Rockmine Archives

20/01/2025

Today, I thought I'd hark back to a recording produced by George Martin. It was by Mandy Miller on Parlophone R5219 (released in October 1956).

The lyrics of the second verse are as follows:
"Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump"

Who knew?

07/04/2020

I spend most of my working time going through old papers - both news and music. I came across this from January 1962. There's a small box on the front page detailing the previous week's deaths from chest illnesses. It's a staggering 5,128 in England and Wales alone. We got through those times and I'm sure we'll get through the current crisis

06/04/2020

I had intended to start selling old original music papers as birthday or anniversary gifts. With the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems regular trips to a post office are unnecessary. As a result, I'm putting scans of out-of-print papers online. They've all been cleaned then compressed so they can easily be attached to an email and sent to friends or family. The perfect time capsule to celebrate an important date! There is a small charge but scanning, editing and compressing takes time. You'll find the first selection from the 1960s at http://www.rockmine.com/RockMall/DatePapers.html
There will be more to follow from the'60s as well as '70s and '80s in the next few days.

09/04/2019

05/02/2019

Has anyone other than me noticed the incredible similarity between the cover for The Chemical Brothers' new album, "No Geography" and the image of a tank and cloud used for Godley & Creme's album, "Consequences" in 1977?

I've compared the images on my blog page

If religion is the op**te of the people, then rock music is ma*****na for the masses

12/09/2017

There seems to be considerable interest in the Pink Floyd Hyde Park film I have on eBay. As I can only put 12 images on with the auction, I've posted 54 to this page on Rockmine: http://www.rockmine.com/RockMall/PF_HP.html

10/09/2017

Pink Floyd Hyde Park Free Concert 18th July 1970 Unseen/Unbroadcast 8mm Film. Selling with copyright: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142502571859?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

As I say in the information on eBay, I bought this in the early 1980s, intending to do something with it then. Unfortunately, I mislaid the film for several decades. Recently, I rediscovered it and sourced an 8mm projector on Gumtree to allow me to view it and take some images.

The film has never been viewed more than twice in 35 years, never digitised or copied in any way. I've no idea what it's worth, so I decide to auction it on eBay with a fairly high starting price. I'll just have to wait and see what happens!

09/04/2017

There are only two things in this life I never thought I'd see. One was a unicorn, the other was me selling Rockmine Archives. Here's proof of the first. The second is under way!

07/04/2017

After 21 years of Rockmine on the web, I figured it was finally time to get something done about my online shop. Those of you who know me, know only too well that there wasn't one to speak of. Now, however, things have changed.

The Rock Mall http://www.rockmine.com/rockmall/mallmain.html will be fully "live" this weekend but from today, you can have a sneak preview of what's to come. Most of the links are working but everything will be before next week.

Feel free to tell me what you think. If you like it, tell your friends and pass the word on through whatever social media you use.
There's a wide variety of memorabilia. From promo displays and posters to gig and rock film posters; music papers and magazines; daily papers and hoarding posters; colour supplements and underground magazines. There are press release photos; autographed photos and even photographs printed by well known photographers.

Over the next weeks and months, most of what once made up Rockminehome Archives will be online for sale.
I hope you take time to pop in and browse!

The Internet's largest rock music resource.

05/02/2017

Found a photocopy of the contract for The Beatles very first tour under their own name in one of my archive crates. Five dates in Scotland in January 1963. The promoter, Albert Bonichi managed to get an addition to the contract giving him first call on any further tours of Scotland.

The band's fee was enormous - £ 40! I can only imagine what that would have been two years later. Presumably hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I found a rather grey photocopy in two pieces in the Red Shoes Theatre in Elgin about 10 years ago when I was trying to organise a memorabilia exhibition there. That's what the clean version I now have was taken from.

Albert Bonichi's nephew was still the owner of the theatre, which had been the Two Red Shoes dancehall owned and run by his uncle. The nephew ran a print shop next door to the theatre and told me that he'd sold the original contract years before to a big Beatles memorabilia dealer.

So, here you are - one of the most important documents in Scottish rock and pop history. Feel free to re-post. You'll find a larger version here: http://www.rockmine.com/Bonichi63.html

30/04/2014

I've been working on the update to "Rock And Pop On Television" and keep unearthing things on YouTube that I feel compelled to share with you. Today, it's Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, live in Copenhagen, December 10, 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DbsNsK3jY

This is a Danish TV recording of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends performing. This is the rare complete recording in good quality. Note: The "Friends" is really th...