Intermezzo #41: Wibbley wobbley stuff...

Besides G-Shocks, there are a lot of other things I like. In my teenage years I was already interested in weird and electronic music. I still can remember how I was focused on the tv screen when Autobahn of Kraftwerk was shown in 1974, while I was 7 or 8 years old, fascinated by those new noises. In 1982 I often listened to a radio program for avantgarde music, called "Spleen". One of the songs that made a big impact on me was the song "The Wonderful World of Terry Wibbley", taken from the album "Go Weird" by the Wibbley Brothers. I really wanted that album, but I live in a pretty emote place, where it was not possible to get these kind of records and also I was just 16 and had not much money to spend yet. I have been searching for this record for years. In the early nineties I discovered a friend of me had this record, so I taped it. No idea where this tape is now, but I don't play compact cassettes anymore for ages.

I had a search on eBay for this record. In March 2006 I found one on auction, but I lost. The final bid of £89.- (€130) was not enough. Some big vinyl collector in Scandinavia bought it. I hope he bought it for the music and not as a potential investment. In September 2006 it happened again. I thought I couldn't loose the auction with a final bid of €215.-. I could. Again a vinyl collector in Scandinavia.

"Star plus Camera"

Funny thing is I received a mail from Ronnie Wibbley a little later. He was amazed this records were traded for these amounds of money. He told me how the record was recorded, specially "The wonderful World of Terry Wibbley".  It was recorded in winter. Some windows of the studio were broken, so it was freezing outside and inside the studio. The studio had received a Roland TB-303 (bass line computer sequencer), so they decided to experiment with it by connecting it to a TR-808. Probably they didn't realize it back then, but this song is the first track ever recorded by using the infamous TB-303. I took all night to record the track, but they needed extra vocals. They asked a friend who lived near and she did the part at the end of the song

"Radio is like a firm, with a lot of branches spreading out. We are all as one in front of the wireless. I have a genuine spiritual  interest in that for: The end of the world... ...people called Kevin, other people, everyone, everywhere..." "We can all fly away in front of the wireless".

In the mean time I found this album on relative good quality MP3, so I could listen to it on my iPhone, but I always wanted to have this album in hard copy. A few weeks ago someone contacted me via G-Peopleland. He had read I was looking for this album, but was outbid twice. He also read that the final prices for this record were pretty high (you can find it in my News section on G-Peopleland in March and September 2006). Long story short, we came to an agreement. He didn't want to pull me out a leg, as he knows I want this record for the music. We agreed a good price for us both (I could maybe have bought a Nigel Silvester instead) and yesterday the package arrived. To my surprise it was really heavy> It seemed the seller had packed it very well. So this is what I found inside:

Did I buy a box of classical music? You might think, but the box was very heavy.

 LOL, 100 Children's song's. Well I don't think I can make Bram happy with this record now...

 Yes, there it is. I still can't believe it. It's a search of almost 29 years finally come to an end.The two "Zauberflöte" records on heavy vinyl were under this record, explaining the weight of the package.

 Do you remember what Ibe Kikuo-san told me? "Never give up!". A wise lesson indeed!

Recently I read there is hope for all those who love this record. Finally the recordings will, almost after 30 years, be released on CD, probably the end of this year! This would be super!