My boss plonked a couple of folders into my hands yesterday morning and asked, “Do you reckon these are worth anything?” Inside were a number of flexidiscs, 19 in all.
Twelve of them are the cover mount discs from Flexipop, an almost complete sequence from #3-16 (#8 & 14 missing).
The one that immediately leapt out was “Blondie co starring Freddie” doing “Yuletide Throw Down” which is basically Fab 5 Freddie rapping over the backing track to Rapture. That one looks to be worth the most – probably circa £20. Depeche Mode doing “Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead” is worth roughly £12.50, then Adam and the Ants doing “A.N.T.S.”, apparently them doing Y.M.C.A., is the next most valuable – circa £7.50. After that there’s not much, but all in all the whole lot looks to be worth about £70.
Four of the others are Smash Hits cover mounts from between 1979-81, one is from Popswap magazine circa 1973, one from New Sounds New Styles in ’82 and finally, the spoken word disc issued with Marc Bolan’s You Scare Me To Death.
My boss has said that if I sell them, he’ll split the money. Given it’s only going to amount to a bit of beer money, would anyone think it worth the time to list the Flexipop discs separately, or offer them as a job lot? It’s possible that the overlord may also have either the two missing to make up the complete sequence, and even the first three.
Marc Bolan – You Scare Me To Death – Label: Cherry Red
Boomtown Rats – Dun Laoghaire – Label: Flexipop
Adam and the Ants – A.N.T.S. – Label: Flexipop
Bad Manners – No Respect b/w Just Pretendin’ – Label: Flexipop
Prentenders – What You Going To Do About It b/w Stop Your Sobbin’ – Label: Flexipop
Motorhead – The Train Kept A-Rollin’ – Label: Flexipop
Hazel O’Connor – Men of Good Fortune – D. Days – Label: Flexipop
Graham Bonnet – Night Games c/w Polecats – We Say Yeah! & Thin Lizzy – Song for Jimmy & Way of the West – Monkey Love – Label: Flexipop
Depeche Mode – Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead b/w King Of The Flies – Label: Flexipop
Soft Cell – Metro Mr X c/w Rememberance Day – B Movie – Label: Flexipop
Gillan – Higher and Higher b/w Spanish Guitar – – Label: Flexipop
Blondie co starring Freddie – Yuletown Throw Down (Rapture) c/w The Brattles – The Christmas Song c/w Snunky Tate – Santa’s Agent – Label: Flexipop
XTC – Looking for Footprints – Label: Flexipop
John Foxx – My Face – Label: Smash Hits Label
Squeeze – Wrong Way – Label: Smash Hits Label
Orchestral Manoeuvers – Pretending to See The Future (Live) b/w Swing Shift – Label: Smash Hits Label
The Skids – The Olympian c/w XTC – Ten Feet Tall – Label: Smash Hits Label
Peter, Paul & Marty – Crying In The Rain c/w Songs We Sang Together c/w Me And My Guitar – Label: Popswap Magazine
Peter Shelley – Qu’est-ce Que C’est Que Ca nsnS Dub Mix c/w Animal Magnet – Amor (nsnS Mix) – – Label: New Sounds New Style
Re the Bolan… isn’t it the interview that’s on a flexi rather than Scare Me itself?
Yes, it’s the interview on the flexidisc. It’s labelled as
“(recorded quotes from the book
you scare me to death)”
I used to have both… for some reason. All I remember about the flexi is him talking about how much he’d like to meet Jagger, while cheekily implying that he was yesterday’s man.
Anyone have any of those Beatles flexis done on old X-rays that they used to have in the Soviet Union? The cold war equivalent of the Eel Market.
I have a CD with them on, not played it yet.
Sounds like a bit of a pain in the arse. It it were me I’d stick them as a job lot on eBay, either at a low starting price or a reasonable buy-it-now figure. At least they won’t cost much to post, or need lots of protective packaging!
I certainly remember the Skids/XTC one and the OMD one.
“Interestingly”…the Depeche Mode song is called “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” – so that slight mislabelling might add another 30p to the value! The song itself doesn’t feature those words – Dave Gahan, punk that he was, hated the more cheesy, binky bonk songs and after finishing the vocal said “I sometimes wish I was dead!” Vince Clarke decided that was as good a title as any. Gahan is a massive fan of The Damned, and the title also references the line in Machine Gun Etiquette (“Don’t you wish that we were dead?”). Also, watch Dave Vanian sing a song live and then watch Dave Gahan – the influence is clear.
The King of the Flies is by old pal Fad Gadget – Mute’s first signing – who was invited to support Depeche Mode 21 years later in an enormo-dome world tour. He was inspired and reinvigorated by that experience and started recording again soon after – but suffered a heart attack and died aged 45.
Discogs says “The Depeche Mode track is a different version to the one which appears on the album Speak & Spell”, so perhaps hence the slight adjustment to the title?
https://www.discogs.com/Depeche-Mode-Fad-Gadget-Sometimes-I-Wish-I-Was-Dead-King-Of-The-Flies/release/361362
Didn’t realise that – I’d say you’re right, although why the title needed to be changed might be forever shrouded in mystery/disinterest.
I think Matt Johnson was in an early line-up of ver Gadget.
I used to have the Joy Division flexidisc “Komakino”.
It was rather disappointing, considering what a great band they were.
Like most flexis… the early 80s equivalent of extra tracks, usually just rather tatty leftovers.
Exception : Pigbag’s Another Orangutango. Almost the best thing they ever released!
It was a time that’s hard to contemplate now where pretty much the only way to get free music was on a flexI disc.
I recently unearthed two that we used to play to death at the time while clearing my mum’s house. They’re both adverts though. One is for Hepworths (featuring the very 60’s jingle ‘Get Hep With Hepworths). The other is for a drink called Cherry B which I don’t think I’ve ever had.
There was one that came with Observer magazine that was part of a car advert and used Cream’s I Feel Free. Mid 80s. Played that once. Wasn’t interested in the car, but eas sold on Cream.
The Crippled Dick Hot Wax label collected a swag of German flexidisks from the 60s and 70s, cleaned them up (and in some cases joined a few together), and released two anthology titles called Popshopping, pointing out that once stripped of their commercial context, a lot of them were just cool’n’groovy bits of music in their own right.
Many of them can be heard on Youtube.
Hey @BaldySlaphead, I’ve a ‘peche/Fad Gadget-mad Twitter chum who says he’ll happily give you £15 for that particular flexi. If you want I can exchange your contact details via PM?
Please do!
PM sent. Hope it reaches you!
This reminds me that I have Disc and Music Echo one from the 60s with chatter of the stars of the day, including the Fabs, also one from the NME ( I think) plugging Exile On Main Street which has Mick singing a song called ‘Exile On Main Street’ between track excerpts – I’m guessing all this stuff is available somewhere on the internet anyway, so any rarity value is in the object itself rather than the content…?