Gifts beyond the grave or pure coincidences

In my recent collections, I have been noticing a bit of a pattern of what I have been buying without even noticing too much since I love these songs and materials anyway. A lot of the items the photos were done by the late Eric Watson and some weren’t, but the videos were done by Watson and some were both photos and videos done by him. There’s more of course but I’m only speaking for what I have gotten thus far. 

Reason the titled mentions gifts beyond the grave was because I did a post about Eric Watson on here not  too long ago, a good friend of mine told me of his passing. I was sad but I didn't know much about him and still clueless besides of what I know of his work and all. From what I read he was fantastic only wished I knew who he was as a person, like a lot of the artists I like or starting to adore. Ever since I did that post, a lot of his items wind up coming out of nowhere in Amoeba Music    and we aren't just talking about these items, rare and limited ones for that matter and the best part they were actually pretty affordable! I have so much I can decorate my room with a bunch of art. The rarest of the items I have that Eric done are: The two "West End Girls" vinyls, The Further Listenings, Smash Hits Yearbook 1983, and the remixes (he did the video though, not the design) and I guess also the 45s too of "Suburbia" and "Heart" and the 2000 collection compilation( the Nightlife era photo was by him), The CD maxi single (4 discs) and Essential and the Lenticular casing of Alternative. Out of all the further Listenings, Actually was the only one I didn't buy from Amazon, I gotten it from Amoeba. I was trying to help someone with their post about the conflicting info about Allison Watt's painting of Eric Watson's photo that was originally the idea of Actually and wouldn't you know it, it was right in the store! Someone was portraying Chris Lowe from the Love Comes Quickly photo very poorly and I mean this person didn't even try to get it close to the photo, I'm not an expert but there is a such thing as effort and the person didn't have no effort at all. For one using a different color for one thing it was such a view to see! Hey I'm a critiquer, I have to say it like it is. Wouldn't you believe that the Love Comes Quickly( he did both the video and the photos) vinyl popped out of nowhere? I'm telling it's very bizarre! I even developed liking the Pet Shop Boys at their early career and funny thing moments after that, The Maxi CD Single and the two "West End Girls" vinyls I found them, for one I was listening to "Pet Shop Boys" one of their early experimental work and I found the 12 inch version of it? I'm telling you it's very strange! One thing I do regret was not getting the vinyl of "Always on my Mind" but the image was so tiny; it was smaller than the Please image. The "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore" single was still hanging in there so I finally gotten it, then later on or before I can't remember but Essential (like the Further Listenings some of the photos were done by him) was in my midst. I'm still not over finding the rare version of the Alternative casing even though Eric only did the portrait photos in the inside of the booklet. Then being  constant like I am, this guy was telling about another section they had in the back of the store where 12inch vinyls were and "So Hard" was one( he did the video and the photo), limited edition of "New York City Boy"( he did the photo series, not the design) "Domino Dancing" (he did the video, not the photo, and Clare told me on Wayne's site that this song Neil mentioned that it was a reference from Soft Cell's "Numbers" which funnily that's not my favorite Soft Cell song, but I love "Domino Dancing"). The 45s I was even shocked they had those in Amoeba and out of the ones they had were "Heart"(only the photo series)and "Suburbia"(he did the video and the photo series) which were photos done by Watson himself. Recently I gotten a CD version of "Was it Worth It?" to match my vinyl he did the video of the song. DJ Culturemix was one I gotten from Amazon, Clare told me that the Grid (Dave Ball and Richard Norris) did a remix of "DJ Culture" wouldn't you believe that he did the photo series and the video to it? and lastly the Smash Hits Yearbook, you do see my Best of Smash Hits the 80's, it was just a brief reminder he was one of the photographers for the magazine. The 1983 Smash Hits yearbook I would have never guessed there was something Eric Watson did right before you hit the Soft Cell photo, and it wouldn't you guess it had the Smash Hits team in their favorite art logo or item on their t-shirts and it included Krysia and Neil too! It shocked the hell out of me, I didn't think you can find that in the Smash Hits Yearbook! And Catalogue there's more Eric Watson references and we aren't just talking about in the book, but really the "Suburbia" glossy case and the the peach/pink/salmon color you can see the "I Don't know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore" photo! 

I swear it's so weird, you'd think I had some kind of connection or something but I don't and yet I wind up with so much(well to me it's a lot) of his work! I guess it doesn't suck to give out tributes to artists who have an actual passion or interest in the material!