Angus Kidman – anguskidman.show

LATEST NEWS: How poor are ALDI’s April 2026 vinyl special buys?

ALDI’s special buys bin this week (kicking off 21 August 2024) once again features 10 vinyl records. Are any of them a good buy? Frankly, no. Here’s what you need to know.

• Each is priced at $19.99, which is $2 more than the last ALDI vinyl sale in April.
• Every single one of these records is a dubious radio bootleg of live performances, able to be released because of a loophole in European copyright law which holds that radio broadcasts in some markets (including the Netherlands) only have limited copyright protection. They’re not illegal, but they don’t seem very ethical – or very high quality.
• ALDI Australia has been selling records from these radio sources since Christmas 2023. However, this marks the first time that every single vinyl record in an ALDI sale is effectively a bootleg, with absolutely nothing licensed from a major label. This is not a good sign. ALDI’s usual suspect labels (Khemco, Musicbank, I Love Vinyl) all show up.
• As often happens, ALDI is also selling a turntable to bring in folks who might believe (erroneously) that there really is an ongoing vinyl revival. This time around, it’s a $99.99 turntable with speakers, in a blandling shade of faux wood. It’s “compatible with 18cm, 25cm and 30cm records”, which are not measures you’ll see often anywhere else in the vinyl music world.

Of the 10 titles, half are familiar from previous sales. The Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Led Zeppelin titles all showed up in the Christmas 2023 batch.

And the Police disc (which comes from multiple concerts) was in the April 2024 sale.

So that leaves 5 “new” titles. Here’s what’s on them.

Blondie, Hits Live! This might depend what hits you want. It’s a 1978 recording (November 4 1978 in Boston to be precise), so you’re not going to see ‘Rapture’ or ‘Atomic’. And despite that early date, no sign of ‘In The Flesh’, which was Blondie’s first Australian hit.

The Clash, Stay Free . . . Live 1979-1982. All the expected hits are present (‘London Calling’, ‘Rock The Casbah’, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’, ‘Train In Vain’), but the sources for this release aren’t super-clear.

Dire Straits, Best Of . . . Live. In expected Dire Straits tedious style, there are just 5 tracks here, each running for at least 6 minutes, with an 18:39 take on ‘Tunnel Of Love’ that I can definitely do without, thanks. The tracks are variously sourced from 1979, 1985 and 1986. At least ‘Money For Nothing’ is here.

The Eagles, Live At Warner Brothers Studio 1994. Dating from the time of the Eagles’ first big cash-in reunion for Hell Freezes Over, this rounds up 10 Eagles numbers from a live-in-the-studio session. Some of the expected classics are here (‘Hotel California’, ‘Tequila Sunrise’), but you’d never get me near an Eagles disc that didn’t feature ‘Heartache Tonight’.

Guns ’n’ Roses, Sweet Child O Mine. So this one’s a recording from February 2 1988 at the Ritz in New York. That early date means no ‘November Rain’ or ‘Live And Let Die’, bombast fans, but the title track and ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ do make an appearance. This particular one has been bootlegged a lot, with Discogs listing more than 91 different variants.

Will ALDI flog some of these? Undoubtedly, even at the higher price. But don’t be fooled. These aren’t quality products, and the original artists aren’t making anything from their sale. You can do better.