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Tim Book Two: Vinyl Adventures from Istanbul to San Francisco
In 2012, Tim Burgess of the Charlatans published his hugely successful and critically acclaimed memoir, Telling Stories. Tim really enjoyed his new role as an author, and so here it is: Tim Book Two - a tale of Tim's lifelong passion for records, the shops that sell them, and the people who make them.
In some ways, the biggest events in Tim's life happened in the couple of years after he had finished writing his first book rather than in the forty years before. So he had more to say, but instead of another autobiography he chose a different way of telling the story. Tim set himself a quest. He would get in touch with people he admired, and ask them to suggest an album for him to track down on his travels, giving an insight into what makes them tick. It would also offer a chance to see how record shops were faring in the digital age - one in which vinyl was still a much-treasured format.
Tim assembled his cast of characters, from Iggy Pop to Johnny Marr, David Lynch to Cosey Fanni Tutti. Texts, phone calls, emails and handwritten notes went out. Here is the tender, funny and surprising story of what came back.
In some ways, the biggest events in Tim's life happened in the couple of years after he had finished writing his first book rather than in the forty years before. So he had more to say, but instead of another autobiography he chose a different way of telling the story. Tim set himself a quest. He would get in touch with people he admired, and ask them to suggest an album for him to track down on his travels, giving an insight into what makes them tick. It would also offer a chance to see how record shops were faring in the digital age - one in which vinyl was still a much-treasured format.
Tim assembled his cast of characters, from Iggy Pop to Johnny Marr, David Lynch to Cosey Fanni Tutti. Texts, phone calls, emails and handwritten notes went out. Here is the tender, funny and surprising story of what came back.
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 21, 2016
15 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 15, 2017
Great concept for a book from someone well qualified. As a vinyl collector in a previous life it was a fab read and made me want to listen to some stuff I hadn't listened to in a long time (Been listening to Forever Changes by Love all week!) Also from a personal point of view there were many references to Moulton, Northwich and mates of Tim's I knew of when I was young, being from the same village and going to the same primary and high school. If you've ever stood in a record shop, flicking through the vinyl, you'll love it! :)
August 3, 2016
A really interesting tale of tunes and travel, Tim's interest in record collecting and love of music really comes across in this well written easy flowing book...... Can't wait for the next book, Opportunity 3? 1,2, Another?!
June 9, 2018
Even less tightly held together than the previous book, Burgess started with nothing more than a title, Tim Book Two, and he pretty much wings it from there. To be fair, it IS an excellent title. Although I'm not a collector of vinyl, I have stood in stores and flicked one-by-one through racks of things looking roughly for the things I want but always willing to be surprised by something I didn't know i needed. I have done the thing where you fill up the gaps between actual things by seeking out specialty stores and chin-nodding at the other nerds inside. Collecting is fun and Tim is always about having fun. He's such a likable and guileless narrator, and his stories are shamelessly sentimental and often hilarious. This book is all about joy and it's another triumph.
October 13, 2020
Perhaps entirely appropriately for a book of recommendations, this brilliant and heartwarming book came to me as a recommendation over a lockdown Zoom call. Burgess’s idea of getting a group of friends to make recommendations for records he can pick up on his travels across the globe is an inspired one, leading to this excellent and pretty much unputdownable book that goes a very long way to explain the joy and pleasure of record collecting and does so with a wit, honesty and love that cannot be denied.
Burgess is a compelling narrator: he is full of wide eyed wonder and enthusiasm for his passion and shares it with a kindness and optimism that is infectious. This is a book packed with anecdote, back stories and insightful tales; not a page goes by without a thoughtful recommendation of another artist to explore, resulting in the sort of music book that you want to be spending lots of time with and the sort of music book that you’ll equally spend lots of time telling your friends how good it is.
Burgess is a compelling narrator: he is full of wide eyed wonder and enthusiasm for his passion and shares it with a kindness and optimism that is infectious. This is a book packed with anecdote, back stories and insightful tales; not a page goes by without a thoughtful recommendation of another artist to explore, resulting in the sort of music book that you want to be spending lots of time with and the sort of music book that you’ll equally spend lots of time telling your friends how good it is.
February 7, 2019
This is a simple enough premise, if not a somewhat flimsy one. Tim Burgess receives recommendations from his famous peers for definitive records that he can search for in record shops around the world while he is on tour with his band, The Charlatans. Each slice of vinyl receives it's own brief chapter with a bit of a introduction to the person who recommended it, their relationship with the author and finally, on the record itself. It can be a little repetitive but once you are comfortable with the format it can be read in short grabs which seems to suit the narrative. More than anything, it is a big love letter to vinyl, to the record stores that sell them and the kind of people that are part of that whole scene from the owners to the geeky enthusiasts. Readable if you feel like falling in love with vinyl all over again but the better part of Tim Burgess's tale has already been told.
August 26, 2017
Tim Burgess is the lead singer of the UK band, The Charlatans, and Vinyl Adventures is the follow-up to his first book and memoir, Telling Stories. Burgess is a good writer who loves music and he writes passionately about his worldwide search for over fifty records recommended to him by friends and figures in the music industry. Following the success of Telling Stories, Burgess contacted dozens of (mostly) British and American musicians he's met while recording and touring with The Charlatans for nearly three decades. As well as former members of Joy Division &The Smiths, Burgess also gets his message out to people he admires such as Iggy Pop and the film director, David Lynch. The recommendations range from such established classics as Unknown Pleasures, Pet Sounds and Ziggy Stardust to obscure albums from Sybille Baier (Colour Green), Lou Christie Sacco (Paint America Love) and Tomita (Snowflakes Are Dancing).
Burgess divides the book into chronological chapters that generally focus on each album recommended, the city he's in at the time and the journeys to the record stores to try to find each album. Despite this neat structure, some chapters read more like diary or blog entries, with his ruminations on the album or the record shop added as an afterthought. Burgess writes engagingly about this stuff, but these digressions take away from the real focus of the book. Sometimes he doesn't tell us anything about the particular album or the city or the record shop. However, when he does get it right, Burgess really nails what it's like for a music fan to explore a new city and discover a record shop and chat to the person behind the counter whilst flicking through the album covers. Vinyl Adventures wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it's a good read for anyone who loves the smell of old records and the shops where they's still sold, the people that work there and the folks who frequent these places.
Burgess divides the book into chronological chapters that generally focus on each album recommended, the city he's in at the time and the journeys to the record stores to try to find each album. Despite this neat structure, some chapters read more like diary or blog entries, with his ruminations on the album or the record shop added as an afterthought. Burgess writes engagingly about this stuff, but these digressions take away from the real focus of the book. Sometimes he doesn't tell us anything about the particular album or the city or the record shop. However, when he does get it right, Burgess really nails what it's like for a music fan to explore a new city and discover a record shop and chat to the person behind the counter whilst flicking through the album covers. Vinyl Adventures wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it's a good read for anyone who loves the smell of old records and the shops where they's still sold, the people that work there and the folks who frequent these places.
March 2, 2018
Judging by the cover (yes, that old chestnut), I was expecting some grand old yarns about secluded record stored dotted around the world, the treasures within, the thrill of the hunt and the mad dash to collect, the ache, the yearning, the waiting, the patience, the find, the pounce, the bragging rights, the ecstacy of finally playing the elusive long-sought-after piece of vinyl. What I got was this to a greater or lesser extent (a bit too often the lesser extent), and more about serial name-dropping from (I assume) largely the UK Alt-Rock scene by a guy I'd never heard of from a band I'd never heard of, featuring recommendations I'm mostly not interested in. The thing about living near the arse-end of the world (as I do), is that name-dropping comes across as a form of pretense. yeah, I know, imagine that in the world of alt-rock! But it largely falls on deaf ears the way I imaging cooking shows play out in North Korea.
The key to reading this (as I did with another music-based book recently), was to read one entry per day (just to spread out the pain) and listen to said recommendation while reading the entry. Of the few folk whom I did know of, this was a little window into their 'extra-curriculum' listening, and I did pick up a thing or two along the way, but for the most part, Tim Burgess' and my music worlds meet briefly on the peripheral. Which is one of the beautiful things about music, there's so much of it out there. But also one of the frustrating things, in that I found it difficult to maintain interest in reading.
In the spirit of this memoir, I'll ramble on about my near-miss with the Charlatans. It was around halfway through the book that Tim mentioned that they'd played at Knebworth with Oasis. 'Hang On a minute' I said to myself, I was at Knebworth for that famous event. Don't tell me I've actually seen this band after all! A quick google-fu to the rescue, and, sure enough, they played on the day I didn't attend (the particular gig in question being spread out over 2 days). So I'd missed The Charlatans by a day. True story.
The other near miss is that I haven't always lived near the arse end of the world. And Tim described one record store he visited in Shibuya, Tokyo (where I did live for awhile) that was a happy hunting ground of mine for many many years. And Tokyo remains an incredible vinyl and music hunting ground to this day.
So, with about 3 albums recommended from the entire book that I already had, and the rest I wasn't really tempted into buying after a listen and a read, and the whole thing becoming a bit of a chore to read, what did I get out of the book? Tim is a keen collector, and so am I. We share the same passion, and at least one type of collecting, even if our music worlds only marginally co-incide. And the passion for the chase occasionally bobs up through the name-dropping and the otherwise pedestrian memoirs which on more than a number of entries didn't even mention a record shop. While he did tie it all up eventually, with each recommendation linked ultimately to a place of purchase, I felt a bit cheated by the promise of the book, and the delivery. Points for a common passion, but I likely would have told my past self not to bother.
The key to reading this (as I did with another music-based book recently), was to read one entry per day (just to spread out the pain) and listen to said recommendation while reading the entry. Of the few folk whom I did know of, this was a little window into their 'extra-curriculum' listening, and I did pick up a thing or two along the way, but for the most part, Tim Burgess' and my music worlds meet briefly on the peripheral. Which is one of the beautiful things about music, there's so much of it out there. But also one of the frustrating things, in that I found it difficult to maintain interest in reading.
In the spirit of this memoir, I'll ramble on about my near-miss with the Charlatans. It was around halfway through the book that Tim mentioned that they'd played at Knebworth with Oasis. 'Hang On a minute' I said to myself, I was at Knebworth for that famous event. Don't tell me I've actually seen this band after all! A quick google-fu to the rescue, and, sure enough, they played on the day I didn't attend (the particular gig in question being spread out over 2 days). So I'd missed The Charlatans by a day. True story.
The other near miss is that I haven't always lived near the arse end of the world. And Tim described one record store he visited in Shibuya, Tokyo (where I did live for awhile) that was a happy hunting ground of mine for many many years. And Tokyo remains an incredible vinyl and music hunting ground to this day.
So, with about 3 albums recommended from the entire book that I already had, and the rest I wasn't really tempted into buying after a listen and a read, and the whole thing becoming a bit of a chore to read, what did I get out of the book? Tim is a keen collector, and so am I. We share the same passion, and at least one type of collecting, even if our music worlds only marginally co-incide. And the passion for the chase occasionally bobs up through the name-dropping and the otherwise pedestrian memoirs which on more than a number of entries didn't even mention a record shop. While he did tie it all up eventually, with each recommendation linked ultimately to a place of purchase, I felt a bit cheated by the promise of the book, and the delivery. Points for a common passion, but I likely would have told my past self not to bother.
August 23, 2016
Tim book two: nothing to write home about.
I loved telling stories, and read it in a day or so. Alas this vinyl Odyssey or rather oddity reading like a pretentious list put up on social media to enhance the poster's cool.
At least Gary Neville + James Cordon were believable, if not predictable. Respects to Weller.
Patchy and read over a long time.
I loved telling stories, and read it in a day or so. Alas this vinyl Odyssey or rather oddity reading like a pretentious list put up on social media to enhance the poster's cool.
At least Gary Neville + James Cordon were believable, if not predictable. Respects to Weller.
Patchy and read over a long time.
June 9, 2018
I was expecting this book to be a series of album recommendations with explanations of why from the artist recommending it and Tim's reaction after listening to it.
Mostly, it's a series of stories about the artists recommending albums, and the stories of Tim searching for the albums. Occasionally you hear the reason for the recommendation, and occasionally you hear Tim's reaction to the album.
I'm not quite sure what the point was now that I finished the book. Maybe Tim Burgess is simply beyond my comprehension, much like John Coltrane and Yoko Ono.
Recommended for the hard core vinyl fans who enjoy nothing more than spending hours in obscure record stores, looking for elusive albums and talking to the staff.
JUST as I typed that sentence, I realized that I feel about comics and comic book stores like Tim feels about records and record stores...which adds an additional star to the rating. LOL!
Mostly, it's a series of stories about the artists recommending albums, and the stories of Tim searching for the albums. Occasionally you hear the reason for the recommendation, and occasionally you hear Tim's reaction to the album.
I'm not quite sure what the point was now that I finished the book. Maybe Tim Burgess is simply beyond my comprehension, much like John Coltrane and Yoko Ono.
Recommended for the hard core vinyl fans who enjoy nothing more than spending hours in obscure record stores, looking for elusive albums and talking to the staff.
JUST as I typed that sentence, I realized that I feel about comics and comic book stores like Tim feels about records and record stores...which adds an additional star to the rating. LOL!
July 8, 2021
This is a somewhat generous three star rating. It’s not much of a book, per se, although full credit for the ingenious book title. Tim Burgess is/was the songwriter for a band called the Charlatans UK, not well known in America and more of a britpop also-ran from the era of Blur and Oasis. I know him mostly from his Twitter persona as a good-hearted popularizer of obscure records and bands; and that’s what you get in this book, a ramshackle odyssey of vinyl racks and record stores around the globe, seeking out recommendations from friends famous (David Lynch, Iggy Pop) and obscure, telling stories all along. It is very pleasant but seems like it could have been a great blog or podcast instead of a full-length book.
February 17, 2018
This book has a very cool concept, of Tim Burgess getting vinyl recommendations from friends and going on a journey to find them. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Some chapters barely relate to the records at all. Some focus too much on Burgess' own life, which he covered in his first book, an autobiography. Even the record stores he visits are rarely-detailed. Why do these record stores stand out? How did he find these records? What did he think of them? I think answers to those questions would have made for a much better book.
October 30, 2018
This is a wonderful read, the premise is simple: Tim Burgess asks people to recommend one album, which he then buys in a second hand store.
There’s a whole variety of people, suggestions and stories of how Tim finds the records.
It’s a romp of a book, with great insights into different genres of music and Tim Burgess’ life.
Highly recommended
There’s a whole variety of people, suggestions and stories of how Tim finds the records.
It’s a romp of a book, with great insights into different genres of music and Tim Burgess’ life.
Highly recommended
January 2, 2018
Again, was surprised to enjoy this as much as I did - the extended break resulting more from not wanting to cart this around in South America.
I’m excited to visit these albums - perhaps I’ll finally get my act together to start collecting.
I’m excited to visit these albums - perhaps I’ll finally get my act together to start collecting.
October 28, 2019
Pretty entertaining. Tim Burgess comes across very well - someone who loves music, someone who doesn't think too much of himself, and it made me want to go and listen to some of the albums I have, and to seek out some of the ones I haven't heard of.
November 28, 2019
Amazing vinyl adventures
Hard to find a better book on the subject of chasing down that elusive slab of vinyl. Loved every page and am now checking out the recommendations that I don't already possess .
Thanks Tim . Loved Telling Stories too. More please
Hard to find a better book on the subject of chasing down that elusive slab of vinyl. Loved every page and am now checking out the recommendations that I don't already possess .
Thanks Tim . Loved Telling Stories too. More please
September 12, 2020
Interesting idea, but ultimately tries too hard to be a travelogue, a book about great records and great record stores, and a tale of encounters with stars of the music world. Maybe focusing on just two of those would have made for a tighter, more compelling narrative?
July 17, 2022
I'm not terribly fussed on The Charlatans music either way, but Tim Burgess is obviously a lovely fellow. His writing is warm, enthusiastic and engaging. He captures his love of music superbly and articulates so very, very well the joys of going to a particularly good record shop.
May 18, 2024
Great book to introduce me to many albums/songs I didn’t know, but should know. I kept my phone nearby to look up every band/song/album mentioned- and blew my mind with how much great music is out there waiting to be heard for the first time by music lovers.
May 5, 2017
Loved it! Plenty of recommendations to check out both for vinyl and record shops. Chocked full of anecdotes and Tim's enthusiasm is infectious.
June 16, 2017
Part travelogue, part biography, part OCD quest. Great read.
October 27, 2017
Lovely book for music fans and vinyl aficionados alike. Tim Burgess can write as well as he can sing, he also name checks a Charlatans gig I went to as well :)
March 11, 2018
I really liked the concept. One to dip in and out of for the albums you know. Revisited the Charlatans albums and remembered how much I liked them.
May 11, 2018
For anybody who loves buying music in its purest form, written by a like mind whose endearing stories really paint a picture and convey the love someone can have for an art form.
June 26, 2020
Lovely homage to record shopping and very funny
October 6, 2021
Absolutely joy to read. Couldn't stop smiling from page to page x.
September 8, 2022
Fantastic. Looking forward to discovering and rediscovering loads of music and dusting off my sadly recently underused record player again. Thanks Tim!
January 7, 2017
This book is what it is - you won't find ultra rare records or too many tales of scrounging through the shops - although this aspect does ramp up near the end as Tim's desperation to find the last few records rises.
It's more a book about Tim and the people he's asked to recommend the Lps - and the music itself.
I enjoyed it a lot - and Tim's such a lovely bloke it gets an extra half a star.
It's more a book about Tim and the people he's asked to recommend the Lps - and the music itself.
I enjoyed it a lot - and Tim's such a lovely bloke it gets an extra half a star.
January 12, 2017
Telling Stories, Tim's previous book, was a cracking read (I may be a tad biased as I'm a massive Charlatans fan and this review has probably gained an extra star due to this, thinking about it) but this just felt a tad disjointed compared. Hard to describe but the first book didn't really have much structure and was better for it - this feels like a series of stories and name drops shoehorned around visits to record shops. I admire the idea behind the book but it falls short somehow. A missed opportunity.
August 21, 2016
made me dig out Screaming Target again for the first time in ages! very enjoyable
April 10, 2017
interesting, kind of fun musings on records and people. it's completely unfocused and bounces around, but the writing is so good, it doesn't matter. i've no idea who 75% of the people are in this book -- up to and including the author -- but i definitely have some new record recommendations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews