This is a great artifact from the early days of dels fandom, when men were men (well, as is apparent from the photos within, boys, actually.) and initial d's were lowercase. Once again caps must be doffed to the then-dels tireless then-manager, Barbara Shores, whose determination put the dels on the map in the U.K. and even made inroads in the U.S.A., which certainly set the stage for their eventual success -- such as it was, Justin Currie might well add. I'm sure Barbara was behind this little artifact. I'm not sure of its origins; I was a card-carrying member of the dels fan club, and received loads of memorabilia (more on that to come) but never saw this until I found it tucked in the sleeve of a used copy of their first LP several years later at good old Yesterday and Today Records on Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland (Respect!). But I can't say for a fact that the photo album originally came with that record album, in some limited edition release, or was just stored there by the previous owner. I suspect the latter, but if any other del-heads can shed any light, please do!
Meanwhile, here is the whole book, all 16 pages scanned as one .pdf file. They're not the cleanest scans in the world, no, some a bit crooked or with staples showing etc., but that'll just add to the authenticity of the experience of really thumbing through it, right? :^) Enjoy this trip down memory lane, to a more innocent time... when Justin's cynicism was still mostly feigned.
Oh, and as for that trove of other early dels memorabilia... that's for another post. Soon!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=53CNGPT0
and 
-- except "Sleepyhead", an outtake from their tepid, Olson-less Grass follow-up, 
. My favorites are covers, "Last Cigarette" (by that great songwriter, Anonymous), sung by the band's keyboard player Karen Grotberg, and a romp through gospel standard "Up Above My Head". For those who love the band's elliptical songwriting, though, "Keith and Quentin" and "Leave No Gold" are up there with any originals on Hollywood -- though perhaps not those on the near-flawless Green Grass. Speaking of which, also here is an example of one of my favorite rock phenomena, a non-album title song, to go with that very album. The live tracks give a taste of the band's onstage power.
touts forthcoming "deluxe" reissues of those two great albums, HTH and TTGG, and most if not all of these tracks will likely appear there. Meanwhile, though, here they are on The Rare Stuff!
.
(including the reissue of the first album which added 3 b-sides) or the b-side compilation 
. If I'm counting right, that's a total of 76 songs. Those six albums contain a total of 60-some songs (not gonna count 'em right now), so as I said at the series' inception, with these collections we have more than doubled the band's discography. The completist in me is del-ighted to have shared all of this, as this is one of the few bands whose every released track I believe I own.
-- and if you get it or the others through my Amazon link, that would be one small way to contribute both to Mr. Currie and to this blog. (I say small because I get pennies per purchase and would have to accumulate a huge number of such purchases to get a payout. Those wishing to support The Rare Stuff more directly are most welcome to make a 
