| A.Matthews |
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| #1 |
Hi,
I am trying to find out some information about a Chris Barber LP, but am having no luck at all. It is not featured on this website as far as I can see.
The album in question is titled "MOB" "The Chris Barber Convention . Hamburg 1968".
The front cover of the sleeve has a photograph of the band stood in the doorway of what looks like a typical American timber framed house, they are all wearing Mafia type clothing and one of the band members is crouching down holding a "Tommy" gun. The photograph is in brown and white sepia effect. In the top left hand corner is the album name "MOB" in pink letters. Across the bottom of the sleeve is "The Chris Barber Convention . Hamburg 1968 ". The top right hand corner has the "Marmalade" logo with the numbers 658 070 above and "Privilege Gravure Universelle" below it. Vertically up the lower left hand side it has "Photo Paragon".
On the reverse of the sleeve on the top left it has "CHRIS BARBER and his Jazzband". On the right it again has the Marmalade logo with the numbers 658 070 GU below it. There are ten tracks on the LP as follows:
I NEVER SHALL FORGET
DOWN HOME RAG
SARATOGA SWING
HARLEM BOUND
GET RIGHT CHURCH AND LETS GO HOME
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE
MACK THE KNIFE
SOME OF THESE DAYS
WORKSONG
WHEN THE SAINTS
On the right hand top corner it has the band members names with the instruments they play and it is in French. It was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky.
Below there is a 7 paragraph write up from Chris Barber, however this is all in French.
This particular LP was given to my father by a personal friend of Chris Barber, It was sent to my fathers friend by Chris Barber himself and is in a brown card envelope with my fathers friends address on the front and Chris Barbers address on the rear, both are handwriiten by Chris. The address on the back for Chris Barber is 90 Wardow Street, London W1.
I apologise for possibly giving too much info, but would love to know a bit more about this album as I can find nothing on the net. If anyone can shed any light on it I would be very grateful !!!
Cheers
Andy. |
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| Andreas Wandfluh |
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| #2 |
Hi Andy
This particular album has been recorded on Wednesday, November 8th, 1967 (!) at the Musikhalle in Hamburg/Germany and this LP is one of my favorites too.
Unfortunately, there are no actual plans (to my knowledge) of reissuing this remarkable concert on CD.
Regards
Andreas |
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| A.Matthews |
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| #3 |
Hi Andreas,
Thank you for the reply regarding the Hamburg album. Would you happen to know if this album was readily available at the time or was it produced in limited numbers? The reason I ask is that I am struggling to find anything about it on the internet and it isn't even referred to on this website! I have looked at the 350 thumbnail pictures of all the Chris Barber albums and it isn't listed.
Is it quite a rare album?
Cheers
Andy. |
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| Ed Jackson |
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| #4 |
If you scroll down the thumbnail covers page (the one where there are over 300 covers shown) to the row where the Great Reunion Concert is in the middle column, you will see two covers for this album immediately to the right of it. I'm not sure when they were released but I have had the rather ugly green cover version for several decades.
I have yet to scan the MOB version -- I only recently bought it myself on eBay.
Maybe this would be a good candidate for the next album feature page (Andreas, are you interested in writing the text?) since there are now three different covers for the same album. Also, I found a photograph from the same photo session as for the MOB cover in some photos that Julian Purser lent to me for the website. |
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| Ed Jackson |
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| #5 |
I forgot to add that I don't know if this is a rare album -- I have seen the newer version for sale several times on eBay. I also think it's a very good album, and what's more it's notable, I think, as being the last recordings of Ian Wheeler with the band before his "sabbatical." Down Home Rag and Harlem Bound would be good candidates for inclusion in a "Best of Barber" list, in my humble opinion. |
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| Andreas Wandfluh |
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| #6 |
Hi Andy
The Hamburg Concert LP album was at that time an ordinary LP available throughout the country. It has later been released again as a Polydor Record and later under the Karussell label in Germany and furthermore as Contour 2870109. So it was definitely not a rare item. I personally own the Marmelade and the Contour versions, but not the Karussell and Polydor ones. According to discussions with other Chris Barber fans it looks like that the Marmelade LP is technically the best one.
According to discussions with Chris there are some difficulties in handling the rights not only of this recording but also of the superb album "Battersea Rain Dance". Hope that one day these troubles will be settled down and that fans could again listen to these great albums.
Best regards
Andreas |
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| Julian Purser |
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| #7 |
Andy,
The Contour Album metioned by Andreas was issued in UK at a very good price, and in the UK was a large seller, and is often for sale on sites like GEMM (www.gemm.com) which is a world wide record for sale site.
Good hunting,
Julian
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| Detlef Meyer |
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| #8 |
hi all you Chris Barber fans,
some weeks ago I found that Polydor album #623268 on a second-hand-market in a little village near Hamburg/Germany. I never saw it before, so I was happy to get it.
The above mentioned description is exactly the same, even the colors of the cover are really congruent.Unfortunately the cover is a little bit damaged, but that doesn't concern(?) the quality of the LP. If anyone wants, I'm able to sent some scans.
If I ever get a good jazz-LP, I transfer it to CD so that I have my own music in my car.
Sorry for my possibly not very good English writing. 
Detlef
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| Andreas Wandfluh | |
