SIGNED OF THE TIMES

Great article by Mark Thompson on The Smiths’ This Charming Man (RC356). I distinctly remember the band de-stringing beads fans had given them and throwing them down from their hotel window at the Angus Hotel in Dundee after their first Caird Hall show.

For those of us who could be bothered hovering about for an hour or so, the band came down, chatted and signed some stuff, including my 12” New York mix of This Charming Man (above). Johnny Marr said to me that they ‘Didn’t want it to come out, but I’ll sign it anyway’! I’ve learnt, from a Sanctuary source, that Morrissey will no longer sign any Smiths stuff.

The version I have has no band logo on the cover, and the ‘Capitol’ style logo has been overstickered with round Rough Trade stickers. There is also a ‘U.S. Mix £1.49 RRP’ sticker on the sleeve. Inevitably it would be interesting to get a value, not that I’m selling, but to let my daughter know why she shouldn’t draw on it, like The Smiths did.

Smiths collector Billy Albert writes: The good news is that usually earlier Smiths releases that are fully signed generally attract the highest bids if placed in an auction, and those signatures pictured are 110% genuine, I can vouch for that. On a bad day, you will probably be looking at £50 for a fully signed copy of This Charming Man, on a good day, you can expect to get £100 or more.

The bad news is that genuine signed items are in the minority these days compared with the number of fake signed items on the market, and punters are reluctant to buy signed stuff for premium prices due to that very real risk. The rise of fake signed items on the internet has spread almost like Black Death proportions which has damaged the signed memorabilia market almost irrevocably. It’s tragic to see the amount of money that gets shelled out by gullible buyers on items such as so-called fully signed guitars, drum skins and so-on....

by Jan Burnett
<< Back to Issue 356