by  Peter Lindblad

Loaded with Beatles collectibles, including a Ringo Starr RIAA Gold Record Award for “Rubber Soul”, The Rockin’ Hot Summer Auction hosted by Backstage Auctions will feature items from the collection of radio and television industry veteran Denny Somach.

Several thousand promotional singles from the ’70s, vintage photos of Bruce Springsteen from the Phil Ceccola archives, signed lithographs by the Rolling Stones, Yes and Robert Plant; an Elton John Band signed drumhead from the 2005 U.S. tour; and Bob Dylan original movie cells from his 1967 “Don’t Look Back” movie are just a few of the highlights in the online auction, scheduled for June 21-28.

Jacques van Gool of Backstage Auctions believes the Somach sale will appeal to a variety of collectors. “What I like about Denny’s collection is that it’s a really unique, comprehensive, broad range of collectibles that has just a little bit of everything for everyone,” says van Gool.

Somach estimates there are roughly 5,000 promotional singles in this auction. The bulk of the singles collection is made up of rock, punk, new wave, progressive rock, British rock, pop, R&B and soul recordings. He came by the cache of his vinyl collection while working in radio and comments that “95 percent of them are in Mint condition.”

“It’s one of the most comprehensive collections I’ve ever seen,” van Gool added. “It’s got a lot of early-day punk and new wave, including obscure U.S. releases with some really crazy picture sleeves, but also early-day releases from Television, Talking Heads and Patti Smith.” The U.K. is represented by all the big ones, including the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Jam, the Damned and so on. One of the highlights is a 1978 German Sex Pistols 7-inch single of “Anarchy In The U.K.”, which van Gool rates as “exceptionally rare.”

Other vinyl spotlight items include a host of colored vinyl, picture discs, radio station-only releases, test pressings and acetates, such as the 1972 Wings acetate of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, which is “an obscure Wings songs to begin with,” says van Gool. “To find a one-sided acetate is pretty rare.”

That’s because, as Somach says, it was one of those things that “ … most people didn’t save.”

In all, the sale boasts more than 50 lots of Beatles collectibles. Somach worked for EMI on the merchandising for the label’s “Beatles At The BBC” release.

There are also Gold and Platinum RIAA Record Awards for The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Yes, Kansas, Alan Parsons, Eric Johnson and others. Plus, the auction has hundreds of signed collectibles, including lithographs, books, CDs, posters and lyrics with autographs from members of such bands as Genesis, Yes, ELP, The Doors, Procol Harum, Eagles, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Queen, Rush, Yoko Ono, B.B. King, Beach Boys, Alice Cooper and The Who, among others.

Additionally available are rare concert and promotional posters and a vintage magazine collection that features copies of Creem, Hit Parader, Beetle, Rock Scene, Zoo World, Electric Factory, Kerrang, Record World, The Drummer, Crawdaddy, Fusion, Aquarian and more, including Goldmine and Discoveries. “They are, for the most part, in good condition,” says Somach, who added that he was sorry to part with those periodicals.

Rounding out the offerings is a treasure trove of rare promotional collectibles, including merchandise, artwork, pins, buttons, concert tickets, shirts, jackets and other items.

“He has hundreds of nicely signed pieces — lyric sheets, CDs, promotional items,” says van Gool. “And a lot of unique merchandise material such as prototypes, the stuff that never got final approval.”

An avid collector who’s been compiling collectibles since the late ’60s, Somach’s career began in college at a radio station in Allentown, Pa. “It was a total accident,” recalls Somach with a laugh. Somach had a friend who had a record out on the A&M imprint. He went to the station at night, eager to persuade a DJ who was playing underground music at night to play his friend’s record. Impressed by Somach’s musical knowledge, he was offered a job. Later, after graduation, Somach became a radio announcer and programmer at Philadelphia’s WYSP-FM. Following a successful run there, Somach left to found Denny Somach Productions.

Over time, DSP grew to be a giant in the field of syndicated and network radio programming. Shows created by DSP included: “Legends Of Rock, Live From The Hard Rock Cafe” for NBC; “Rolling Stone Magazine’s Continuous History Of Rock and Roll” for ABC; and Scott Muni’s “Ticket To Ride.” Then, in 1999, the company created and produced the highly successful “The Rock of the Century” for Dick Clark’s United Stations, which evolved into “The Classics.” A recent DSP production is “Meet The Beatles … Again,” hosted by Pat O’Brien.

In the realm of television, Somach was co-creator of “Friday Night Videos” for NBC-TV and also contributed to the syndicated music show “Solid Gold.” Cable TV networks also reached out to Somach for help. He served as an original consultant to MTV, leading the organization of the channel’s news department and producing “The News That Rocked ’81” program.

That’s not all. Somach has also dabbled in record and video production, producing albums for such rock legends as Johnny Winter, Dave Mason and Peter Bardens of Camel. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame, though, was his work as executive producer of Eric Johnson’s Grammy-winning album A Via Musicom.

Being a major collector himself, Somach is happy these items will find a good home. For his part, Somach needed to clear some space. “Of course I hate to part with it, but I gotta do it,” says Somach. “I’m bursting at the seams.”

Somach, who is afflicted with Type-2 diabetes, will be donating a portion of the proceeds to the American Diabetes Society.

There will be a special online preview of the entire catalog beginning June 14. The auction begins June 21st and will run through June 28th. Visit www.backstageauctions.com for more information.

by  Peter Lindblad

Along with heavy hitters like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Saxon helped spearhead the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement that swept over Europe and the U.S. in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

The band’s 1980 sophomore effort, Wheels Of Steel, is still considered by many to be one of the greatest heavy-metal albums ever. Saxon would follow it up with a pair of aces, 1980’s Strong Arm Of The Law and 1981’s Denim And Leather, and it appeared the band was taking dead aim at mass-market appeal.

It never happened. Saxon failed to recapture the magic of its early efforts throughout the rest of the ’80s. Then, once again, at the turn of a new decade, Saxon found its footing, and it’s been an unstoppable force ever since. Starting with 1992’s Forever Free, Saxon returned to its British metal roots. The result was some of the fiercest metal in the band’s mighty catalog.

 Through three decades of churning out molten hard rock built on a bedrock of cinder-block busting rhythms and fire-breathing riffs, Saxon has persevered. On Jan. 13, the band unleashed its latest juggernaut, Into The Labyrinth, on the SPV label. The powerful anthem “Live To Rock” was the first single. Saxon frontman Biff Byford talks about where the band has been and where it’s headed.

This new album is really a beast, and with songs like “Battalions Of Steel” and “Protect Yourselves,” it seems to bring to light Saxon’s philosophy of freedom and living by your own rules. Was that important to you to do that on this record?

Biff Byford: Yeah, we don’t really go into making albums with any preconceived plan. Our basic sort of idea is we’re going to write a collection of great songs. So, that’s where we basically come from. I think “Battalions Of Steel,” the song itself, is very sort of classic rock with a modern edge to it. But we have moved back to a more ’80s style without really trying for it.

Was there something about the themes of those songs lyrically that fueled the energy of them? Because they are some of the most aggressive rockers on the album.

BB: Yeah, I wanted every song to be sort of a mini epic, lyrically. And I like telling stories, whether I’m getting stopped by the police for driving too fast or whether it’s about history. I do like telling a story in a song. We’re not big on the sort of, you know, “love you baby” type sort of cliché rock ’n’ roll stuff, which is cool. I like it, but we’re sort of into the sort of storytelling [aspect] more.

Along with “Battalions of Steel,” “Crime of Passion” is one of the most ferocious tracks on the new record. It almost has a thrash quality. Did you take some of those elements from thrash bands and kind of make them Saxon?

BB: Well, I think all those elements are around, you know. And, obviously, you know, some of the guys in the band are quite influenced by some of the thrash bands. You can’t help but be influenced by some of the big ones. No, we didn’t make a conscious effort, no. That’s just how our guitarists came along and how we put the song together. And basically, that’s one of our sort of non-historic songs. But I like the guitar riff. It’s extremely powerful.

Talk about the [current] band, which includes guitaristists Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt, bassist Nibbs Carter and drummer Nigel Glockler. How would you characterize this lineup?

BB: I think this is one of the best Saxon lineups we’ve ever had actually. It’s been together quite a long t

Van Der Graaf Generator, wrote the editors of the “New Musical Express Book Of Rock” in 1975, “failed to make much of an impression on [the] British public. However they managed to accrue a small, but dedicated cult following for their heavy, doomy music.”

It was not much of an epitaph for what that same small cult following would have declared was one of the most ambitious, adventurous and, above all, challenging rock bands of the early 1970s. But VDGG had broken up a full three years earlier, and anybody still mourning the group’s demise was at least left with frontman Peter Hammill’s dogged pursuit of similar musical ends.

In fact, what was then his most recent album, 1975’s Nadir’s Big Chance, included a reprise of the very first song the band ever released, the 1968 single “People You Were Going To,” in whose lyrics could be found a virtual template for every critic’s own perception of the group:

“The people in the downstairs flat
are no longer there now because they left
the gas tap on, they’re all dead.
So you’ve no-one left to talk to….”

And that was the band’s first single. By the time they reached the end, four years and four albums later, they had more or less set to music every conceivable method of extinguishing life, hope and existence that you could dream of. The final words of the final track of that final album were “all things are apart.” Weeks later, the group split up.

They would return. No sooner had the “Book of Rock” gone to press than the group was back with a new LP and a blistering rebirth that threw up another four albums (plus a live souvenir). More recently, in 2005, Van Der Graaf regenerated again, and with two new studio albums already behind them (and a third on the way), the band is currently preparing for their first American concerts since a New York date in October 1976 — which, in turn, was the band’s first U.S. concert ever. At the time of writing, only one date, at Nearfest on June 19, has been confirmed. But Peter Hammill assures fans that “the plan is to do a few more shows while we’re over there. I suspect they may be East Coast/Canada only, but we’ll see what emerges in due course …”

For anybody seeking an introduction to Van Der Graaf Generator, a host of compilations have been released over the decades, both on vinyl and CD. Most simply concentrate on the band’s best-known material. But there’s a few that go beyond, with the first, 1972’s budget-priced 68-71, rounding up several single-only sides that were already fetching high prices among collectors. Repeat Performance, later in the decade, amplified that same exercise; Time Vaults in 1984 scraped up various outtakes and doodles recorded during the group’s 1972-1975 hiatus, while the entire career was exquisitely profiled on the four-CD The Box in 2000. But still there were omissions, from these and every other set, beginning with that first VDGG single.

Neither “People You Were Going To” nor its flip, “Firebrand,” would ever appear on album, and it would be 1997 before they even made it onto CD. Neither did the band members mourn their unavailability; Hammill was most definitely not speaking as a collector when he warned, in 1995, that the single “is emphatically not worth the £250 it’s been reported to be going for.” 

As an artefact, it’s fascinating. But as a musical experience, it could be a different band — or, as a review in Melody Maker put it, “here is the group people say are going to replace the Beatles, Stones, BeeGees … at the top. Mind you, the person wh

NUMBER    TITLE (A Side/B Side)    YEAR    NM

45s
Mercury
72979, Necromancer/Afterwards, 1969, $20.00

Albums
ABC Dunhill
DS 50097, H to He Who Am the Only One, 1971, $15.00

Charisma
CAS-1051, Pawn Hearts, 1971, $15.00

Mercury
SRM-1-1069, Godbluff, 1975, $12.00
SRM-1-1096, Still Life, 1976, $12.00
SRM-1-1116, World Record, 1976, $12.00
SR-61238, The Aerosol Grey Machine, 1969, $100.00

Probe
CPLP-4515, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other, 1970, $30.00

PVC
9901 [(2)], Vital, 1979, $15.00

Turn to the “Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records, 1950-1975, 6th Edition” for complete vinyl values and identification guide for Bob Dylan and thousands of other artists. This edition contains 150,000 listings for 45s, 7-inch extended-play singles and 12-inch albums from pop, rock, country, soul, rhythm and blues, and virtually all other genres of music produced between 1950 and 1975. This easy-to-use guide is arranged alphabetically by artist, and includes: