Lot 67URIAH HEEP-RETURN TO FANTASY-1975-ORIGINAL PRESS 1977 UK-BRONZE-NMINT/NMINT

BRIAN  MAY (EX-QUEEN) + FRIENDS-STAR FLEET PROJECT - 1983-THE FIRST UK PRESS- EMI-SFLT107806. A rare British original by a QUEEN guitarist. The Star Fleet Project is a solo project by Brian May, Queen's guitarist, and a mini-album of the same name. The album, released under the name "Brian May + Friends", features May, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer (then playing in REO Speedwagon), Phil Chen (session bassist who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart) and Fred Mandel (keyboardist Alice Cooper and additional keyboardist in Hot Space Tour and The Works by Queen). "The result is high-octane instrumental compositions in the rock style, which instantly became "royal" and are not much different from Flash with the addition of guitar pyrotechnics." The recordings were not intended for release and were minimally mixed.  "[May] called the Star Fleet Project a 'mini-album' because he considered it... too short to be a full-fledged album, but too long to even be a single." Although the album was not a success at first, by the end of the year it had reached number 35 in the UK and 125 in the USA. ...more

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

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

ABBA-WATERLOO-1974-SECOND PRESS 1976 SWEDEN-POLAR--POLS252. A rare Swedish second press of the iconic album, after which ABBA became famous all over the world. Waterloo is the second studio album by Swedish pop band ABBA, the first to be released internationally. It was originally released on March 4, 1974 in Sweden on the Polar Music label. The album's title track won ABBA the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 and became a worldwide hit, launching the band's career. "Waterloo" won the Swedish qualifying round, and the band represented Sweden in Brighton at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. ABBA won the competition, and "Waterloo" became a hit not only in Europe, but also around the world (for example, taking 6th place in the USA). The album has already been released in Sweden and topped the Swedish charts for 12 weeks, becoming one of the best-selling Swedish albums at that time. In the UK, the album peaked at number 28, becoming the first album by a foreign artist to chart, and performed well in the rest of Europe. ...more

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR-VITAL LIVE-1978-FIRST UK PRESS-CHARISMA-CVLD101. Of the matrix A-1/B-1/C-1/D-1 Masterdisc -ALLEN. Rare British original double concert of cult prog group. Vital: Van der Graaf Live is the first live album by the English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator . It was recorded 16 January 1978 at the Marquee in London and was released in July, a month after the group disbanded in 1978. The album is known for its radical recycling old material. Although Van der Graaf Generator has always been active on stage, on tours 1977 and 1978 was noted for its ferocity. ...more