It was once again my pleasure to frequent the tables of the Vic Park Record and CD Fair. Attending for my seventh time since 2018, I was once again pleased to see a great and wide variety of bands and albums, and walked away with a satisfying haul. So let’s get right into it.

Alice Cooper – Classicks

While I have Alice’s four 90s studio albums, I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to grab some audio versions of six live performances of classic songs, taken from the video release Trashes The World.

The Phantom of the Opera – Original Cast Recording

I’ve always been keeping an eye out for the original cast version of The Phantom of the Opera and was glad to finally add it to my collection. It complements my Royal Albert Hall and 2003 film versions nicely, though I must raise an eyebrow at the tracking team’s apparent refusal to work on the day they did this CD. Disc 1 contains only one track, a whopping 54 minute collection of everything that makes up Act 1. And disc 2, you guessed it, comes in with the entirety of Act 2, at a slightly shorter 45 minutes.

Star Trek TNG – Encounter At Farpoint Soundtrack

For only 3 bucks, this was a very easy decision.

Evanescence – Anywhere But Home

This CD/DVD combo of the awesome Evanescence live album nicely supplants my current CD-only version.

Fleetwood Mac – Behind The Mask

While under normal circumstances I would not be so eager to add this lacklustre affair to my collection, I could not leave it unfortunately. Alas I now have an unseverable connection with this album since I appeared on Tim’s Vinyl Confessions for his deep dive episode on the album. And while I never go into these events with any expectations, given the uncertainty regarding what’s exactly going to be available, this was the one album that I would have been disappointed (though only slightly 🙂 ) to not walk away with at the end of it.

Jimmy Barnes – RAW

Having picked up Australian singer Jimmy Barnes’s first, phenomenal, live album Barnestorming at the fair many years ago, I was more than happy to pick up another, handily featuring very little song overlap with the first.

Joe Satriani – Satriani Live!

Always love me some live Satriani.

Led Zeppelin – Mothership

I’ve forever been hunting for a jewel case version of Mothership for a good price, because I’m in love with that cover art. Today the day finally came that I got to cross that one off the list. And hey, I hear the music is good too 🙂

Nightwish – Dark Passion Play Collector’s Edition

The second upgrade of the lot, I was thrilled to see the Collector’s Edition of this album enter my house. In addition to the main album, you also get the instrumental orchestral versions on disc two, as well as an alternate-lyrics demo of “Amaranth” sung by bassist Marko Hietala, entitled “Reach”.

Pink Floyd – The Wall

You gotta own The Wall, but all this time I’ve been steadfastly refusing to buy the modern cardboard slipcase edition. That patience finally paid off today. The only way to own The Wall is the extra-thick 2CD case.

Queen – Live At The Bowl

I love the ’79-’82 era of live Queen. This was my only DVD pickup of the day, but it’s a really good one.

The Angels – Liveline

This is easily the highlight of the haul. Any and all CD editions of Liveline are rare and expensive. The reminder copy sitting in my Discogs cart is $80 AUD. I scored this near-mint copy for only $25 and, to top it off, it’s the 20th anniversary reissue with 10 bonus tracks (bringing the total number of songs to 34 across both discs).

The Darkness – One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back

This is another one that’s been on my radar for a really long time, ever since I first saw it on mikeladano.com while reading through his reviews. The cover art enthralled me, and I bought it today completely on spec on the grounds that I will love having the disc in my collection for the art alone, regardless of what my thoughts on the music contained on it become.

Tom Jones – Reload

I have a few Tom Jones CDs already, but they contain very few of his duet/covers from this album. Today I got to rectify that.

U2 – Under A Blood Red Sky

I was after some live versions of some of the songs not featured on Rattle and Hum, most notably “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, and this disc delivers on that.

So there it is. Not the largest haul, but definitely one that checked off a number of long-time wants. So what have you got recently? Let me know in the comments below.