The August Album Challenge: 24. My Turntable

My Turntable is the challenge today but seeing as I no longer have a Turntable I decided that maybe I'll post an album that used to get a lot of airplay when I did have a Record Player!

So, today's choice comes from 1978 and one of the great bands of the time...Magazine. 

The album was written over the preceding year by the band, with Howard Devoto providing all of the lyrics. The two earliest songs, "Shot by Both Sides" and "The Light Pours Out of Me", were co-written with Devoto's former Buzzcocks bandmate Pete Shelley. The majority of the material on the album was written by Devoto in collaboration with guitarist and founding member John McGeoch. "Motorcade" was co-written with the group's keyboardist, Bob Dickinson, who played with the group in mid-1977 before being dismissed. The music for the album's final track, "Parade", was written by Dickinson's replacement, Dave Formula, with bassist Barry Adamson.

Having toured much of the album through 1977 and early 1978, the group's then lineup of Devoto (vocals), McGeoch (guitar and saxophone), Adamson (bass), Formula (keyboards) and Martin Jackson (drums) recorded the album in sessions using the Virgin Mobile and at Abbey Road Studios between March and April 1978. The album was produced and engineered by John Leckie.

The original artwork and monoprint for the album was designed by Linder, with photography by Adrian Boot.

Real Life - Magazine

Virgin Records

Produced by John Leckie

Released June 1978

UK Chart #29

Personnel
Magazine
    Howard Devoto – vocals
    John McGeoch – guitar and saxophone
    Barry Adamson – bass guitar
    Dave Formula – keyboards
    Martin Jackson – drums

"no one that has the slightest interest in the present and future of rock 'n' roll should rest until they've heard Real Life"

- Melody Maker

Side A
1. "Definitive Gaze" - Devoto, John McGeoch
2. "My Tulpa" - Devoto, McGeoch
3. "Shot by Both Sides" - Devoto, Pete Shelley
4. "Recoil"  - Devoto, McGeoch 

5. "Burst" - Devoto
Side B
6. "Motorcade" - Devoto, Dickinson

7. "The Great Beautician in the Sky" - Devoto, McGeoch

8. "The Light Pours Out of Me" - Devoto, McGeoch, Shelley 

9. "Parade"- Barry Adamson, Dave Formula.

Shot by Both Sides was released as a single and reached #41 in the charts but did get them a performance on Top of the Pops.