Lot 8SIMON, PAUL -GRACELAND-1986-FIRST PRESS (PROMO) JAPAN-WARNER-NMINT/NMINT

ARABESQUE-ARABESQUE-1978-THE FIRST SCANDINAVIA-TALENT-TLS3051 PRESS.  A very rare Scandinavian original of the first album of disco giants. Arabesque I (Friday Night) is the debut studio album by the West German disco band Arabesque. It was released in 1978 on EMI Electrola in Germany and on Victor Record in Japan. The Arabesque disco group was founded in 1977 (registered in the German city of Offenbach in a recording studio owned by legendary producer Frank Farian). At that time, there was a fashion in Europe for "girl groups” in which female vocals were dominant: Baccara, ABBA, Boney M. The debut album of the Arabesque trio was recorded with the following line-up: Karen Ann Tepperis, Michaela Rose and Mary Ann Nagel. After recording the first record, Tepperis and Nagel left the band, and Jasmin Vetter and Heike Rimbeau became new members of the trio. In 1979, Arabesque joined the seventeen-year-old and still unknown Sandra Lauer, who replaced vocalist Heike Rimbeau. Sandra immediately became an informal leader in the band - in the vast majority of songs, the main vocals belonged to her. Arabesque were very popular in Japan; in Europe, however, until the release of "Marigot Bay" in 1980, the band could not boast of "frenzied" success. After that, they gained real popularity, but they never rose to the "Japanese" level. I must say that the girls from the group complemented each other surprisingly precisely: they seemed to represent "three elements", three different types - dark-skinned Southerner Michaela, blonde Northerner Jasmine and, finally, Sandra with her "Japanese" cut of the eyes.In 1984, Sandra's five-year contract to work at Arabesque expired. She, with the support of her future husband Michael Cretu, decides to start a solo career, and the band, which rose due to Sandra's talent, ceases to exist. In the same year, the band's last album "Time To Say Good Bye" was released. Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter, trying not to miss their chance, create a new band called Rouge, but it was not successful. Rouge disbanded in 1988. Popularity in the USSR. Despite the lack of popularization of disco in the Soviet media, it had a lot of fans in the USSR. Arabesque were one of the favorite bands in Soviet discos. The popularity of the band was so great that in 1984 the Melodiya company released a record with ten songs from different albums. The record quickly became, as they said at the time, "scarce", and it could only be bought with a huge overpayment. Most of the band's songs were distributed across the country in tape recordings. In 1989, in the wake of Perestroika, Sandra was invited to Moscow, where she was greeted by a full house of enthusiastic fans. Arabesque songs are still often heard on Russian radio in retro programs dedicated to the 1980s. ...more

BOWIE, DAVID-ALADDIN SANE-1973-THE FIRST UK PRESS-RCA-RS1001 Matrix A-3T/B-3T Rare British original cult album. Aladdin Sane is the sixth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on April 19, 1973 on the RCA Records label. A follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album he wrote and released from a star position. The album was produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and features performances by Bowie's backing band The Spiders from Mars — Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey — with pianist Mike Garson, two saxophonists and three backing vocalists. Recorded in London and New York during the breaks between the stages of the Ziggy Stardust tour, the album was Bowie's last with the full line-up of The Spiders. Aladdin Sane was released in the UK on the RCA label on April 19, 1973. With an estimated order of 100,000 copies, the album debuted at the top of the UK Albums chart, where it lasted five weeks. In the United States, where Bowie has already had three albums on the charts, Aladdin Sane reached 17th place on the Billboard Top LPs chart.  Tape, which became Bowie's most successful commercial album in both countries at the time. According to Pegg, this was unheard of at the time and guaranteed Aladdin Sane's status as the best-selling album in the UK since The Beatles. In other countries, the album reached the top five in France, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as the top ten in Australia. Aladdin Sane has sold an estimated 4.6 million copies worldwide, making it one of Bowie's best-selling records. The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums notes that Bowie "ruled the [British] album chart, spending an unprecedented 182 weeks on the list with six different titles in 1973." ...more

WILLY TOKAREV - GOLD-1983-ORIGINAL PRESS 2015 -EU-MIRUMIR-MIR100470. A rare anniversary edition of the iconic album. "Gold" is the fourth studio album by Soviet, American and Russian author-performer Willy Tokarev, released in 1983 on the Sava Recording Corporation label in the USA. The producer is Willy Tokarev. At the age of 40, in 1974, Willy Tokarev emigrated to the United States with $100 in his pocket. He was sheltered for 2-3 weeks by the Tolstoy Foundation, headed by Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy. There he was a courier, a cleaner in a bakery, sorted through the Russian library of a millionaire, a newspaper deliveryman, became unemployed because he did not know English well, so he began to learn the language by reading American newspapers, graduated from a nurse's course, learned to drive a car, passed a taxi driving test and began working as a taxi driver to earn money for recording records, writing songs in his spare time, he was robbed four times (once, on Christmas Day, he was almost killed by a black man). He played at Carnegie Hall on a balalaika, which he bought at a souvenir shop on Fifth Avenue for $ 50, then played and sang in restaurants and nightclubs.  In 1979, the first record "And life is always beautiful!" was released, which was not particularly noticed. In 1981, the second album "In a noisy booth" was released, which brought Tokarev fame among Russian-speaking emigrants. In the 1980s, he worked at the Russian restaurant Sadko, and then at the restaurants Primorsky and Odessa, accompanied by Irina Ola. He was called the "honorary Jew of Brighton." Willy founded his own label, One Man Band, and recorded about twenty albums there.In 1989, Willy Tokarev flew to the USSR with concerts. A major role in organizing these tours was played by the famous entrepreneur Viktor Shulman, who himself also performed "Odessa songs" from the repertoire of Leningrad "tape recorder" bards, Boris Sichkin and other veterans of the genre. 70 concerts throughout the Soviet Union were a success. ...more

LAID BACK-PLAY IT STRAIGHT-1985-FIRST PRESS DANISH / HOLLAND-MEDLEY-MDLP6260. A rare original of the cult disco album.  The third studio album by the Danish pop group Laid Back, released in 1985. The album reached number 95 on The Billboard 200 chart.  ...more

URIAH HEEP-RETURN TO FANTASY-1975-CONTRACT PRESS UK-BRONZE-ILPS9335. Matrices A-1/B-1. A rare original of the CBS contract press. Return to Fantasy is the eighth studio album by the British rock band Uriah Heep, released on May 13, 1975 by Bronze in the UK and Warner Bros. Records in the USA. The album is known for the title song "Return to Fantasy". On the eve of the recording, there was another change of composition. Bassist Gary Thane left by mutual consent, because due to drug addiction he was physically unable to cope with a tight schedule of touring and recording. Later, on December 8, 1975, Gary Thane died at the age of 27 from an overdose. He was replaced from Roxy Music by bass guitarist John Wetton, who had previously played in the bands Family and King Crimson. Return to Fantasy is the only album of the band that hit the top ten in the UK charts, rose to 7th place. At the same time , the album received devastating criticism in the British press ...more