by the American photographer Paul Caponigro. It's rare and expensive, but in my dreams I find it for £5 in a car boot sale.

Robert Altman's "Brewster McCloud," although I'm worried it might not be as marvellous as I recall it. I did recently find a copy of, "The Exploits of Engelbrecht" by Maurice Richardson and that was even better than I'd remembered.

Even an old VHS copy.

Also a concert video of the Tubes in their heyday (1979-80) when they had the big expensive sets.

All the Harry Potter first editions ... that would be really cool.

cos I could burn them.

pop song.

Jean Michel Jarre's Music For Supermarkets would be a nice one for me.

Though the likelihood of that really is pretty much nil.

that the stuff we might want must already have been produced...

me, i live in the increasingly folorn hope that some band will come along with an album which will make me feel the way i did when i first heard The Eight Legged Groove Machine, or Who's Next, or God's Own Medicine, or What's The Story, or Dubnobasswithmyheadman...

anyway, nothing's really come close in years - only Narcissuss Road by The Hours, maybe The Felice Brothers,
Jim White's Dig A Hole...not much else.

so, stuff i really, really want?

my youthful delusion that music really matters.

i'd really like that back.

Last Night - The world is about to end. Everybody knows and more or less accepts it, though the viewer is never told why. The film (by Don McKellar) follows various bods as they prepare for the end in various ways. It's brilliant. Last time I checked it wasn't available over here.

Grace Of My Heart - very roughly based on Carole King's career. It's not a great film in some respects - it's ridiculously naive about the music business - but has a truckload of good songs, some funny moments and the splendiferous Illeanna Douglas as the main figure. And her singing voice is provided by the heartstoppingly gorgeous breathy purr of one Kristen Vigard. I'd love to have this on DVD.

thinking more on this I'd love a copy of a book of Gaelic poetry that my Great, Great Uncle Roderick MacKay had published in 1930's it was called "Breezes of Tir nan Og "

I did track a copy down to the University of Cape Breton but they said it was beyond their means to photocopy it and send it to me.

Oh well.

by Wilco - I had it on a bonus cd ep with Being there and I have lost it or someone has stolen it. I can get the song on The 'Feeling Minnesota' soundtrack but I want the ep.
Also I want Elvis Costello to do a private concert for my next Birthday where I get to choose the setlist but I don't suppose that is going to happen.

Still, Birmingham City got back to the Premiership yesterday so that's one off the list.

CD reissues of any of Furniture's albums..can someone have a word with Jim Irvin, please?

...by Lee Kozmin.
Heard this song a couple of times very many years ago (late 70's ?) and remember it as a great three minute pop song that deserved to be a hit. Never heard it or found it since.

Soundtrack album. Probably not as good as I remember it, mind.

One of the funniest records ever.
Came out early 70's and is a Barry White soundalike piss take on those over the top soulful lurve songs.
I think the artist was a Mr. P. Vert.
Used to have a copy, someone 'borrowed' it, got another, someone else 'borrowed' that one.

Great tv show from the 1980's. First shown on itv. Ran for 2 series and I loved every minute. Even bought the theme tune on 7". Can't find it on dvd anywhere.

'Fervor' by Jason and the Scorchers on a decent CD remaster, with extras, particularly their version of 'Are you ready for the country?' from the White Lies 12".
Remastered CDs of all the Husker Du albums with decent extras (like their version of 'Ticket to Rde') SST and Warners.
C'mon Warners - I'll even pay full price for them!

I´ll tell you what I want, what I really really want. Well, if the question includes dinner with Cate Blanchett there is something I really really want.

Also, I´m kind of dreaming about the including-all-seasons-box-set of The Wire. But surely that´s just a question of patience, isn´t it?

I always loved the music they used. I wrote to the production company when it aired and was told it was by John Scott, but as far as I know it has never been released commercially.

Maybe concentrating on the Baltimore art/music scene?

Hard one to answer, too (in terms of 'artefacts'/consumer items, at least). Maybe I already have all I really need? Profound thought, that...

That said, I do occasionally go through phases of feeling that I'd really 'like' to own something - something 'unnecessary' but which I'd treasure nonetheless. Often for nostalgic reasons, I suppose. I bought a truly delightful Noggin The Nog ornament recently, after thinking about it on and off for about a year since a limited stock have been available. I guess if I was still thinking about it, it was something I 'needed' in a way. And I feel pleased to have it now!

I've tried to buy the odd copy of the very rare Anne Briggs EP 'The Hazards Of Love' on ebay a couple of times too, for similar reasons, but the bidding has always gone too high. When I 'need' it enough, maybe I'll find the money...

Also, I'd buy the mid 70s David Attenborough series 'Fabulous Animals' were it ever to appear on DVD. But I don't suppose it will...

Firstly a job!

Secondly, Susan R. (I'm not even certain if that's her name). I met her in a pub a few months back, but haven't seen her since.

Getting back on track, there's still oodles of jazz recordings I'm interested in, such as any Blue Note from the Reid Miles years that I don't own, likewise for anything on Impulse!. There's many other gaps - Mingus particularly - which I need to fill. More pressing is I appear to have lost my copy of Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch".

There's also many aspects of modern classical that I want to hear.

I wouldn't mind the Kraftwerk remasters if they ever appear, particularly the first three albums which have never been issued officially on CD.

Now there's a thought. On DVD (though I guess VHS would do just s well as digitising it'd be the equivalent of a full-on digital remaster of Robert Johnson).

Call me childish, but a complete Oliver Postgate box-set would be even better (was going to suggest it as the Xmas comp tiebreaker). But NOT in a supposedly child-friendly case with a dinky little handle.

Also, sets of same-author books with consistent jacket design. As a former book trade person I do know it was partly down to the economics of print runs. Complete-availability set of a single author is a rarity, and publishers rejacket at the drop of a (marketing) hat.

Just think of the rumpus if every Beatles reissue had been with different cover art?

Can't even be done (yet), even with the magic Espresso Book Gizmo as the source PDFs will be standardised. Guess I should post this on the Bookseller site, or get back into the book trade to agitate.

my copy of The Wrong people is almost dead...I'm not even bothereed aboiut 'remastering' and extra tracks, just make the sodding thing available...

I'd love to see Neat and Tidy again - it is just about available on VHS but I'd like a DVD. I've watched all the clips on YouTube and it just makes me want to see it more. I bet it's really quite rubbish though.

and revisit the Naughty Rhythms tour: Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers, Kokomo and Dr Feelgood. Gad it was a good night out: one of my first live experiences, and I cannot believe I blagged permission to go to it, at the time being a good boarding school boy. Thanks, Mr Riviera for choosing the Eastbourne Wintewr Gardens

by the Leighton Buzzards after I heard it on Annie Nightingale back in the early 80s. It was a record I only ever thought about when I was nowhere near a record shop. For years it existed in my head as a timeless piece of music all about the rough and tumble of a suedehead night out or something. Clearly this was completely blown when I picked up an mp3 of it and it turned out to be a bit rubbish.

"To feel the way you felt the first time you saw Jennie Chisholm's smile - the summer of '93?"

"No,not that"

"To go back in time and hang out with Donald Cammell and Jagger on the set of Performance and try it on with Anita Pallenburg?"

"No, not that"

"To have Maxine Brown sing Oh No Not My Baby for you and only for you at your birthday party?. Or see Spurs win the Premiership in our lifetime? Or find an unknown Eliot poem?Or go diving for pearls on the Zanzibar coast"

"No, none of those things"

"What then?"

"What I really want is that 20 quid I lent you yesterday"

...the British children's TV series "Tyrant King" on DVD. Took place in late -60s "swingin'" London, with a soundtrack including Cream, Moody Blues ("Dr. Livingstone I Presume") and the Stones ("She's A Rainbow"). It was about three teens running around London, trying to solve some kind of mystery (and being chased by stupid gangsters, of course).

...with a soundtrack including Cream, Moody Blues ("Dr. Livingstone I Presume") and the Stones ("She's A Rainbow").

There's your answer why it's not on DVD (and probably never will be).

...surely you're making this up, Myc...?

As heard on Father Ted and included on the b-side of The Divine Comedy's Gin Soaked Boy. Neil Hannon has all but disowned MLH and it's impossible to find a legal download.

All the thrillers by ECR Lorac/Carol Carnac that I don't have - every visit to a 2nd-hand bookshop is an adventure of possibility.

Ditto the Lorna Hill books I haven't already got.

They are availabe on Abe and other places but it's the prospect of the £1 or £2 bargain that thrills so.

Musically - Patti Smith sang a beautiful song at the first Latitude which doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere, it lives in my mind like a little beacon of loveliness.

Also, an undiscovered John Wyndham novel would be good!

When I was nobbut a lad in Infant School, there was this one book I borrowed from the local branch library several times, reading it each time. It is one of the few books, other than Tintin, that I can remember reading several times at that age.

I thought about it a few years ago and all I could remember was that it had a purple-ish cover and included the rescue of a Chinese princess from a mountain full of dragons by a steam train which was itself disguised as a dragon. From it's position on the library shelves, which I can still remember, the author's surname had to begin with F or G.

Now Google is a wonderful thing and a quick search revealled that the book was 'Jim Button ...' by Michael Ende , now known for 'The Neverending Story', which I have never read. Great, I thought, I'll by a cheap copy on abebooks and see if this book I can vaguely remember was actually any good.

The cheapest copy is £175.

All I want to do is read it, not own it, or collect it. So, I dream of finding it in some second-hand bookshop, preferably with a stamp from Rochdale libraries (which means it is the very same copy). But my little trip down memory lane, isn't worth £175.

Of course, if I could read German, the original language, I could buy dozens of copies for under a fiver. But I can't, so I won't. I could even buy it in Spanish, but I can't read that either. I just can't buy it in English.

I look forward to this idea of going into a bookshop and having the book you want printed off specially for you. Then I can read all about Jim Button , who I can't remember at all, and rescuing princesses from dragons.

Epaminondas, who swallowed the sea?

I remember reading ' Emile and the detectives' at school around the age of 8 or 9 and being really enthralled. When my daughter took up a keen interest in reading I really wanted to buy this book for her in the hope that she enjoyed it as much as i did. I ordered it from a bookshop in Lichfield and read it to her and with her. It didn't hold the same excitement for her as it did for me and the whole experience was something of a let down. So what we want is sometimes illusory - we only think we want it and when we get it there is a let down. still I am pretty sure my daughter will want to introduce Jacqueline Wilson to her kids in about 20 years so I guess we are perpetuating the dream.

In the last year or so I've eagerly bought DVDs Ace Of Wands and Do Not Adjust Your Set; both series I absolutely adored in my youth. The former is a bit slow and has dated badly whilst the latter is sadly unwatchable. The Ace Of Wands theme tune however remains superb.

Then there was a series (26 parts?) called The Long Chase featuring a young Penny from Just Good Friends and the future recording artist The King Of Luxembourg. I got dragged off to watch a test match against my will and missed the last bloody part. I don't want to rewatch it; I just wanted to register my still smouldering annoyance. Ithankyou.

the Disney charity album For the Children which featured His Bobliness performing a rather wonderful version of This Old Man. Availalbe on ebay at a price, but I/m not that desperate...

Better versions of my tatty Hal Wilner collections (Monk, Mingus, Arlen, plus the ones I don't have)

A replacement copy of the Saints 1-2-3-4 EP. Mine disappeared.(Pretty much the best fun I ever had onstage was playing that at the Third Eye.)

I bought a copy of "Ken Dodd Rocks But Gently" for 20p in a jumble sale - someday I'd like one that I can listen to, at least once.

The first 2 Quads singles.

A replacement copy of "Exile On Main St" on vinyl - I should never have let that one go.

and that's just the vinyl.

I would also like the jury to take into consideration my needs for half a dozen electric guitars (current list is 2 Mosrites, a Danelectro baritone, an ES-5, a Jaguar, a 335 ) and a Jimmy Moon Mandolin shaped like a Telecaster.

Give me 10 minutes and I'll have a couple more.

A complete set of the Pan Books of Horror from the seventies edited by the wonderfully named Herbert Van Thal.

Oh,and a CD issue of the 1979 New York Shakespear Festival cast recording of The Threepeny Opera with Raul Julia as Mack the Knife.

Small things make me happy.

Did you know... that one of these inspired the name and some of the songs on the sole album by the original and epic Leafhound c.1971? The Zeppelin who could have been.... Everyone should hear 'Freelance Fiend' at least once...

The Threepenny Opera I was after has just this month been made available for download from Amazon!

If you're a fan of proto-communist, Weimar Republic adaptations of 16th century Opera then you're in for a treat, pop pickers!

Its got a good beat and i like the words.

Now for those Pan Books of Deeply Dated Socio-Cultural Documents!

love to go back to 1985/86, where I could be 14 and listen to the Smiths again for the first time, and watch Chester City at their old, terribly sadly missed Sealand Road ground.

a copy of Chicken Shacks album "Accept". Was a seminal album in my plooky youth.. I saw them supporting Family at The Usher Hall, 1969 (?).... Stan Webb and his 40ft lead played well up the aisle... any clues to where I can get this one?

Peter Tinniswood. I've got all the books now, a batch of cds and cassettes of assorted radio plays, the "I Didnt Know You Cared" dvd set, but there are bits missing. Some radio plays, The Home Front TV series for starters.

And if the Yorkshire Post had any sense they'd do a one-off binding of all the columns he ever wrote for them, just for me. Assuming the Yorkshire Post is still going.

Plus an original of some Searle artwork, preferably from "Back In The Jug Agane". It'll soon be Christmas you know...

Two examples leap to mind : Beefheart's "Lick My Decals Off Baby" has not been in the shops for the best part of twenty years. Also loads of folk albums of the 1960s and 70s , those by Nic Jones being the most depressingly unissued.

Try e music: Penguin Eggs is there

I've always wanted to see the ITV adaption of Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match trilogy from the 1980s but it doesn't seem to be available on DVD, no doubt due to either a complete lack of interest or some complicated rights issue (or it was rubbish).

Also, I'd love a DVD of the Ronald Coleman move version of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' but either can't see it on Amazon or don't have the internet smarts to track it down. I saw it on the telly one afternoon while off sick from work and it made me feel a whole let better.

Living With Dinosaurs - directed by Anthony Mingella. about a young boy who's best friend is a soft toy dinosaur which comes to life when no one else is around. The dinosaur is obsessed with Elvis and his rendition of Love me Tender sang to the boys sleeping mum's pregnant stomach is something special. The dinosaur is voiced by Jim Henson, the mum is played by Juliet Stevenson and Martin Maloney plays the dad. Ace.

A slightly suspect children's film starring Tommy Steele in which he plays a toy in a shop at Christmas trying to get to Santa before the reject toys are incinerated, I think, It's been a long time since I saw it. No idea on the title or year or anything!

...correct. Although I suspect it is probably rubbish. I'd still like to see it again.

...As an ex-geek, I used to collect comic art - and the piece I really, really wanted was the splash page to New Mutants #18, which introduced me to the Jimi Hendrix of artists, Bill Sienkiewicz. On and off, I've been looking for this page for 10 years, and finally I've tracked it down. I made the owner the proverbial "offer he couldn't refuse" and hopefully, it should be with me in a week or two.

This is the published version. The original is about 11 x 7 and black and white. I'm completely thrilled that it's coming my way, less thrilled to have outed myself as an uber-nerd :-)

Audio book, read by the man himself in trademark mesmeric style.

to realise the folly of his face-spiting-nose-cutting-off and to turn up and play with the Specials when I see them on the rescheduled date on Saturday.

I've waited and waited for The Greengage Summer (book by Rummer Godden) to be released on DVD. It starred a gorgeous young Susannah York and was released in 1961 and I remember seeing it in the early 70s on tv and the film has never left me.In view of the waste of material that many dvds are why has this film never made the stores?

Also Mike Brearley in conversation with John Arlott. A series on Channel 4 which covered cricket, wine and his life and was a joy to watch. I did once try to advertise in Wisden for a VHS copy but they refused to carry the advert due to copywrite issues!

Other than that I've got too many books, cds, magazines and dvds. If I read none stop for the rest of my life I couldn't finish the books I have so why do I still buy so many?

i could go on for ages but don't want to be greedy. these are my most sorely felt wants:
Katie Lee's Songs of Couch and Consultation or indeed anything else by Katie Lee. Her "Will to Fail", picked up from a RE/Search compilation years ago, has become a huge personal favourite.
Evie Sands's version of "Angel of the Morning" even though I've heard it's disappointing and while I'm at it I don't have "The love of a Boy" either.

Saw these on TV in about '81-'82, was surprised recently to see there is no legit DVD release. Wonder if they are as good as I recall them being ?

(edit: Looks like it was, found first ep here

)

I'd love to read Bill Drummond/The KLF's "The Manual" and David Kavanagh's history of Creation records "My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize" without shelling out the sum of one arm and one leg. I remember a discussion on the Word podcast a good while ago about a facility in big London bookshop for the printing of out-of-print/rare books. Does anyone know if it still exists and could it perhaps help with this?

Looking around for this dont want to bay amazons silly prices of 40 odd quid or more any ideas people )