Re Poppa Gator's note that one of John Hurt's recordings was deliberately speeded up to fit onto a 78rpm disc. As far as my understaning goes this must mean that John had to play it faster in order to acheive this. Recordings at that time were made directly onto blank discs. "Mothers" were made and subsequent shellac pressings were therefore replicas of the original disc.
Speed variations were often a problem, some of the Bristol sessions from 1927 suffered. Anybody familiar with the re-issues of Norman Edmonds "Train on the Island" will realise that there was a problem which has only recently been corrected by Yazoo on their re-issue of the track. It now makes it possible to play banjo along with the track without falling over your fingers.

Speaking of Yazoo, does anybody have any idea if Rich and Sherwin at Yazoo have any more re-issue albums lined up.

Hoot