Reissue of the second Milkshakes album! Black vinyl stereo LP! "From the opening rasp of "SEVEN DAYS" to the dying chimes of "WO' NOW", the frenzied beat goes on. Even the more subdued tracks are given that unmistakable MILKSHAKES brand, pointing to THE MILKSHAKES being the undeniable leaders of world beat!" it says here. Following on from the imaginary international success of their debut album "Talking Bout_ " and the 45 "It's You" c/w "Please Don't Tell My Baby", the Milkshakes decided to squander what little money they had left on another long-player. The result was the cleverly-titled, if slightly boastful-sounding, "Fourteen Rhythm & Beat Greats". Indeed, if you close your eyes and unplug the record-player, all 14 - count 'em (next time you open your peepers) - finely-crafted tunes on this LP could almost qualify as "great", depending on where you stand, musically. I recommend just around the corner, out of earshot for best results. Featuring such live favourites as "Black Sails In The Moonlight" and Red Monkey", the general consensus was that this was THE MILKSHAKES' finest work to date (ask them yourselves). That must be partially true, as London's prestigious Big Beat Records figured it was good enough to reissue on their very own prestigious Big Beat record label - twice. But that was 40-odd (yikes_!) years ago, so please try and control your excitement and form an orderly queue_ although the sooner they sell out, it can be repressed - yet again - with the blue masthead. Bassist Russ Wilkins shares his memories of recording the LP_ "This was recorded in Herne Bay at Oakwood's second location. I think I'd just been there with the Prisoners, doing Taste of Pink. I was using my Framus Star Bass and just started using a Fender bass amp which let me down in the studio, so I had to use an AC30 top which was pretty distorted and not what I wanted but we had to go with it. You can hear it on 'No-one Else' which sounded great in rehearsal. 'Can You Tell Me' was the start of the stripping down where we tried to be as minimal as possible, I managed to get it to only two notes later on. There was, of course the Wall City version of the record which was put out by Hansi Steinmetz in Berlin - different colour Logo on the front. There are a lot more backing vocals on this one too. I guess I need to take some responsibility for that. It was recorded more like the previous Pop Rivets albums in that we all set up in the room together and played live, very few overdubs apart from the odd solo. The previous album had been done in the stairwell so was pretty "lively". We did one more like that and then changed tack when we released the seven albums in one day or whatever it was." RUSS WIILKINS, MAY 2025