Review: Wings’ Band On The Run. Don’t wanna be stuck inside these four…

MY GROWING UP WITH PAUL MCCARTNEY TRILOGY: PART TWO

Music lovers in Australia in the Seventies would be familiar with these records: Reproductions of big name albums, packaged in poor quality two colour covers.

Scorned locally, they were valuable on the international market as something of a rarity. My cousin made a killing through Record Collector Magazine. The version of Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Shady Grove I once owned, which likely sold close to zero copies in Australia, was apparently quite valuable.

The albums were produced by the World Record Club, which had an office in Camberwell Road, Hartwell. By the late Seventies, the cheapo reproductions had been ditched in favour of full colour.

With a limited budget, I became a bargain hunting record nut at an early age. One of the best ways to find a bargain was to get on my bike and ride to the World Record Club offices.

Unfortunately, most of the bargains involving desirable albums were on cassette. Not my preferred format. Beggars can’t be chooser, though. The two cassettes that loom largest in my memory are David Bowie’s Station to Station, and Wings’ Band on the Run. Fortunately, both were…