Singles by Electric Eels, Slow Club, Neu! and the Stones all escaped me but considering the queue of around 500 people waiting outside Piccadilly Records just before opening time, I was still delighted to bag a copy of The Flaming Lips' Dark Side Of The Moon.
Gatefold sleeve, clear vinyl, colour inner sleeve - this is the stuff of vinyl nerd dreams. There's even a CD copy chucked in so I can enjoy it in the car.
Easy All-Stars got there first with Dub Side Of The Moon in 1993, with the songs taking to a rocksteady reggae/dub style surprisingly well. You first listened to it expecting a novelty record but the transformation was done with such obvious love and the lyrics rather suited a 1970s consciousness reggae-type vibe.
The sonic approach is very different here but the love of Pink Floyd's original LP is clearly shared.
It starts out with Henry Rollins muttering the lines 'I've mad for fucking years, absolutely years' and it takes on an ominous air. But then Dark Side... was always supposed to about mental illness, so a more dissonant take on the songs isn't so much of a stretch after all.
Rollins supplies the dialogue snippits, Peaches does an admirable job of Great Gig In The Sky and everything gets pleasingly scuffed up and bashed about.
The bass-heavy groove approach that dominated the Lips slightly disappointing Embryonic LP remains the main focus but the sprawling experimental songs of last year are replaced with 41 minutes of tight material that still manages to crams in plenty of sonic exploration.
Dark Side... is a child of the vinyl age and it shows in its pleasing brevity. When it finishes, you want to play it again - how good does that feel in the bloated CD age?
I'll bet it felt pretty good for the Flaming Lips, who seem to have been struggling with their songwriting a little since 2002's Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
The curious thing about Yoshimi... being that it was effectively a four-track EP about a Japanese girl saving the world tacked onto the start of a chill-out album that would sit nicely next Air's Moon Safari. Stick it on from track five next time the vicar pops round and see if you get so much as a murmur of complaint...
Anyway, no man of the cloth would be impressed with the Lips' take on Dark Side Of The Moon and it's all the more fun for it.
Wayne Coyne and co obviously got into this so they could have some fun in the studio with a few pals. As well as Rollins and Peaches, Stardeath And White Dwarves are actually given equal billing on the album cover.
You'd be forgiven for having never heard of them - and its one band rather than two in case you're confused - but the lead singer is one Dennis Coyne, nephew of Wayne, so nepotism is at work here.
Dennis actually takes lead vocals on Breathe and Brain Damage, sounding like a younger, clearer-voiced version of his uncle.
The highlight is probably Us And Them, done with great delicacy and featuring some lovely soulful Fender Rhodes playing.
It underlines what great musicians the Flaming Lips have become, which it is pretty surprising considering that Coyne admits they got as far as their fourth album (1990's In A Priest Driven Ambulance) with no real conviction that they could cut it in the studio.
Imagine any band getting that many chances nowadays...
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