fans, for INXS fans — for the love of INXS.
From deep cuts to defining moments, personal stories to passionate debates, this is where fans from around the world come together to celebrate the music, the legacy, and the magic of one of Australia’s greatest bands. Whether you’ve been there since the early pub gigs or discovered INXS years later, this podcast is about connection, community, and keeping the spirit alive.
No gatekeeping. No egos. Just pure love, memories, and a shared obsession with the sound that still moves us.
Listen Like Fans- For The Love Of INXS
In Search Of The INXS Holy Grail.
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One of my absolute favourite episodes is here!
This week on Listen Like Fans, I’m joined once again by our wonderful behind-the-scenes collaborator and resident INXS collector, Andrew Lambie, as we dive headfirst into the fascinating world of INXS collectibles.
Many of you will remember Andrew (along with his partner in crime, Danyelle!) from last season when we chatted about INXS fandom, fanzines, the Calling All Nations Fan History book and some of their most treasured INXS memorabilia. That conversation got us thinking… what are the rarest INXS releases ever produced? And what truly deserves to be called the Holy Grail of INXS collectibles?
With INXS celebrating almost 50 incredible years, there’s been an amazing array of vinyl, CDs and cassettes released all around the world. Some are easy to find… others are almost mythical! So Andrew and I decided to count down our Top 10 rarest and most sought-after pieces of INXS music media, along with a few honourable mentions that collectors dream about owning.
From elusive 7-inch singles and promotional CDs to rare overseas pressings, withdrawn releases and unique vinyl variants, there’s something here for lifelong collectors and fans who are only just discovering the incredible world of INXS collecting. And who knows… You might even have one of these hidden away in a cupboard, garage or attic without even realising it!
I absolutely loved recording this episode with Andrew, and if you enjoy this type of content, we’d really love to hear from you. There are so many rabbit holes we can explore together—from T-shirts and posters to tour merchandise, promotional items and everything in between.
Thank you, as always, for listening and for being part of this amazing INXS community. Your passion and support mean the world to us.
Enjoy this week’s episode, and don’t forget there are plenty more fan stories, deep dives and special guest interviews coming your way throughout the season.
Until next time…
Keep Listening Like Fans!
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Okay, growth.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Listen Like Fans for the love of Inex tests. I'm B, and each week I'll be joined by a different co-host as we dive into the songs, the stories, and the moments that made us fall in love with this most iconic fan on the planet. Let's go. Well, hello everybody. It's me and Andrew Lamby in the house today. So Andrew is all the way over in Scotland in the little island of the Isle of Mole, and I'm over here in Australia. And today we're going to be talking about collecting and collecting rarities. We're going to be looking at a top 10. We're going to be looking at what it is that makes a collector a collector. And what is it that we need to have in our collection? So hey Andrew, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_02I'm very well. Thanks. Thanks for having me on, V. Um, delighted to be invited back. Um, invited back by unpopular demand. I hope not. I can I can I can hear, even here in Scotland, I can hear all the eyes rolling, and it's oh, it's not him again, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Stop it. You and Danielle were fantastic. Um one of my first uh one of my first episodes, or one of our first episodes. Andrew also is uh an absolute delight because I work quite closely with him. He he does a lot of the descriptions for the show, he helped me with a lot of uh research behind the scenes, does a huge amount actually on Facebook as well. So Andrew is the other person, he is my yin to my yang, aren't you, Andrew?
SPEAKER_02I I try and help where I can. So and I enjoy it, I enjoy helping out and you know, researching articles for the Facebook page and and listening to the the episodes before they go out and doing the description. So I'm always happy to to help out. And uh you seem to be the busiest, busiest in excess fan on the planet. So anything I can do to make your life a little bit easier, I'm I'm happy to do so. I'm happy to step up and help out. So anytime.
SPEAKER_00No, thank you. Although I I have got a leg injury trying to slow me down, but it's not gonna slow me down. And here we are. I think I'm up at six o'clock in the morning talking to you over there in Scotland, and it was like 10 o'clock at night, so we're quite committed, aren't we?
SPEAKER_02Yes, half ten, that's that's fairly early for us. We've we've got we've done this before and it's gone past midnight, so this is this is early doors, this is nothing.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Andrew. So I'm pretty excited about this because um even though I am in an XS fan, and I would say that I'm that collector, then you look behind me and that you can see all my collection. My collection is more like posters, and um, I collect a lot of um information, books. Um, I do have a lot of the records. I don't have all of them, I must admit, I have them all on digital, but you're you're more so that you will have the the the first print, you will have the the copy from all around the world, and you'll have the 12 inch and everything. I'm not at that, I always say I'm not that big a fan when it comes to this because you know what it's all about. So tell me, Andrew, where do we start in all of this?
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, that's a good question. Where do you start? I mean, as a as you know, a collector could be one of many different types. You could be a collector of just t-shirts, you could be a collector of posters, you could be a collector of press cuttings and articles, or you could be like me, which is an all-rounder, which you just you collect everything and anything, which which you know is not always easy because I have to sort of accept that I'm never going to own it all as much as I would love to own everything, it's just it's just not gonna happen. But you know, I I keep sort of plugging away and I keep adding to the collection. Um, because like I said, I'm a bit of an all-rounder and I'll and I'll collect practically anything and everything. Um, not so much the reissues, it has to be said. I I tend to avoid the reissue stuff. Um, because I kind of look at it and I think, well, that's 50 or 60 pounds on a reissue, and I could spend that on something vintage. So I tend to avoid the reissue stuff um and concentrate on on the vint on the older stuff, if you like.
SPEAKER_00But however, however, some of the um like like the Shibusha bar with what um what was what was that the other um what is it about three years ago, had a lot of stuff that hadn't been heard before.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. So I mean for for a lot of people, um for a lot of collectors out there, the the reissue stuff is is is very important, you know. It's it's it's great to have you know remastered versions of of old albums, and and I and I get it, I get I get why that's desirable. And you know, the box sets of anniversary issues of Kick and Live Baby Live, and you know, they all come out fairly regularly and people will buy them. But for me, you know, unless there's stuff on there that's that's new, I I I tend to avoid and and use my money to to buy you know something kind of obscure from Japan or Brazil or or these types of places because you know it's not like I have a vast unlimited amount of money to be spending on this. I've got to kind of pick and choose. And if it's like, well, do I spend £50 on on a reissue or do I spend £50 on a 1988 tour poster? I'll take the poster thanks, you know. So I kind of have to pick and choose. But like I said, as a you know, collectors could be one of a hundred different types, and it could be that you're just interested in, you know, there's people out there that just interested in kick and they'll just buy every bit different version of kick, you know. Oh, there's cherry robins, and there's probably 300 of them, so you know, and there'll be there'll be more in the in the years to come, and and oh, there'll be people that just collect stuff from the Wembley concert, or there'll be people that just collect t-shirts. So what I what I thought I would do for this sort of episode is concentrate on the rare uh physical media stuff, like the CDs and the vinyl. I mean, you could do a podcast episode just on posters or just on t-shirts or just on you know that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00So for this and we will, we will later on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for this I thought it might be a bit fun just to kind of just to kind of talk through some top 10 sort of desirable physical media um uh collectibles that are that you can you know you can hope to hope to find somewhere online. So I thought that would be that would be kind of interesting and a little bit fun.
SPEAKER_00Okay, all right. Let's let's paint the picture first of all. So, first of all, you have been collecting since um you were a child and you went to um Woolworths, wasn't it, in the UK?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I started I started back when I was 12. Um that was after hearing the band for the first time on the radio, and um saved up my lunchtime lunchtime uh dinner money or lunch money to go to the local Woolworths to buy the kick cassette and that and that started about and that kicked it off. It did it it started like a 12-month sort of um journey of picking out vinyl and and and you know other cassette tapes and stuff because again you're 12 years old, you don't have any money, you know, you're skinned, you know, you might get a couple of quid here and there. So it was really hard, you know, at age 12 to go into somewhere like a big HMV or a big Virgin Mega store and see you know dozens and dozens of vinyl and and not be able to buy any of it. So that was always I always remember doing that, going into the the big record shops and being so disappointed that I could only pick out one with the money that I had at the time. And then I took a bit of a pause but then came back to it in 1993 when I heard the gift for the first time, and that kick-started a collecting phase that's never ended. So it's been going on now since 1993. Back in the dark age of pre-internet, where we are today, where everything's just a click of a finger away. Back in the 90s, back in like 1993, here in the UK, and you know, younger listeners will just they wouldn't understand what life is like pre-internet. When you've got no internet and you're sitting at home and you don't have access to you know all of this stuff that you have at your fingertips, you had to rely on magazines. So in the UK, there's there was uh, or there still is, there's a magazine called the Record Collector. And if you buy the Record Collector magazine at the back, there's all these classified ads, and it's people selling stuff, and it's just people listing stuff that they were selling. And back in those days, if you saw an NXS vinyl, you'd have to write to that guy and reserve it, and then they would write back and say it's reserved, send in your check, and then you send your check to the seller, and then they would cash it, and then they would send you the vinyl, and the whole thing would take about two, three weeks for it to that transaction to complete. But that's what you had to do. You had to kind of write away and buy stuff, um, you know, not like today, where it's just all on your fingertips. So um that or going around car boot sales or record fairs, you'd have these specialist record fairs in in usually in some dodgy car park in some dodgy town, and you'd go there and you'd look through all these boxes of vinyl to see if you could pick out anything. And that's how that's that's what you had to do back in the day before the internet. And then when the internet came along, well, that was Pandora's box. That was Pandora's box opened when the internet came along. Because then you were like, Oh my god, all of this stuff that I didn't even know existed, you know, all this obscure Australian stuff and all this obscure Japanese stuff. Um, you know, you the the bubble was burst and it was like, oh, it's all up for grabs now when the internet came along and and um and I'm thankful for it. Poorer for it, but thankful for it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I know. It's it's the I don't I don't need it, but I want it in my collection. Yes, yes. I I I know I completely understand that. And uh with me with posters, it's like how much how much space on the wall do you really have left?
SPEAKER_02I know. Yeah, posters, posters are uh uh are uh a separate podcast all in itself, to be fair. Um, because the there's hundred hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of posters going all the way back to the Farris brothers, to the very first in XS posters back in the late 79, all the way through to you know the that the last tour that they did. So there's there's there's a ton of posters which are all highly collectible.
SPEAKER_00Well, I yeah, I uh I had bought and I'm very excited uh a um a collection from Japan from um when they were over there doing the um uh the original sin videos and stuff, and it's all in these Japanese magazines, like photos I've never seen before. It's awesome, I can't wait. Obviously, won't be able to understand any of the language, but the pictures will be good. Um, but then again, you with my AI glasses, I can just say, hey, can you read this to me uh in a language and it'll be able to take it? Such an amazing world we live in now. Hey, that we got all this at our fingertips. Before we go on, I just want to dedicate this episode to Mary Woods. Mary Woods um was at the time probably the biggest collector of InXS. She categorized everything um so so much that she sold her collection back to InXS, who have used her collection to do many other um like rollouts for different things and going through um from oh right from the beginning. She also was um the lead, one of the guys that um also started one of the fan clubs, which was called Into In Excess. I think you were part of that as well, was you, Andrew?
SPEAKER_02No, no, I didn't come to that quite late, no, but I did uh have um I did uh get I was in touch with Mary and after she was interviewed uh by Ewan Hayden, I got in touch through the podcast and got in touch with uh Mary and we had some dialogue and um she sent me her um uh her lists of everything she had that she gave to the band. So I've I've got her sort of PDF files of that lists everything that she has.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm so glad you've got that. I've got that because uh unfortunately we lost her last year um to a very awful um awful time. Um so um bless you, Mary. Um so the other people that we have to mention is Pedro and David. Um Pedro and David are a bit of a force. They've got um a page called Um In Search of It in Excess. And if you're not on it, if you're a collector and you're not on that, you're you're you're really missing out, aren't you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a great page. Um uh I I mean with Pedro, I I used to listen to your previous podcast, and it was Hayden that always used to say he did the news section. Um, if there was some new release coming out, he would always say, Oh, Pedro will be will be getting the two or three different versions of that. I always remember thinking, who's this Pedro guy? And and so I I think I actually got in touch with Pedro um th through uh a different website and I said, Are you the Pedro that Hayden keeps mentioning? He said, Yes, I am. And he said to me, Oh, look, you know, if you if you've got a collection, then come on board to the to the in search of in excess page. And I thought, no, I'm not gonna bother. But I'm glad I did, I'm glad I've I've been able to share a small proportion of the stuff that I've got, admittedly. But I've been glad to go on there and share it. And they're a good little community, and I'm glad they put that page together. So anybody who's got even a mild interest in some of the collectible stuff that's out there, they're well worth looking out and joining. So it's a good little community of people um helping out and sharing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you've got your Michael Spriggs in there, and uh Richard Sipkin pops up now and again with some sort of rare photo with a signature on it from uh Michael and the boys. Yes, um, they're great. And and talking about David Gaunt, hello David, he always listens up, uh he's a postman in Derby. He's always listening on his post random, so I'm sure he'll he's giving a little smile there. We've created a group chat for the UK guys that are collectors and in XS fans. And for the 50th, you're going to hopefully um get together. Um, is that right as well? So if there's anybody out there that is from the UK, get in touch and we'll put you in the chat group too to see what's going on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I think um I think people are sort of conscious now that next year is the 50th anniversary. And you know, as as much as I'm sure there'll be something happening in Australia in all likelihood next year for a lot of us, that might be just you know a flight too far. Um, you know, the way things are going, it might not be affordable. So perhaps the next best thing will be to have a you know a get together in the UK somewhere, even if it's just to kind of see a UK tribute act or to find a good pub somewhere that can show a screen and of a a live gig or something, just so we can get together and you know and and and uh catch up and and get to get to kind of have a chat with like-minded fans. So that's that's probably on the cards, I would have thought it needs someone like you to organize it, be that's the only thing. I think a lot of people will say that's a great idea, but then nobody does anything.
SPEAKER_00So well, I'll come to the party. I if it's in October, I'll come over and um spend some time there as well. Because I'm back to the UK. So if we can do it, then I think that works with you, with your um Airbnb as well, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so as I'm sure a few listeners will know, I run a bed and breakfast here over on the west coast of Scotland, and I have a season that runs uh April to October, and then between after that date, I'm sort of feet up with not much to do.
SPEAKER_00So and party at yours then.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, you're all you're all welcome. So um, yeah, come on up.
SPEAKER_00All right, okay. Well, let's get back to what we were going to talk about. Uh quite introduction. 20 minutes later, I'm sure you've all like fast forwarded into this bit, what the blumette they're all going on about. Um, okay, so we're gonna do a bit of a top 10 as well. How do you want to do this, Andrew? Do you want to start with the top 10 or the rarities?
SPEAKER_02What we're gonna start with, we're gonna start with a disclaimer because I because knowing how social media works, I think I'm leaving myself open to uh an army of fussy NXS collectors to be on their keyboards apoplectic with rage that I didn't just have to laugh. You know, or why on earth did you pick that one? Or why so you know how it works. So I thought I thought before people have a tantrum, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna make a couple of little disclaimers. So the first thing is I I do not claim to be the number one world's leading authority on this stuff. I'll because I'm just not, and I'll leave that I'll leave that claim to other people, you know. Um this is just my experience of collecting over many years, as as I said before. And and so it's just intended as a you know, kind of a bit of fun in a way, but also if people were serious about collecting some of the rarer stuff, then this might be a good list to use to pick off you know some of the more obscure, some of the more rarer things that that are out there. And um, yeah, it's a good starting point. And and yeah, it there'll be stuff there that people might find difficult to find. There'll be stuff there that people might be able to find quite easily. So hopefully it might it might prove as a good sort of um a good starting point, like I said. And then the other thing with this list is, and we mentioned this at the start, you know, you can collect just about anything, you know, posters and t-shirts and gig tickets and backstage passes. There's so much, but rather include any of that stuff. This will just be physical musical media, so vinyl and CDs and then that type of stuff. So it's not gonna include any of the t-shirts and posters and promotional stuff that the record company would put out, like the the suicide blonde Barbie doll, which you might have seen pictures of. Not going to include that sort of stuff, that's a podcast for another day, and then lastly, uh if you were gonna do a list of top 10 in XS rarest, really it would just be a top 10 list of test pressings. And what I mean by that is if back in the days when you used to go to a record store and pick up that vinyl, you know, that need you tonight vinyl, that suicide vinyl, the factory that produces that vinyl, before they press the big green button and produce 10,000 copies of that vinyl, they'd do some test pressings to make sure that the plate was was correct and there was no issues with the music on the vinyl. And these test pressings are extremely rare, they'll only do a dozen per single. And some of the older singles, you know, like Just Keep Walking or whatever, there'll be test pressings for those, and there'll be virtually none of them about there, one or two perhaps. So, this list really, if you're going to talk about the most rarest stuff, it would just be test pressings and acetates and advanced discs and white label pressings and all that sort of stuff. So, again, I'm excluding that because it's it'll be boring. People will be switching off, going, Why are we talking about test pressings? That's not interesting. So it's none of that, it's just gonna be stuff that I think people would have more of an understanding of rather than some of the really obscure acetates and test pressings and advanced press and all that sort of stuff. So we're gonna ignore all that and just concentrate on stuff that I think people would would would recognise. So that's the disclaimer out of the way. Before I launch into my top 10, I think I'll do just do some honourable mentions because when I first had to think about this topic, I I started writing some notes, and there was probably 50 or 60 rare collectibles um that I came up with. And of course, I only wanted to do a top 10. So there's lots that I excluded, um, but I think they're worth there's a few, a few worth just briefly mentioning, because I know people will have these, and um it'd be nice to give them a shout out. So there's just a couple I wanted to give a mention before I go into the top 10. So um the first would be everything. Um that's a UK cassette single. Don't see many of those knocking about. Um, it didn't perform very well in the UK, that single. So the cassette version is quite rare. Similarly, if you've got it, then you then you've done well to grab a hold of a copy. It took me probably, I only got my copy last year. Um, and I've spent a long time looking for that. So if you've got one, then that's that's that's definitely you definitely do well to have that. Same with Freedom Deep. So Freedom Deep was released in Australia, the cassette version of that is very rare. Um, so if you've got one of those, then it's worth hanging on to. Um, there's a Mexican promotional CD for Make Your Peace. That's quite rare. That's worth a shout out. There's a Polish promotional CD for God's Top 10, that's quite rare. That's worth looking out for. There's another promotional CD for Just Keep Walking with Dan Sultan when you uh original Sin um compilation. There's a CD you could buy of the Just Keep Walking song from there. That's quite rare. There's Afterglow, the Hindi version. There's a CD of that that's quite rare. Worth giving that a shout out. Uh Just Keep Walking. There's a UK version of that that's quite rare. There's Australian picture sleeve, and there's a UK picture sleeve. That's quite a rare one. Uh look out for that if you see it. Um, and what else? There's a whole bunch of box sets, bitter tears box set, a suicide blonde box set, an X box set, a greatest video hits box set. They're all quite rare. And then there's lots of South American and Japanese vinyl, they're always worth looking out for. I'm not going to list them all because there's quite a few, but there's quite a lot of rare pressings there from those different countries. And there's also um one of my favorites that didn't make into my top 10, but I'm going to give it a shout-out anyway. And that's the Full Moon Dirty Hearts album visual. Now, everyone knows that didn't get an official release, it was just broadcast on TV. And you can you can buy, also you can find, I should say, advanced VHS copies that were sent to record stores so they could play in their shops and stuff. But there is actually a version that was produced and it was given out as a gift to people that attended the Billboard Music Awards in 1993, and it comes in a slip case with a picture sleeve, and that's quite a rare VHS to get hold of, and that's probably as close as you'll find to an official release of the album Visual. So that didn't make onto my list, but I wanted to give it a shout out because as everybody knows, I'm a big fan of Full Moon Dirty Hearts.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's what there's just so much to talk about then. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Like I said, there's probably 50 or 60 that I that I listed, and that that was just to kind of cover some of the bases that I think people would expect me to put in this list, but sadly haven't made into my top 10. But they're all worth a good shout out. So that's um that was just to kind of give give a bit of a quick roundup of some of the other stuff that's out there that's quite rare. So look out for that. Um, I hope I've covered myself there. So if we're all happy and ready, we'll start at number 10. Okay, let's go. All right, so this one really couldn't shouldn't come as much of a surprise. So for number 10, I picked Simple Simon. Yes, um, the French seven-inch of Simple Simon. So, as people will know, that was in XS's very first ever single, a very first seven inch, and it was released in Australia, didn't have a pincher sleeve, but in France, it had a very funky colour pitcher sleeve with Star Rock on it. We did do a post recently on Simple Simon because that came out in May 1980. So people go back onto your Facebook page, they'll see a picture of it. But that over the years, it maybe pops up on eBay once a year or so, maybe once every two years. And getting hold of a copy of that in good condition is quite difficult.
SPEAKER_00Can I stop you there? On the B side of that, is we are the vegetables, is that correct? That's right. Okay, right. This is something that keeps me up at night and wakes me up, right, Andrew? Me, not when I first became doing the podcast, and oh no, probably before the podcast, I came across this on eBay, and I was like, oh, never heard this song before. Anyway, I was speaking to Tim at the time, and I showed Tim, and Tim went, Can I have it? Can I can I buy it? I was like, Oh, but I want it, but then this is Tim Ferris, I better let him have it. So I let him have it, and then I find out it's probably one of their rarest things. Well, if anyone's gonna have it, I suppose Tim Ferris should have that one.
SPEAKER_02Desirable because of its funky cover and the fact that um it's it is genuinely fairly rare. Probably cost you in sterling about, I don't know, maybe £100 to get one in good condition, maybe a little bit more. Um, I've seen a lot of these and the front covers all crease because the the paper that they used was very thin, so it easily gets pressed and and um and messed up. So to get a good get one in good condition is quite tricky. So I've I've put that at number 10. Um, and I think a lot of collectors out there will know exactly the the seven inch to which I'm referring. What I would mention about the Australian version is this is going to get a little bit of a bit obscure, but in Australia, you can you can buy simple sign and we are the vegetables, and it didn't have a front cover, but the vinyl had has the inner sort of circle where you put the where you put it on the record player, and it's got the deluxe logo on it and all the rest of it. Well, in the bottom right-hand corner, most Australian copies have got the band name INXS in lowercase and the X is in capital, right? Yeah, there is a there is a variant where the INXS is in full caps, and it's the same um logo that they use on other deluxe records like Stay Young and Just Keep Walking. So there's actually two versions of the Australian Simple Simon, and the one with the all caps INXS is very rare. Um, I only know one of those. So um it's that's that that particular variant is much rarer than the French version. So if anybody has got an Australian simple simon, go and look at the label on the record to see what the band name looks like. If it's lowercase I, n and s and a capital X, that's that's the one you get more regularly. But if it's full caps, I nx, that's quite a rare one.
SPEAKER_00Andrew, you're a wealth of knowledge. Right.
SPEAKER_02Number nine on my list, and you've got it because you showed me there when you went through your vinyl, is Knight of Rebellion. That's the Australian seven inch.
SPEAKER_00I've got the Pedros going, they should all be in sleeves, B. Well, most of them are. Hold them with kid gloves.
SPEAKER_02I think with that choices number nine, I think this is where the controversy is going to start. That's the one. I think there'll be people out there that will go, no, don't agree with this. Uh they would probably say that the simple Simon, the French Simple Simon is rarer than Knight of Rebellion. But I think on the whole, they're they're pretty much they're either more or less evens in terms of rarity. You tend to see them once once a year, once every couple of years they pop up. Um but I've I've sort of put Knight of Rebellion just slightly above uh Simple Simon, just because probably on balance, that's you see that less often. So, but that's that's a reasonably tricky one to get hold of.
SPEAKER_00And then on the B side it's Prist Pristoria, which is one of their um instrumentals.
SPEAKER_02So you have that, so you've got number nine.
SPEAKER_00Good, good on me. Yes.
SPEAKER_02All right, and then uh moving on to number eight. Now this is this is a little bit obscure, um, but people will be familiar with the song type. Which they released as a single in 2002, and that was used to sort of spearhead the years slash definitive compilations that came out. You know, these are the greatest hit compilations. Well, they released a single type, and you can find lots of different versions of that. This Australia had a limited edition single, and there's lots of promotional versions, but there was a version that was due to be released in Germany, and it was pulled, so they withdrew it from sale. I don't think it even made it into the stores. And unlike a traditional CD that comes in like a jewel case, you know, the plastic cases, and you open it out. Well, this came in like a glossy seven-inch sleeve, and when you took the CD out, the C D top is designed to look like a record, and this CD included two mixes that I don't think you can find anywhere else called small and tall mixes. And um I've only ever seen two copies of that come up for sale, and I bought one of them, and I know somebody else who has one. I'm sure that other I'm sure there's other collectors that have got this, but I've only ever seen that a handful of times. So for number eight, I put the a German withdrawn C D of tight that comes in quite a unique sleeve and and this is number eight, and we're already talking about something that's was withdrawn, then is you right, okay.
SPEAKER_00God knows what number one's gonna be then. Okay, right. I'm I'm I'm in. Let can't let it go. What's number seven?
SPEAKER_02Number seven, number seven, this is one of my personal favorites. I actually quite like this one, and again, I'm I I think this will be well known amongst collectors' circles. Uh, but for number seven, I've picked a Hong Kong promotional 12-inch of Suicide Blonde. So if the internet is to believe, and of course you can't always believe the internet, but if you believe what's said about this particular pressing, they only produce 50 of this, and it comes in. Now we all know the Suicide Blonde single, you know, the silhouette of the ladies and all the rest. Well, this came in a completely unique picture sleeve, it was a black and white picture of the full band, and it had IN and a big X in red and an S across the front and Suicide Blonde, and that was used for promotional purposes, so it was never intended to be sent out to the shops for general sale, it was sent out more than likely sent out to um to radio stations and to digays to play, and so there's allegedly only 50 of those, and there's currently one on sale. So if anyone wants this, if you go onto eBay and search in excess suicide blonde Hong Kong, you'll find one and it's £150. That's about 300 Australian dollars, which is quite a good price, I would say. That's quite a reasonable price for that.
SPEAKER_00For something that's so rare and there's only 50 off there. Yeah, again. I wonder if it's still there.
SPEAKER_02You tend to see a bit like um a bit like Night of Rebellion, a bit like simple cyber, maybe once a year they they sort of pop up, which would lead to me to believe you know the 50 figure might not be right. But um, it's certainly very rare. And um, I I got my copy years ago, and I've seen a couple of other copies come up since, and there's one currently on sale. So if anybody wants to get number seven on my list, which is the Hong Kong promotional 12-inch of suicide blonde with a unique picture sleeve, is currently on sale on eBay.
SPEAKER_00Right. Thank you very much, Andrew. Right. Okay, so moving on. Can I can I just stop you? So if if somebody had a rare copy and it was signed by one of the band, does that make it even more rarer or not? Um I guess it's people want things like Christine, you know.
SPEAKER_02I think there's two schools of thinking on this, isn't there, really? There's those that would want it pristine and not signed, um, because the perception is that that would devalue it. But then there's there'll be others that would prefer it to have the full band signatures, including Michael's, because that would increase the value. I think if you had it signed but without Michael, that that might devalue it for some collectors, but everyone's different, I guess, when it comes to that. You know, people love signatures and that might be what they want to buy it for, whereas others want it pristine without those signatures because it's a unique sleeve. So I guess it's swings and roundabouts, really.
SPEAKER_00Um and I suppose I don't know if you've been watching the internet lately, but um Kirk is um like becoming the number one um in his saxophone player, um, and um the the iconic song of Never Tear Us Apart. If his signature came up on Never Tear Us Apart single, or that I think that would be a bit of a clinch, wouldn't it? Really?
SPEAKER_02So yeah, just because that song is so iconic and his part in it is so iconic. So that would make perfect sense. And yeah, speaking of Kirk, I hope he's listening. I hear I hear he is a big collector as well. So I'll be interested. If he is listening, you could reach out to to UB and see how many of these that he has in his collection. Um, so it'd be interesting to see what he's got here if any of this stuff is brand new to him, you know. Um so if you need a picture of any of this stuff, let me know.
SPEAKER_00I think a few of them are. I think Gary and Tim are quite good at collecting this stuff as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, quite right. Um, so number six, then again, this is we talked, I talked earlier about stuff that you can buy from all the different territories of the world, like Brazil and South America. Um, so this one's a Japanese release, and this is uh Elegantly Wasted and the Greatest Hits. So, what they did in Japan, they did this promotional two CD set of Elegantly Wasted and the 1994 Greatest Hits album, and it came in a cardboard slip case holding the two CDs together, and it comes with a very fancy book clip. And the pit the the picture that they use for the cardboard sleeve is of it's taken from the elegantly wasted photo shoot. You'll be familiar with the guys all dressed up, and it's the the the whole six of them sort of lined up, if you like, in the desert, uh, rather than what you would recognise as being the elegantly wasted cover, you know, with the car and the girl and everything. So it came in a unique cardboard sleeve, and in that sleeve, there was both elegantly wasted and the greatest hits compilation. Um, and in all my time collecting, I think I've seen so that I mean that came out in 1997. I think since 1997, I've seen three copies of that. So just three. Um, and and it's probably if you saw one of those, it's probably worth I don't know, maybe £100, £200, that sort of region, anywhere between £100 and £200. So that's a that's quite a tricky one to come across. So if you've if you've got in your collection there the Japanese two C D set of elegantly was and the greatest hits, that's worth hanging on to.
SPEAKER_00Whoa, okay. One of my favorite songs as well.
SPEAKER_02So we're now into top five. This is the nitty-gritty now, and I think most people out there listening, the Michael Spriggs of the world and the Pedros, will be like, right, we're getting to the point at the end now. This is the have I got it that I'll be that that I either I've either got and I cherish or that I wish I had. So um so at number five, um, I picked Merry Christmas, the fan club seven inch. So, as most people I think will know, back in the I think it was 1984, the the issued for the fan club, a song called Merry Christmas. I think Kirk sang it. And um what people might not know is there's three versions of that. Oh, in Australia, if you can picture it, it it didn't come in a sleeve, a picture sleeve, it came in a plain sleeve, and then the inner circle of the vinyl, it was the band names in a circle, went go round in a circle, and they're printed in blue. So you had John and Andrew and all the rest of it printed in blue, and and you that that copy comes up maybe once every couple of years, that will appear, but there's also the same single, but it's in red, so the names are printed in red, and I've only ever seen that once. And Michael Sprigg has that.
SPEAKER_00I don't think he'll let that go.
SPEAKER_02No, he will, I don't blame him. So there's the so that's the two Australian, and then there's an American version, and the American version doesn't have the writing, but it has a sleeve, and stamped on the sleeve is Atco Records and the address in America. I think it's New York Plaza. So there's those three different variants of the same song, Merry Christmas. And I think most serious collectors of in excess would recognise that Merry Christmas 7 Inch is one of the really hard ones to get hold of. And I think if that appeared in an auction on eBay, there'd be quite a lot of demand for it. And I think that would go for any one of those different versions would go for north of 200 pounds or 400, maybe a bit more. So if you've got that tucked away, that's again, that's that's you're lucky and well worth well worth hanging on to.
SPEAKER_00Right. Wow. Woof. And that and that's Kirk singing, which is quite rare just to have him singing that as well. Although I mean the whole band are singing on it, but it's mainly him.
SPEAKER_02Mainly him, and it's a very good Christmas song. So maybe we should start a campaign to have that uh reissued for Christmas uh next year, 50th anniversary, and all that. Why not?
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_02So number four here. Um, again, collectors will be familiar with the name, but decadence LP that was issued back in 1985. And again, there'll be people out there that hear me say that, and they'll be going, no way, Andrew, is that rarer than some of the other stuff? But with the decadence, you'll be familiar with the cassette tapes that come in like a cigarette packet. So I'm not talking about those. And there's also an LP version that's allegedly, and I think this is nonsense, by the way. I don't believe this for one second, but allegedly there was only 250 copies of this LP printed. I think that's rubbish. I think it's more likely 2500, and I'm not talking about that either. So I'm not talking about the decadence cassettes, and I'm not talking about this supposedly limited edition 250 copies only LP. The one I'm talking about is there's uh a decadence LP which comes in a plain white sleeve and glued to the front is an A4, it's almost like a press release, and that's glued to the front. And the image is a black and white image of just one of the cassettes with the cigarette style opening. And that was, I think that was um, I think that was issued out of one or two record stores at the time. So I think presumably the record company decided, right, we've got these extra records here. Let's stick a different cover on it for whatever reason and just send the box off to I think it was Red Eye Records or Zounds, I think they were called, and just flog them. And I've only ever seen one copy of that, and I bought it the the the LP that's supposedly limited to 250, that pops up on eBay all the time. So you can go on now and there'll be two or three copies per sale. But this particular one, I don't know the story behind it fully, but there was probably a box or two that they shipped out, and it was in a plain white sleeve, and there was like an A4 um. Paper printed and then stuck on it. And the image was a black and white picture of the cassette with the track listing. And in the corner, there's a little bit of information about when it will be released and when it's hitting the stores. And there's another number, you know, one of 215. Um, so that I think that's where that comes from, that 250. But that particular version, call it a variant, I guess. But that one I haven't seen. I've only seen that once. And I bought that probably 15 years ago. Um, I haven't seen one since. So that's why I put that one on there.
SPEAKER_00And that's number five. Okay.
SPEAKER_02That was number four.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that was number four. Jeez, we're going through these. All right. The top three.
SPEAKER_02Top three. So this will be an obscure one, I think. I think people were like, Well, I'd no idea about that. But I'm gonna I included it anyway because this was for a long time, this was my personal holy grail. And this was the one that got away, and it bugged me for 10 years. This bugged me that it got away from me. I had to wait another 10 years for it to appear. So this the one I put number three is the a US promotional CD for communication. If you think back to the days of Welcome to Wherever You Are there was David Don't Cry, and there was Heaven Sent, and there was Taste It and Not Enough Time, and you know, that those were the specific singles. And what would tend to happen is the record company, whether it was in Australia or the UK or America, they would produce some promotional CDs for each single. So there's lots for Heaven Sent and Baby Don't Cry and and all the rest of the singles there. And then they'd be sent out to music journalists and radio stations. And the idea with these promotional CDs is for the record to be played, to get airplay, or to be written about. And usually these CDs have, you know, for promotional purposes only, not for resale, but they always end up on the secondary market, and you can buy them, you know, fairly cheaply. Um, they're not too expensive, these promotional CDs, usually just one track. Um, but in America, they decided Atlantic decided, well, let's do a promotional CD for communication. Um, don't know if they intended that to be a single, but at some point they decided let's do a one-track promotional CD for communication. And I saw that listed on an old fan site, I think it was called nxsweb.com, and they had a discography section on there. So I it was on their listed communication, one-track CD 1993, and I thought I didn't know about that, and I'd never seen a copy. And I I thought, I thought that's a mistake. So I actually emailed the guy, Neil, his name was, who ran that website, and he sent me a picture. And I thought, you bastard, how have you got that? And I haven't. And and I thought, right, I want to make it my mission to get hold of that CD. So I must have found out about that probably, I don't know, maybe the late 90s or something. And then back in I think it was 2010, I was on eBay, and this chap in America put this listing on eBay, and the description was in excess promo CD bundle, and it was three CDs that he was listing as just a bundler, like a job lot. And the picture that he used, the top promo, I think was disappear. And then just underneath that was another promotional CD, I think the Suicide Blonde or something. And then right at the bottom, there was a third CD, and there was just enough poking out that I recognized that as this communication CD. And I thought, right, I'm having that. And and I watched the auction over the space of seven days, and it was it started off at like 99 cents and it crept up to like $20. And because it was in America, it closed at like 2 a.m. my time in the UK. So I set my alarm and got up at 2 a.m. to do a sniper bid, the last second bid. And I thought, I'm having this. And I remember sitting there and the heart was pounding as the seconds sort of counted down. And I thought, how much money shall I put in for this? It's sitting at $20. What shall I put in just to guarantee that I get it? And I thought, you know what? There's nobody gonna be mad enough to be up watching this, to be putting a bid in. It's surely not. There's nobody mad enough. So I sat there and I thought, right, I'm gonna put a bid in, something really stupid. And I think it was like 350 pounds, like 700. It was just ridiculous. It was a load of money, it was hundreds and hundreds of pounds. I thought, there's no way I'm gonna get outbid here. This is my CD, this is the one I've been after for years, and so I watched the seconds countdown, and I know when it gets to five seconds, you do confirm. I did confirm 350 pounds, 700, and then the page refreshes, and then I'm waiting for the green, you are the successful winner, rubbing my hands. Well, how much does this cost me? And then it comes up, you've been out of bid. You are kidding. You are kidding. You what idiot has bid me other than I thought I cannot believe this. Oh Jesus, man. So, so I that I was gutted, I honestly gutted, properly gutted, and that bugged me for about 10 years until another one appeared on eBay, and this time it was a chap in Germany, and again it was an auction. And I thought, I'm not gonna leave this to an auction. And I got in touch with him, and I think I offered him 50 euros, so about 40 pounds to end it early. And he said, That's fine, I'll end it early. And I bought it for like 40 quid.
SPEAKER_00So there you go, you've saved yourself a bit of money 10 years later.
SPEAKER_02I honestly it bugged me, it bugged me just about every other day. I I I probably couldn't even listen to the song. Or so I'm not listening to the song until I own that that bloody CD. So that was the one that got away, and it really hacked me right off. And I think there's only I only know two of the copies of that that's out there, and um, and my ones, there's three. So they must have only produced, I don't know, 20, 25 copies of that, and how many of those exist now. So that one I put at number three, if only so I could tell my story. A bit of a story, yes, and no story with this next one, but just two more to go. And I don't think these two will come as any great surprise to people listening. So, number two, I've got on my list is searching. The UK withdrawn three CD singles. So back in September '97, after Elegantly Waste did the single and everything, the single, the next one that was due in the UK was searching. And what happened was again back in the day when you used to go and buy CD singles, quite often there'd be part one and part two, and you'd have these two-part sets that you could you could have together over search, and there was going to be three with different mixes and acoustic tracks and live tracks and all the rest of it. And the idea is you go in and you buy the three singles, and they all count towards sales and chart position. But at the end of the day, the record company pulled that release, they decided they weren't going to go ahead with it. But CD1 sort of had leaked out and had made it into a few shops, and you can that comes up fairly regularly. But CD2 and CD3 never made it out of the factory, except for a few handfuls that did, and command a lot of money, especially CD3. I think it is that's the one that you don't see very often. So to have part one, part two, and part three is quite uh quite an achievement. And I think that's probably what you would call the universal grail. That's what has a sort of a general consensus amongst in excess bands, collectors. That's the one that's got a prestige to have in the three sets. Um, and again, there's probably only half a dozen or so people that I know of that have got the the full three. So that's quite a hard one to get. And I think most people listening would accept that that's that's deserve it to be in the top ten. Yeah, so the three-part set of searching. And then number one, we ready. So for number one, and again, I I think there'll be collectors out there that will tend to agree, because I think this is a quite a tricky one to get hold of. But my number one is what I would call the holy grail. And I end up.
SPEAKER_00Do you do you have a copy?
SPEAKER_02Well, unfortunately, I don't, which is why it's holy grail. Uh you said just one looking for it. I think it's quite a few collectors out there that are looking for it. I do know people that have got it, and I am in contact with someone who has a copy, and uh you're in their will. I'm I I'm in active discussion, if you like. So we shall we should just see if that bears fruit. It's always good to know who owns what in the collecting community because eventually these things pay dividends. So um I'm hopeful, shall we say? But I Google the term holy grail, and I think it's worth reading it out because people are like, what's the holy grail? What does that mean in terms of collecting? So I'm gonna read this definition out, right? So the term holy grail refers to a highly coveted ultimate object or prize that is extremely difficult or even impossible to attain. It describes a paramount achievement or rare find that someone passionately pursues, representing the pinnacle of success in any given field. And I think that sums up perfectly my number one here.
SPEAKER_00I've got it, I've got a guess at it, haven't I?
SPEAKER_02Go for it.
SPEAKER_00Am I allowed to guess?
SPEAKER_02Go for it. Go for it, guess.
SPEAKER_00Is it is it the the Father Christmas with Michael's recording inside it?
SPEAKER_02It's not. Oh, okay. That was gonna be my special mention.
SPEAKER_00Okay, all right. So that isn't in there, but yeah. I suppose that isn't in an excess record.
SPEAKER_02That's a special mention. That that is a that gets a special category or to its own, but as an in-excess issued physical piece of media, um, my number one is Underneath the Colours New Zealand seven-inch single. And I think there'll be people out there going, give me a time of applause for that one. So it's fairly obscure. I think most fans wouldn't know that back in 1982, when in XS were in New Zealand um touring with Cole Chisel, they released a single Underneath the Colours from Underneath the Colours, and that is exceptionally difficult to find and get hold of. Probably, I don't know, maybe 10 or so people, I think, have got that. And I think most, if you ask most collectors, we'll watch number one. I think that would be on there. I think I think quite a few people would say I would love to own a copy of Underneath the Colours on the deluxe label, so similar to the deluxe label um pressings that you've got there with the logo and everything, but that is exceptionally hard. Um, seven inch to find.
SPEAKER_01I didn't even know that existed.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've never seen one for sale, never come across one. Um, people have got it, people have you know managed to get hold of copies back when it was issued and have still got it. And I think if that came up for auction, there'd be quite a lot of people competing for that, and I could see that going for four figures. Oh I do.
SPEAKER_00We do have a lot of not a lot, but we have a fair few um listeners listening in from New Zealand. So I I got a feeling they'll be putting the feelers out now to try and find this holy grail of in excess memorabilia. Oh wow, fantastic, Andrew. What a list!
SPEAKER_02Well that's that's that's my sort of personal top 10 of the most sort of coveted, rarest, most collectible physical media. I'm sure there were people that would disagree with some of those in there, particularly down the bottom end of the list. But I think the top, the top few there, there'll be a general consensus that, yeah, yeah, underneath the colours and searching and Merry Christmas um and communications. So they're they're all there or thereabouts. Um and uh yeah, if anybody wants to sell me a copy of Underneath the Colours, do get in touch. Much great.
SPEAKER_00And you're and you're gonna buy it for 40 bucks.
SPEAKER_02Price to be negotiated. Um yeah, I think I think I think if that came up for auction, I think there'll be a lot of people jumping on that. Um, so keep it keep your eyes peeled for for that appearing.
SPEAKER_00Um what other special mentions do you have?
SPEAKER_02Well, the special mention um was the Michael Hutchins Santa doll. Um, as I think a lot of people know, back when Michael was uh a youngster in living in um Hong Kong, he went off to record uh some was it jingle bells, any jingle bells he recorded for a novelty Christmas toy. Yeah, ornament. I again this is this again is probably worthy of the holy grail um sort of title, if you like, because I don't think there's even a picture of that that exists anywhere. I've never even seen a picture of it.
SPEAKER_00Um but there's there is footage of Michael mentioning it saying that he'd pay a lot of dollar for it.
SPEAKER_02He was asked about it and he was very coy. I think he when he was asked about it, he said twinkle, twinkle, little star, but it wasn't, it was jingle bells. I think he was the actual song that he sang, and it was basically from descriptions that I've seen from Tina, his sister. Um, it's a plastic sort of Santa figure with a big round belly, and you insert into the belly a little a little orange disc, and that then sings the song, and that's the earliest recording of Michael. And I I think when um when Richard Lowenstein was doing the documentary, I think his production staff were were out searching for that. Because if you Google Michael Hutchins Santa Dol, you'll come across forums where his production team have emailed, does anybody have this recording of this Santa Dol? And unfortunately, nobody nobody has has got one. So I think if any of those exist, yeah, that that would be that'd be great, even just to see a picture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did I did speak to someone who claimed he had it in his loft and uh he one day he'd go upstairs and go through the loft, but yeah, still haven't heard from him yet.
SPEAKER_02No, so yeah, if anybody has got a bright plastic 19, what would it be?
SPEAKER_0019 60s.
SPEAKER_02Wait, 60s, late 60s, early 70s, Santa Doll with a little orange disc that you put into the belly, and it's got some kids singing jingle bells. Well, that's again, like I said, that's well worthy. Well worthy is a holy grail title. Um, so it'd be great to see a picture if anybody's got one. That's my top 10. I hope people um enjoyed going through and and listening to me prattle on about promos and and variants and and and all this sort of stuff. Um, I find it interesting. It might be a bit of a dry subject for other people, but if you're looking to kind of get involved in some of the collecting side, that would be some of the top, that'd be the top 10 of some of the most desirable collectibles to look out for. And if anybody wants a picture of any of this stuff, I can provide pictures for most of it, just not the number one.
SPEAKER_00Well, Andrew, it's fantastic. I think you might have sparked a few people to start collecting and or to go through their collections and see if they've got any of those in their collections. Um, it's been a pleasure having you on yet again. Um, will you come back and we'll talk about posters or books or sorts of things, isn't there? There's so much we can talk about.
SPEAKER_02We can talk anything we can talk. Posters and t-shirts and promotional items. That would be another good one because when the um when the record company were looking to push an album, especially an album, they'd really they'd produce all this really wacky promotional stuff that they'd send out again to journalists. And again, people would be, I think, would be finding it quite interesting that you could you can buy a welcome to wherever you are survival kit, or you can buy an elegantly wasted morning after kit when you hung over, or there's the or there's a candle for the shine like buzz anthology, there's all sorts of good stuff. So we'll do another top ten of record company promotional stuff. I think that'll be a good one.
SPEAKER_00All right, I've got a personal thing to ask you. Okay, so um, like I say, I'm in Australia and um Andrew is all the way over in Scotland, and shipping can be a bit of a a problem, can't it, Andrew? So you've got a few things sent to me and they're coming over to you, and I put a few bits and pieces in there for you. Come on, tell us what else is in. I I didn't open them. So what what have you got coming? What's your latest, your latest um things that you've uh your loot?
SPEAKER_02So what what so I have I have my uh my own personal list of you know top 10 things that I'm missing, um which are you know uber obscure test pressings, that sort of stuff. I'm not gonna bore you with it. So every now and again I get frustrated that I can't find the stuff that I have on my personal list. So what I tend to do is I'm like, right, I'll just buy something else then. I'll just buy something completely random that I don't have just to fill in a gap, you know, just a gap somewhere in the collection, just so I've got something coming, just for the sheer excitement of having something coming in the post. And quite often I'll I'll I'll go on to eBay Australia and and unfortunately some sellers in Australia don't want to post internationally, they'll only do domestically, which is why I I use you and Richard Simpkin to take take delivery of stuff. I thought I don't I didn't want to use Richard again. I thought I don't want to burn my bridges with Richard, so I'll I'll use I'll use B this time. I I I thought, right, I'm just gonna buy stuff that I don't have. So I bought um what did I get? I bought the Australian version of the Listen Like Thieves tour program, not the worldwide one. I bought the Australian version just because that was the only tour program I didn't have. I've got all the other ones. I didn't have the Australian one, so I thought I'll buy that. And I also bought a poster for the Concert for Life. Oh yeah. Um, so I bought a concert a poster for the Concert for Life just because I thought I like the posters and it was in good condition and it was going for a reasonable price. I thought I'll have that. Um again, just so I've got something coming. I mean, you know, there's nothing else to buy, so you know, there's nothing else happening. I thought I'll just buy that then.
SPEAKER_00It just feels like it's a bit of a problem, isn't it? I know I I have stuff and and um I go, oh that's lovely, but I'm not even gonna take it out of the um the packaging because it looks like so um looked after. And then you forget, oh, I've got I've forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So this is this is kind of the this is kind of the problem I have. There'll be, you know, I can go weeks and weeks and weeks with nothing, and then it'll be like, right, what what can I pick up fairly cheaply that just fills in a gap? You know, it's just doesn't really mean anything particularly, but it just fills a gap. So I had that one, you know, going through all the two programs, you know, got it, got it, got it, need it, got it, got it, got it. Right, I'll just buy it so I've got it. And that's that's what I do. Um, and then occasionally you come up with the stuff. So the other day I bought this this goes on to the the next podcast that we'll do with top 10 promotional stuff. But the other day I thought, you know what? On my list, I wanted this backpack. There's a switched on tour 2006 backpack that was issued. I I think you could you got it if you if you bought a special ticket and and it came with a signed tour program and stuff. And I thought, right, I'll have that. And I just randomly bought this backpack and that arrived not too long ago. And now it's that's just gone into storage. I won't look at that again now for a couple of years. I'm gonna rake it out again. I'm like, oh I forgot I had that.
SPEAKER_00Before I had uh before I did the podcast, I used to have um a page and I and it's still going. I I there's a couple of girls still running it for me, Hutchination. And I used to run t I used to run competitions on there as well. And um and and and I used to be good friends, well, I still am good friends with um with um Tim Barris. And he was going through a lot of stuff because he was moving from the farm to his new home. And he says, look what I found. He says, Um, you can have this for a competition. And I'm absolutely gutted, Andrew, that I actually had this this item in my hand and I had to give it away. It had to go all the way to Malaysia to somebody, and the competition, we were only a small group, the competition. I think we only had about five entrants to this thing, anyway. Um, but Tim Tim picked the winner, so it went to the right person, but it was a bomber jacket from the listen like tears, uh nothing like tears from the listen like um thieves, and it was just absolutely gorgeous, yeah. Heavy, beautiful 1980s bomber jacket. Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_02There's loads of there's loads. I mean, again, that's another minefield in itself. T-shirts and jackets and sweaters and um uh crew worn clothing because the crew on these tours, we get stuff that's embroidered, you know, crew only or lighting crew in excess, whatever. And so there's there's a whole industry um of of uh of collecting uh cl items of clothing, tour t-shirts and and and sweaters and jackets, and there's some grey jackets, there's a great one from the 97 era, there's a great one from the 91 X Factor Tura, there's some great items of clothing, but they're so expensive. I'm sure there'll be um collectors out there that have a vast collection of t-shirts, and that that's a that's a part of my collection that is thin, shall we say? I I concentrated more on the vinyl and the CDs and the posters, and with the t-shirts, you you're never sort of too sure unless if it's like a Timu knockoff or reproduction. Oh the genuine stuff, it can be it can go for a lot of money, and so there's certain ones that I picked up along the way that I really wanted, but I haven't sort of dived down that rabbit hole of and they are very expensive.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, t-shirts. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's I guess once I've sort of finished with all the physical media stuff, I'll probably turn my attention to t-shirts, but um, yeah, that's a long way off yet. I've still got a long way to go, I think.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, Andrew, yes, you'll have no money left and no. I hope your wife isn't watching this um or listening to this because you'll go, Andrew, I think you've got a bit of a problem now, you've got to stop, gotta stop.
SPEAKER_02I think she I think she accepts that you know it's uh it's uh it's it's never gonna end, you know.
SPEAKER_00Part of the marriage.
SPEAKER_02She she uh yeah, I think she's like, well, you know, do you you just keep a catalogue of all the valuable stuff so that when you you know when you're no longer here, I can flog it. I can flog it on the collector's page.
SPEAKER_00Good lady. I was thinking I was thinking of this because you um you were you we've talked about it before that um you you helped with the um the book that came out a couple of years ago, the Calling Ornations book. And with the box set, there was something called the gig guide, uh the gigography, sorry. And um and we have a couple of copies, don't we? So we we are going to be giving some of those um uh away in some competitions. Um so how about can you do one that would have the category or the top ten or or or something? Would you be able to do something like that? Do you think? I think a lot of collectors might want something like that, like they can physically look at because watching and listening to us is one thing, but to actually have something printed out.
SPEAKER_02A guide, yeah, I could do that. Yeah, I could I could I could knock up a guide that explains a little bit of the background of these these these these ten that I mentioned, plus some of the special mentions and the Michael, the Michael Santodol, I could um produce a little PDF um if people would find that useful. So that wouldn't take me too long.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I reckon that'd be quite good. I know that I'd like that in my collection because it would be like the the bit that um instead of me categorizing, I can just like tick it off. Yep, got that, got that, you know.
SPEAKER_02I mean, so back in the day, it's it probably is updating now, but um I I did my own Excel spreadsheet of every vinyl and every single and every CD and every cassette issued anywhere in the world, and it's pages and pages and pages and pages long, and then I categorized the rare ones and and so you can filter it by rare, and then there's degrees of rarity, you know, is it a five, four, three, two, or one number one is like the the mega rare stuff. So I I've got like you're already there, yeah. I've got and these updates, I haven't I haven't because of all the reissue stuff. I stopped doing it, but um it's it's it's a yeah, it it was my own personal Excel spreadsheet of probably it was there was thousands of stuff on there. You know, think how many copies of Kick there are, there's probably 400 of them, and how many copies of Suicide Blonde, there's probably another 50 of those, so it all adds up, and so it was right from the beginning, you know, um simple Simon test pressing to all the way through to the more recent stuff. I think I stopped doing it about five or six years ago and updating it. Um but I could do a simple one, I could do a simpler one, which is just some of the rare stuff we talked about, if people would find that helpful.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and then if you're a patron to the show and you are a um platinum, silver or gold, we will get you a copy of that or a link.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sounds good.
SPEAKER_00Okay, thank you, Andrew, once again. And uh yeah, uh an hour and a half later, um, we we succeeded to get through the top 10 and a few other bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_02I do worry for you that there's going to be listeners who are like, oh my god, that was that was hard work. I'm glad I got to the end there. What a slog.
SPEAKER_03So my god, it doesn't he go on, man. So don't get him on doom until there'll be a petition. Stop him from coming on.
SPEAKER_00When you're recording this late, it's hard to um sort of wind down now. So uh are you gonna have a nice little nightcap before bed?
SPEAKER_02Um, so what's that? 10 to 12. So I'm looking, I don't have a breakfast service to do tomorrow, so I can I can take it easy tonight. Usually I with the bed and breakfast, I've got a breakfast service to do. So I think I might I might go and have a little celebratory beer before uh before uh before I head off to bed. And once this goes out, I can look forward to all the online abuse I'm gonna get.
SPEAKER_00You won't. You you'll probably get more friends, I reckon.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's well, that's good. So yeah, we I look forward to that. I'll look forward to that.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, I'm glad you're my friend.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, likewise be right back at you.
SPEAKER_00All right, take care, mate.
SPEAKER_02Take care, all right. Cheers, have a good day.
SPEAKER_00Before we wrap up, I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for listening, sharing, commenting, and being part of the Listen Light fans family. If you've enjoyed the podcast and would like to help to keep the microphones on and keep the interviews and bonus content and special projects, we'd be incredibly grateful if you consider being a supporter. The link is in the description.
