Lost Angeles

One last post for 2023 before the inevitable end of year post, and this is a post that has been a long time in the making...

Two weeks ago I was in Boston for half a day at the end of a two week trip to the States, and I popped back to a record store that I went to last year briefly - Wanna Hear It Records, which is in Watertown (about ten miles out of Boston). However, this time around I had prearranged a visit and I was there to pick something up from the owner of the shop.

There's a long story behind this photo, but I'll try to and get through it quickly...

In 2012 I won a Bane 7" test press on eBay. It was the test press I needed to complete the set of 4 that were released around 2009. Well, I paid immediately but the record never arrived. I emailed the seller and he told me that he sent it, but given it hadn't arrived he would send another. A few weeks later and that one didn't arrive either. So I messaged him and asked if he sent it but I got no response. I may have messaged one more time, but cannot be sure of this. But no record ever came and I assumed I had been ripped off.

Last year I had lunch with a couple of friends and the subject came up, and one of the dudes in attendance just so happened to be good friends with the person who had sold the 7". He sent a message to the guy, and mentioned the issue, and the seller somehow checked his old emails and confirmed that I had won a record from him back in 2012. He then promised that he would make it right.

So a year after this conversation, and eleven years after I first paid for the record, I was fginally handed it by the seller... who turned out to be Joey, who owns Wanna Hear It Records, and runs the label that released the record, 6131 Records.

So this is a test press for the Bane 'Los Angeles 3:58 PM' 7", which was one of a series of four 7"s released in 2009. There were actually 6 songs put out across four 7"s, with 3 songs each being pressed on two 7"s, with one of each being pressed by both a US and a European label. So 6 songs stretched across 4 different 7"s, with at least 3 different colours of viny of each. At the time it was a nightmare trying to collect these... although I have to say, records and shipping costs were a LOT lower back then, so it was far easier than it would be today. Here's a pic of the test next to the regular cover for no real reason:

It's funny, because these 7"s have been out for thirteen years or so, and I have collected (I think) every version of every one, and in total I have 28 different 7"s in this series. Yet I always forget that these 7"s exist. The songs are the least well known to me of all of Bane's output.

Still, it was nice to finally obtain this record, which means that I finally got to take this photo of all 4 test press records from this set together:

At some point it would be nice to take a photo of ALL the 7"s from this series. All 28 of the bloody things. But this isn't really the time of year to attempt that, due mainly to the lack of daylight. So maybe some other time.

It's also nice to get this record also because I had totally written it off, and I kinda figured that it was just one of those records that I was destined never to own. It was also nice that Joey was really apologetic about the whole thing, and even went so far as to give me a few extra records too, which was very nice of him... and which gives me some nice material to get this blog off to a good start in 2024.

(To be continued)