Today is record store day. Well in America it is anyway. Ozzy is the ambassador for the day. I wonder how many people took note and went and supported an independent record store.
I have to admit I didn't. But I do. It actually made me a little sad. If I was older I suspect it would make me even sadder. The older you are the more time there's been for things to change. I thought back to my teenage years and my favourite record stores. There were the ones in Camden market that for a brief 18 month period I visited every few months. My favourite place of all without question, was a little place sort of in the subway by the old bus station in Bristol. You could even smoke in there. I didn't even have a record player and yet I used to go in and buy vinyl. I'm not a complete idiot or anything; I did have friends with record players. I spent hours and hours and hours in that place, and it never got old lighting up in a shop. I smoked more in there than I did in any pub. Partly because I was always slightly nervous, and partly because it gave me a little rush of adrenalin every time I did it. I probably looked high as a kite; trembling and twitching away! It was full of old punks with brown paper bags, a floor that I cannot begin to describe without making it sound wholly repulsive, and staff that nobody would have dared to steal from. It was a grotto. I'd forgotten until today that at 16 I actually did a little trading and managed to turn around a few hundred pounds in old punk records. So I got to thinking about where there was an independent record store and there aren't many that spring to mind. There is one here that I can think of. Badlands. But that's it. And I do tend to go to them. I certainly avoid HMV. Always packed. In recent years all my CDs have been given to me, or bought at gigs and festivals. I can't remember the last time I was in a record shop of any description. As I understand it, even the chains are struggling. Anyway, I raise my glass of wine to the days of the sub-way vinyl.
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I went down to the sacred store, where I'd heard the music years before... But the man there said the music wouldn't play...
I raise my glass with yours! Completely connect to what you say - I had a store I used to go to for vinyl, patches, tshirts, badges etc. But now its just a thing of the past. Like snap bracelets.
Have you watched or read High Fidelity? Thats the type of record store my place was. and very similar to what you've talked about!
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Ha ha, snap bracelets, man, I'd forgotten about them. I never got one despite many requests, and by the time I was in a position to buy my own I didn't want one anymore. Shame. Missed out there.
I have neither watched nor read High Fidelity. When it comes to films I have a lot of catching up to do. I didn't really watch any up until about 5 years ago, and I have still seen remarkably few. I'm been given a film education over the past few years though, so I'm a little more knowledgeable than I was before. The opposite of you it seems!