h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1stly, thanks to you guys, I'm now a Jake fan.
I had sung an arrangement of Remember Bethlehem with a choir some years ago and had been intrigued but had never knowingly heard any of his material performed by his good self. So I did a search and found my way here (via Edward Chattoe's page) and all the wonderful complimentary things you all have to say about Jake convinced me to snap up a vinyl copy of the greatest hits (emi 1973??) that I spotted in York a few weeks ago. And I'm very pleased I did.

Anyway - I've just spotted 2 entries on ebay, 1 for Bantam Cock and 1 for Last Will.....
The seller is looking for starting prices of £20 plus.
I'm not prepared to shell out that at the moment, but some of you may have wanted to know about this.
The closing date of the auction is the 12th of December.
One word of warning though........the seller appears to be a new seller on e-bay so there is no feedback from previous
sales so there is always the possibility that this person could be a rip-off merchant........

CAVEAT EMPTOR is the phrase of the day, I think........."Buyer beware"

However, I hope it is genuine and that someone here gets them

Joe Caprani

Hello Joe,

And welcome. So glad to hear that you've discovered JT through this site.

Thanks very much for the tip-off. They're a bit pricey for me, but I expect that someone else will snap them up.

Stick around - if any Jake news comes up it'll probably appear here sooner or later. Talk to you soon.

Sarah

The seller has now reduced his minimum bid to £15 on each album (as there ain't no bids to date) - but the 2 auctions close later today. However, in the meantime, I've been shown an excellent site called netsounds.com which is basically a forum for traders to advertise their wares on and its not an auction site, its set prices. If you search for JT on there, there's loads of stuff coming up including various singles and at varying prices. There are also feedback options for buyers as well so you can see what their buyers think. I think after Christmas and its expenses are a distant memory, I may indulge in another album.

By the way, can anyone tell me, do JT albums surface in charity shops much, or do they mainly find there way into second hand music shops??

Hey Joe,
I've just checked out that Netsounds thing and it's great. I know there have been requests for recordings from people in Aus and US, and this seems great for them. Not too expensive either! Well done. It's now in 'My Favourites'!
Phil

I spend a great deal of time in charity shops, as my partner deals in second-hand books, and I have never yet seen a JT album. Max Bygraves, Mantovani and Hammond Organ hits, yes, by the vanload. I keep looking, anyway.

Dont pay more thanabout £15 quid for Jake albums unless they are almost mint and from a decent dealer with guarantees. Beanos in Croydon Surrey have a regular turnover of Jake material in the 12-20 quid range and they offer such guarantees and I use em all the time and they take internet queries.

Hi everyone. There are now ALL of Jake's albums on eBay, starting at £4, the auction ending on Sunday 10th March. How do I know? Because I am auctioning them! I have transferred them all to digital and need the space at home! All in good nick, too. So feel free to bid.

Ian

Ian
thanks for those, (even though I wasn't lucky) Hope all your LPs have found good homes!

Bugger! Missed it by a couple of weeks. I've been searching for ages and had given up hope- well almost. Take care when ordering from Netsounds - before I found this site I ordered a second hand Lah di Dah CD at £15 plus postage when it arrived it was very scratched and had sticky fingermarks all over it. It jumped on the last four tracks so I emailed, heard nothing and then rang (quite costly) eventually I got a refund. Then I discovered the Jake Thackray Homepage and the reference to Amazon where I got a brand new CD for £7.99! I'm a bit wary now.
I feel very fortunate to have met Jake several times - the last time at a tiny folk club in a village pub near Selby, North Yorkshire in the early 80's. What a brilliant,gifted poet, musician and a lovely,warm and unassuming man.

Best wishes to all - Suliz

Yes, there are lots of people who agree with you there. I also met him in the 70's and found him to be all the things you describe. The "unofficial webpage" is really brilliant - I check it out at least once a week. I'd love to see Jake perform again, but in a little folk club not in a big place. I suspect it won't happen though. Shame about your LPs, but there may be other opportunities!

I've just looked at eBay again and there is a copy of "Live Performance" for sale there, in the UK. I am of the humble opinion that this one is his best album, and at the moment the bidding is only up oto £5:50, which is an absolute bargain.

The same seller has now put Bantam Cock up for sale. Live Performance has got to £10.50 - so someone is going to get a bargain, I'd say.

Good luck everyone

Pam

More news - the last "Live Performance" sold for over £16 I think, but there is now another one there, still with an asking price of just £2, and there are also two Bantam Cocks at £3 each.

I think this might the the place to look, but I don't know how to do links properly! Alternatively going to eBay via a search engine and then putting Jake Thackray in eBay's search function will get you there too.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=Jake+Thackray&ebaytag1code=3&shortcut=2&currdisp=1&maxRecordsReturned=300&maxRecordsPerPage=50&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

Thanks for the tip about Beano - I've just ordered Jake's On Again! On Again LP in mint condition for £18 inc.postage.

I think Beanos have just caught on cos I've just ordered Jakes Progress & it cost me 23 big notes (inc postage). still I would have paid more, don't tell the wife though or I'm buggered (again).

I picked up 1 of the Bantam Cock albums a few weeks back that were on Ebay.
I've even started playing a few of Jakes songs now....worked out Ulysses & working
on Leopold Alcocks. Had my church choir round the other evening for a party
and inflicted Sr. Josephine on them.......the initial reaction was "Wow! a record player"
(most of them are under 25)....then a lot of reaction to the song itself......some may even
be hooked!! I really, REALLY would love to see Jake perform (I know its an exceedingly
slim chance of it) if anyone hears of any possibility I would be desperate to know.

Joe