ADMIRAL SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVELL DON'T HEAR IT 100 CLEAR LP + 7" DIE HARD Ghost

$

100

Die hard clear LP + 7" version of this killer album, edition of only 100 copies, very rare mailorder only edition. Full colour gatefold cover. The 7" is housed in its own colour sleeve, and the 7" vinyl is the same colur as the LP. The 7" will be placed in a new inner poly sleeve, in which the 7" cover will be placed in a new outer ply sleeve, and 7" packed outside of its cover. The gatefold will also be placed in a new outer poly sleeve, and both the 7" ans LP packed outside of gatefold to prevent split seams. Shrink remains over gatefold. My very last copy. New

The closest I can get to describing hearing Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s music for the first time is that it was akin to the aural equivalent of stumbling into an 18 year-old male’s bedsit in 1973.

Status Quo, Budgie and Black Sabbath albums are piled on top of the hi-fi; torn centrefolds from Playbirds and Whitehouse are Sellotaped to the walls; Richard Allen’sSuedehead, William Burroughs’ Junkie and Francis King’s Sexuality, Magic & Perversiontumble from the window sill; crushed Courage Light Ale cans and Players No 6 packets form a tower in the corner; filthy, tight-fitting T-shirts and patched-up denim bell bottoms are strewn all over the floor. And there, in the centre, like a Biblical king surveying his domain, is the music lover – a stick-thin, back street Jesus, engrossed in the rolling of his last spliff, flowing hair all but obscuring his chops, the opening bars of The Groundhogs’ ‘Cherry Red’ blowing from the speakers around him like a sucker-punch from Heaven.

Get the picture? Good. The Shovell, as their friends and fans know them, belong spiritually to a time and place we’d all like to believe still exists somewhere – maybe that’s why their no-nonsense take on the progressive metal sound of the early-mid ’70s is so damn accessible. You don’t need a degree in doom-rock or a Masters in metal for their incorrigible clatter to strike a (power) chord – you just need ears, feet and some appreciation of what makes bands and music GOOD.

Some statistics: the Shovell are named after a 17th century English naval commander; Bill Darlington plays drums and is too thin, Louis Comfort-Wiggett plays bass without his glasses falling off and Johnny Gorilla plays guitar and shouts, both loudly; they have been together as a band since 2008 and mates for donkey’s years; their lineage includes more neo-psych, garage, freakbeat and powerpop combos than you could shake a stick at; there are people in Catalunya, Spain still recovering from the Shovell’s May 2009 tour there; their 2011 Rise Above 7”, ‘Return To Zero’/’Day After Day’, sold out instantly and now commands up to £100 a copy; their debut long-player will tear your face off and put it back on inside out, using spit.

OK, so that last bit may be open to conjecture but make no mistake – Don’t Hear It… Fear It! (available on CD and gatefold vinyl with bonus “Euro style” 45 – oh yes) finds the Hastings threesome delivering the kind of greasy hard-rock thrills rarely heard in this climate of blind nostalgia and misjudged authenticity. It’s hard ’n’ heavy, without the marshmallow; it’s old-fashioned yet so NOW that it hurts; it has three songs on side one and four on side two; it has yer actual Tony McPhee off of the aforementioned Groundhogs on it – it’s a rock ’n’ roll album made by people who give two shits and who’ve earned just a little “me” time in the company of your ears. OK?-Rise Above

• Shipping

The primary shipping carrier I use is USPS, although Fed Ex and UPS are also available if requested. Domestic orders will receive tracking at no charge with all orders. International buyers have the option of First Class Mail International, which is basic airmail service and cannot be tracked or insured, or Priority Mail International, which is completely trackable and insured. Registered airmail service is also available if requested. I always combine shipping costs, which is based on the total weight of the parcel, and adds up to large savings on shipping. Please contact me for shipping quotes for multiple items. All orders are safely and securely packed in record box mailers with bubblewrap; additional measures are taken for larger orders, which include additional padding, oversize boxes, double-boxing, and reinforced corners. All opened/unsealed records are packed with vinyl outside the covers to prevent split seams. Sealed records can be requested to be opened and packed in the same manner if requested.

• Payment

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