Various Artists - The History Of Rock, Volume Thirty One [12", 2LP]

If you see something like this in the sales bin dirt cheap, you can't let it lie there. Such was the case with this HISTORY OF ROCK VOL. 31 compilation album that i ran into at record store Örat in Uppsala, Sweden. Actually they had a whole bunch of these series in the sales bin (everything more or less ranging from Otis Redding to Motörhead), and i ran into a couple more at other stores throughout the country a few days later. It seems like these compilation LP's from UK origin were well-distributed in Sweden, when they came out. I've never seen them in record stores over here in the Netherlands though. Discogs says that there are 40 volumes, and after i did some research i found out that they belonged to a weekly magazine that came out in the early '80s. There were 120 of these magazines, all 20 pages thick, and altogether they would form 10 volumes in some kind of Rock Encyclopaedia. A pretty nice project if you ask me, especially because there were LP's that belonged to it as well. Except for The Stranglers, Sex Pistols and Wire i didn't have any of these bands on vinyl so far. So i couldn't go wrong for just 10 SEK (less than 1.20 euro).

Label: Orbis
Cat.nr.: HRL 031
Year of release: 1985

SIDE A: The Stranglers
01. Get A Grip On Yourself
02. Peaches
03. No More Heroes
04. Nice 'n' Sleazy
05. Walk On By
06. Golden Brown

SIDE B: Punk
01. The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
02. The Damned - Smash It Up
03. The Buzzcocks - Have You Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have)
04. Generation X - Your Generation
05. Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
06. Wire - 12 X U
07. The Banned - Little Girl

SIDE C: Squeeze
01. Take Me I'm Yours
02. Cool For Cats
03. Up The Junction
04. Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)
05. Tempted
06. Labelled With Love

SIDE D: 2-Tone
01. The Specials - Gangsters
02. The Beat - The Tears Of A Clown
03. The Specials - Too Much Too Young
04. Madness - The Prince
05. The Selecter - On My Radio
06. The Specials - Do Nothing
07. The Bodysnatchers - Let's Do Rock Steady