Basement Crates: 40 & 41

Michael Garrick: First Born (Argo, 1972)
I found this in a box under an unpleasant old suitcase. So I threw away the suitcase - I'm ruthless like that, and dug my way through the box. This is a proper beauty, the sort of thing you will waltz around the kitchen to - possibly on your own - when you're feeling like really getting into chopping those vegetables and searing that streak (or, y'know, wevz). Garrick is quite a fellow and should you be lucky to find any of his records, then snap them up. You could do a lot worse than start with this one my friend Jonny put out a year or so ago...


Kings Of Convenience: Leaning Against The Wall (Bamboo Soul remix) (Source, 2001)
One of my great, "Aren't I hilarious!" stories (there aren't many, tbh) concerns the time I went to Norway to interview the Kings Of Convenience for Sleaze Nation (RIP). S and I had only got back from (getting married in) Sri Lanka 48 hours earlier when I was suddenly in Bergen in January. The rain came down in waves and the only thing to do was drink and eat reindeer. One of the band - Erlend - and I got off to a bad start when I proposed the notion that their music was so spectacularly soppy because he'd never actually even kissed a real girl. He took this very badly and stormed off the play the piano (we were in a hotel bar, while he played his bandmate Eirik confirmed his pal had kissed more than one girl - on the lips and everything). They suggested dinner at Bergen's finest restaurant with lashings of wine and vodka. A lovely idea until the bill arrived and they mentioned they had no way of even helping me pay (the press officer's card "malfunctioned" too). Later, in another bar, Erlend amused himself by going outside and wandering across the pelican crossing again and again and again. Anyway, by the third day we sort of liked each other again and we went for a drive and listened to A-ha, something they clearly still like (Erlend's on the right, Eirik, on the left, was lovely. But then, he had a real girlfriend). You're right, that wan't very hilarious at all, was it?