To give you, our customers, the chance to get to know the team behind eil.com, we like to let show you what we are about and what we have been listening to lately. This week is stock addition manager and buyer, Stephen Franklin (aka Syd).
What are your top five albums of all time?
I’d find a top 50 less stressful but if it’s gun-to-head time – Rush – Permanent Waves / Gentle Giant – Free Hand / Planes Mistaken For Stars – Mercy / Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary / Brand X – Unorthodox Behaviour…..neither easy or final!
No matter how embarrassing, what was the first piece of music you bought?
The Police – Regatta De Blanc (with a little help from the old man!)
What have you been listening to this week?
Steven Wilson, Big Big Train, Anathema, A Blaze of Feather, Frost*, Terrahsphere, Watchtower, Gong, Trilateral, Quicksand, Ninet Tayeb, Dinosaur, Allan Holdsworth, The 1975, Pinkshinyultrablast, Goblin, National Health, Zappa…and Rush, of course.
What album would you recommend customers check out if they haven’t heard it before?
The Sound – From The Lion’s Mouth, just listen to this mastery.
What are the top five gigs you have attended?
Rush – R30 tour 2004,
Three Friends – Trading Boundaries Sept 2015,
Sunny Day Real Estate – May 2010 Forum London
Porcupine Tree – Hammersmith Apollo Oct 2009
Disperse – London Borderline March 2017 (amazing even with no Bassist
Honourable mentions; The Roots, Ben Howard, The Firetheft, Mars Volta (many times), The Aristocrats, Closure In Moscow, Voivod, Haken, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Dillinger Escape Plan, Pierre Bensusan, Fall of Troy, The Appleseed Cast…the list unfolds…..
If you could take home one item we have in stock today, what would it be and why?
Gentle Giant – In A Glass House Autographed LP, fully signed by my second all-time favourite band, quite simply if I could afford it I’d buy it in a heartbeat, it’s a little beast of an album and was one of the gateway albums into not only the band but more eclectic prog for me, I love the artwork too….and did I mention it’s fully signed, by the classic line-up!
Finally, does music really sound better on vinyl?
Ultimately yes but I’ve found it’s some and some, depends on lots of things, the equipment you’re using, the environment, the production, the style even. I’m a CD man in honesty so that’s my go-to but when an album sounds good on vinyl it’s pretty much unrivalled, case in point Can’s Tago Mago, sheer ear candy on vinyl!
eil.com… the world’s largest online retailer of rare and out of print vinyl, CDs and music memorabilia – since 1987.
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