I discovered Record Collector a few years back and I am now a full subscriber to the music bible! I can’t wait for the next edition to land in the post box each month and read it from cover to cover. Love your work! And I’ve noticed the Paul Lester touches and changes over the past few editions… all for the better, I might add.

I‘ve been buying Record Collector for years. As I like sport, I start reading a newspaper back to front and I have done the same with RC as the highlight for me has been Chris Welch’s The Rock’N’Roll Diaries column. Turning to the back page in June to get my monthly fix, [I found] it had been written by Max Bell and I thought: “Never mind…

It gets hard to write record reviews and come up with a new angle. I was browsing through your album reviews as though at the pick’n’mix section at Woolworths when I noted that the Paris In The Spring compilation [RC 481] has “bubbling Milk Tray basslines”. I was further pleased to see that “the Milk Tray- smooth arrangements” on The De…

Oh my, Gilbert O’Sullivan in Record Collector [issue 481]. Are my eyes deceiving me? Nice write-up on Gilbert’s latest offering. Gilbert appears to be on a roll, having not long moved on from his two-star Latin period. Well done, RC. Loved the cover of last month’s magazine [issue 462]: magical. But what else can you expect from a monthly mag…

Almost 50 years ago, as a sixth-former on holiday in London, I was fortunate to speak to Paul, George and Ringo. I watched them enter EMI Studios at Abbey Road. After waiting outside overnight, I was there when they came out the following morning at 5:30am. I got Paul’s autograph the previous day

While I am in full agreement with Jack Haynes (RC 481), concerning the sound quality of CDs over vinyl, and his assessment of the remaster of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I have to take issue with him concerning his view on “people who download music”. Though I still buy remastered CDs – the superb 50th Anniversary remix by Giles…

Just reading Jack Haynes’ letter in RC 481, and couldn’t help but smile at the irony of him calling some people ‘vinyl snobs’ before dismissing people who download music not to be ‘real music fans’. Living in a (very) small apartment with neighbours both to one side of me and above me, I rarely have the opportunity to play music at volu…

Thanks to Bill Kopp for his excellent feature on Paul Williams (RC 479). To some, Paul may not have appeared as hip/cool as, say, Jackson Browne, James Taylor or Joni Mitchell. Nevertheless, his output has been not only remarkable in its longevity but also of consistently high quality, and it was pleasing to see his talent acknowledged in RC.

It’s a mystery how David Quantick can fill a column on live albums (RC 479) but not mention The Who. Live At Leeds has been the critics’ top pick since it first bashed eardrums back in 1970, and there are numerous other concert releases that prove no one else comes close. Me, I prefer Live At Hull, possibly because I live there.

Thanks to Bill Kopp for his excellent feature on Paul Williams (RC 479). To some, Paul may not have appeared as hip/cool as, say, Jackson Browne, James Taylor or Joni Mitchell. Nevertheless, his output has been not only remarkable in its longevity but also of consistently high quality, and it was pleasing to see his talent acknowledged in RC.