In late 2009 I was having an idle surf of ‘reel to reel’ related items on Ebay when I came across a huge lot of tapes that purported to come from a recording studio in Chingford, all dating from the late fifties to the mid sixties.

With thoughts of the legendary ‘fine recording studio‘ tape hoard in mind, I half jokingly forwarded the link to my similarly obsessed friend, fellow tape nerd and H.O.G co-founder Gary, and thought nothing more of it, until he mailed back to say that he had bid, and won.

Hoping I hadn’t put him onto a duffer, I went to sleep, only to be awoken at 2am by an excited phone-call, and the sounds of what I instantly recognised to be Downliners Sect recordings I’d never heard before coming down the phone.

Do The Dog? Mona? These songs weren’t on any of the original Sect records either of us owned, and the versions of ‘Roll over Beethoven’ and ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ were wildly different to the existing versions.


A couple of emails were sent, and it soon transpired that what Gary had come across amidst the hundreds of self help tapes, children’s choirs and sound effects EPs was a long lost follow up to the legendary ‘nite at great newport street’ EP that had been issued in a tiny run on the contrast sound label in 1964.

After the success of that release, a follow up was recorded with legendary recording pioneer F.C Judd. Sleeves were printed, the tapes were sent to the pressing plant…only for the band to arrive several weeks later to a boarded up building. The plant, label and tape had vanished.

So- contact was made, a deal was struck, and now Hand Of Glory Records  are proud to present, after a mere 46 year delay, the first release of ‘Bright Lites’ by the Downliners Sect!

Brite Lights Big City - Downliners Sect

Will

On sale March 2011! see our big cartel shop to pre-order now or email us for more info.

3 Responses

  1. DAMN !!! COULDN’T  MAKE THE COVER ANY WORSE ? THAT’S A @#]?!!:€€ INSULT TO THE SECT !!! ANYONE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY ( ME FIRST ) TO DO IT FOR FREE ( or at max 1 of this wonder ) !!! SHAME ON YOU !!!

    1. It’s an exact repro of the original sleeve design that Don Craine gave us a scan of, bar the fact, with his blessing we brightened up the slightly washed out hues to a nice vibrant red.

      So, criticism noted, but we’re still pretty happy with it. By the way, there’s something wrong with your !!!CAPSLOCK!!! 😉

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