Groovy Times talks rare singles with a committed collector/completist whose enthusiasm for the music he started buying at the age of nine in the early 70s has never abated

New releases are all well and good but there are many record buyers who find it a stretch to see past the music of their youth, and Bath-based gig promoter Tim Orchard is one such collector. His ‘vinyl-formative’ years were in the early 1970s and Tim, whose floorboards at home are perpetually placed under stress by the sheer weight of his passion, has a serious glam rock vinyl-buying habit.

Speaking to him nestled cosily between the many crates and record boxes, he picks up on the subject: “When people first hear that I’m into glam they immediately assume I’m a fan of David Bowie or Roxy Music. But, to be honest, I’m not fussed by those two, they’re too arty for me. I’ve always preferred the brickies in make-up side of things.”

While he still gets an instant buzz listening to The Sweet, T. Rex, Mud, Slade and the other regular hit-making acts of the time, his obsession with glam has taken him down a particularly singular rabbit hole, as Tim explains: “Junkshop Glam (JSG) is an offshoot of glam. It’s the 45s of the nearly-but-not-quite glam bands that failed to make an impression on the charts. The acts that never made it onto Top Of The Pops.

“During the prime glam years, let’s say 1971 to 1975, there were in the region of 400 singles released every week. It’s not about the 40 that made it into the charts I’m way more fascinated by the other 360. For me, that’s where the potential lies.”

It’s one of vinyl collecting’s truest paradoxes that the records which nosedived on release are the ones that often accrue the most value, and any number of 45s from succinctly named JSG bands such as Hector, Chunky, Spiv, The Jook and Iron Virgin (see pic below) are now swapping hands for ever increasing prices. The quintessential roster UK labels releasing JSG include Decca, Bell, Pye, DJM, Orange and Philips (“I’m still finding stuff on Philips now that I don’t know about,” adds Tim).

The name junkshop glam was only coined by the former Buzzcocks bassist Tony Barber in 2002. In the thrall of the obscure glam 45s he was unearthing in record shop bargain bins, Barber started playing them to a posse of his mates, and from there a small scene began to percolate. JSG was then brought to the attention of the wider record buying public via an article in Record Collector magazine. A couple of timely compilations – Velvet Tinmine (RPM Records, 2003) and Glitter From The Litter Bin (Castle Music, 2003) – both put together with a guiding hand from Saint Etienne’s ubiquitous retro maniac Bob Stanley, added another couple of firelighters to the JSG flame.

Tim takes up the story: “I started collecting glam and bubblegum records when I was nine, so I already had some of the 45s that appeared on those two compilations. But the ones that had slipped my net I needed to acquire instantly. Back then you could pick up most of the classic JSG 45s for nothing not more than a couple of quid. I remember going to a record shop around that time and spending the whole day in there listening to every single in the place – much to the mild annoyance of the owner. I ended up with 25 singles for not a whole lot of money. As he wrote down the titles in his book he kept muttering under his breath, ‘Never heard of it… never heard of it…’ I went back the next day for round two and he welcomed me with, “Hi Tim, are you back for more glitter from the litter bin’?”

Over the years the value of JSG vinyl has increased steadily and you’ll need a fatter wallet to pick up the original 45s. For instance, Hector’s debut single Wired Up (DJM, 1973), at a push, would have cost you up to a fiver in 2002, but now fetches in the region of £40. It’s a similar story with Iron Virgin’s Rebels Rule (Deram, 1974) which commands a £30 price tag. You’ll pay similar prices for Chunky’s Albatross Baby (Orange, 1973) and The Boston Boppers’ Did You Get What You Wanted (Penny Farthing, 1974). Spiv’s Oh You Beautiful Child (Pye, 1973) has always been an outlier in terms of value and a VG+ copy can go for as much as £150. Not exactly megabucks, but still worth picking up if found sitting pretty in the wild.

However, Tim, who is now a leading authority and one of JSG’s top collectors in the UK, freely admits that the value of the vinyl isn’t the prime motivation behind the scene. “Don’t get me wrong in the past I’ve sold a lot of valuable JSG singles on eBay, mostly to the US and Japan, but as a record collecting scene it’s much more about the determination of an enthusiastic fanbase who want their collections to be as complete as possible. Then there are promos and acetates, there’s always something you might not have. There’s one or two Holy Grails I’m still after…

“I once outbid a member of Milk’n’Cookies, a US powerpop band with glam leanings, to win a copy German release of their only 45 (Little, Lost and Innocent, Island, 1975). When it arrived I felt obliged to ship it over to him in the States.”

Tim, whose total commitment to the scene he loves has seen him play in a band called Glam Chops (alongside members of Art Brut and David Devant & His Spirit Wife) and run several club nights (Glam Racket in London a few years back and ongoing concern Young, Loud & Snotty in Bath). He was also involved in putting together the release of JSG legends Hector’s debut album Demolition (Radiation Reissues, 2021), finally in the racks a mere 39 years after the appearance of the band’s first single. Proof positive, that in the wider world of vinyl collecting what spins around comes around.

A JUNKSHOP GLAM SAMPLER

Is the cream of the no-hit wonder crop still lurking in the bargain bins?

1 Wired Up
Hector
DJM (1973)
£40-£50
Hector may not have made it onto Top Of The Pops, but they did appear twice on Lift Off With Ayshea. Sadly, it still wasn’t enough to kickstart their career, and the band eventually fizzled out. Hector released two stomping 45s on DJM.

2 Rebels Rule
Iron Virgin
Deram (1974)
£30
Edinburgh’s Iron Virgin first single was a cover version of Paul McCartney’s Jet. The band made a decent fist of it, only to see it sink without trace when Macca inconveniently released his own version. Rebels Rule is a sister song to Sweet’s Teenage Rampage, but, sadly, only one of them was a hit.

3 Interplanetary Twist
Screemer
Bell (1976)
£30
Sweet soundalikes Screemer were fronted by Zaine Griff, whose new wave solo career followed a similar chart-free path. After Interplanetary Twist failed to chart the band jumped labels a year later to record a further 45 for Arista (In The City currently has a £4.61 price median on Discogs).

4 Rave ‘n’ rock
Daddy Maxfield
Pye (1976)
£30
When US producers Graham Daddy and Louis Maxfield got together in the studio they didn’t just come up with one of the more perfunctory band names of the era they also created one of JSG’s most beloved slices of vinyl.

5 Little Boy Blue
Angel
Cube (1974)
£30
Brit glam rockers Angel were managed by The Sweet’s Mick Tucker and Andy Scott, who also wrote some of their songs – including second single Little Boy Blue. Those listening closely, given the opportunity, will spot the non-coincidental similarity between this and Sweet’s Fox On The Run. Angel’s first 45 on Cube was called Good Time Fanny.

6 Oh You Beautiful Child
Spiv
Pye (1973)
£150-£200
All of glam’s hand-clapping, guitar-crunching, foot-stomping signatures can be found on Spiv’s one-and-done 45. You’ll be lucky to pick up one of these on the cheap, but the track has done the rounds when it comes JSG compilations. It should’ve been huge.

7 Lazy London Lady
Change
Orange (1974)
£90-£120
Glam rock wasn’t just confined to UK shores as Change, Iceland’s finest purveyors of the genre, bear testament. Four singles on the Orange label, including this tale of a slovenly young woman from England’s capital city, weren’t enough to break the Icelandic glamsters. Debut single Yaketty Yak, Smacketty Smack sounds exactly as you think it might sound.

8 Look The Business
Barry Rolfe
Philips (1973)
£120
With a following wind Barry Rolfe’s second single on the Philips label could, at a push, be labelled as proto-punk. Young Barry certainly cops a punky sneer and his lyrics are spat out aggressively, but his attempt to chart with a bovvertastic terrace anthem fell on deaf ears.

9 Did You Get What You Wanted
The Boston Boppers
Penny Farthing (1974)
£15-£20
The Boston Boppers weren’t a proper band, but rather a pre-fab studio creation comprising of a trio of chart-hungry producers, including Mike Leander of glitterbeat fame. The Boston Boppers’ only vinyl release appeared on Penny Farthing in 1974.

10 Albatross Baby
Chunky
Orange (1973)
£100-£150
Sounding uncannily similar to Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit In The Sky, Albatross Baby failed to chart for Chunky when initially released on Orange in 1973. The Orange label was founded by Orange Amps owner Cliff Cooper in 1960. It was Chunky’s one and only vinyl release.