When guitarist Ian Mitchell left the Bay City Rollers in 1976, he got together with his old bandmates from the Young City Stars and formed Rosetta Stone. The group was marketed like an Irish version of the Rollers, but never took off in the US. Their debut album was their only American release.

While doing some BCResearch on the net, I found out about this Japanese release, Retrospective Roller (2004), which compiles the band's first two albums as well as a non-LP single and b-side.



1. If paradise is half as nice
2. Penny
3. At the disco
4. Sunshine of your love
5. Rock and Roll
6. Judy Judy Judy
7. Drive on
8. Angelina
9. Steel Willie
10. Free as a bird
11. You really got me
12. Door to the party
13. House party
14. Na na na
15. Who you are
16. No better than the rest
17. Try it on
18. Gonna grab it
19. Hey little girl
20. Now´s the time
21. Play the game
22. Sheila
23. I don´t like it

I know finding a Rosetta Stone fan is probably a hundred times harder than finding a Rollers fan, but if anyone has heard this release, I'm curious to know their thoughts about it.

That's on Wizzard In Vinyl (it's a CD reissue label actually ), who along with Air Mail are the two Japanese reissue labels that you can almost buy from sight unseen because they fuss and preen over every release. Excellent sound and thorough packaging, worth getting for the Rollers collection. (But if you're anything like me you'll play it once or twice then archive it. )

Or let a year pass by and not even bother getting it. I only bought the first Rosetta Stone album when I saw it marked down for $2.99 at Woolworths circa 1980 and it was okay, but they wasn't no Rollers, that's fer sure.