January 04, 2005

Roaring Jelly

Posted by Harry

About 43 minutes into the end-of-year Mike Harding show, he plays Roaring Jelly’s ‘Valerie Wilkins’. Great, but not their best — BedBug, Babylon, and Christmas In Australia are all superior. I saw them once, and taped their last ever session (with Stuart Hall of all people) off Radio 2 sometime in the 80’s and STUPIDLY taped an episode of My Music over it several years later. My mother sold both my Roaring Jelly records which I never managed to put on tape, and anyway I now have no way to play vinyl. How does one lobby to get a CD of their work brought out?

Posted on January 4, 2005 08:06 PM UTC
Comments

You can petition the owner of their music (either a publishing company or a record company). A petition with many signatures always helps.

Just today I read an article in Newsweek about how a devotee of “Fraggle Rock” convinced the owners of the program to release their episodes on DVD — Same thing happened a while back for “Freaks and Geeks.”

Be warned that not all record companies are receptive. Warner Bros. has been pestered relentlessly to release Suddenly, Tammy!’s last recording from their vault. As far as I know, they’re not budging.

Too bad.

Good luck.

Posted by Rich · January 4, 2005 10:12 PM

I think generally, you self-righteously download the tracks from any available source, because it’s OK not to pay for things if you aren’t given an immediately opportunity to and you really, really want them.

Or, you set up an online petition, preferably with a planned real-world activism component, like http://www.freefiona.com/

Posted by Mill · January 4, 2005 11:37 PM

There seem to be a few companies that specialise in offbeat and old music - have you tried suggesting it to some of them? They have to get their suggestions from somewhere, and you might get lucky.

Posted by vivian · January 5, 2005 02:11 AM

Gemm.com only source for odd, rare or remaindered vinyl, seems to have copies of “In the Roar” and “Golden Grates” for sale.

Posted by Henry · January 5, 2005 02:47 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.