Reupload - Elliot Mansions - I Don't Want To Live Inside Myself/ Three Score and Ten

Label: President
Year of Release: 1972

I've owned this particular single for years, and there are two key reasons it's never been uploaded. Firstly, information on Elliot Mansions seems to be incredibly scarce, and I was hanging on for more facts to materialise - however, it seems as if I may be waiting for the rest of my lifetime. And secondly... despite numerous good reviews on psychedelic pop sites like Sweet Floral Albion, I really can't hear what everyone else is seemingly hearing here. Both sides are perfectly passable ballads, with the A-side perhaps being of most interest to people as a Barry Gibb composition, but I can't hear any oddness or adventure you'd expect from a popsike disc.

Still, it seems rather selfish to sit on these things when there clearly is some demand for them to be heard, and so I present it to you for download with apologies for having absolutely no back story about the artist (or possibly band) in question.

Perhaps rather more interestingly, this single is one of many which turned up in boxes around London which appeared to have originated from the BBC Gramophone library. I had always assumed that the BBC's vinyl library was the most comprehensive in the world and that they never had "clear outs", but that's clearly not the case, as the BBC transparent plastic sleeve my copy came in (plus the bold BBC library stamp on the B-side) both prove. Good news for collectors, perhaps, who get to pick up near-mint copies of old singles for very low prices, but I have to wonder if some of this material would be better off inside the vaults rather than being allowed to wander into the hands of people like me - although I should probably respect the fact that if license payers were asked what their money should be spent on, the storage of flop sixties and seventies acts probably wouldn't be very high on their lists.

And as usual, I must ask anyone with any information about Elliot Mansions to come forward and spill the beans.

(Update - This entry was originally uploaded in July 2009. Nobody ever did come forward to 'spill the beans' about Elliot Mansions, though numerous people brought me up to date with the BBC's plans to digitise its library. My opinions on this record haven't changed much in the intervening years, unfortunately, but Bee Gees fans will probably want to check it out as a rarity. A copy sold on ebay for £10 recently…)