Tuesday, 23 April 2019

What's in Store?

"Do I hear 25 quid?"
I very rarely mention Record Store Day around here; maybe it's something to do with the very fact that we now refer to them as stores; I was brought up with (and, for a time, virtually lived in) record shops. Quite when we changed the lexicon (and why) is unclear. Am I being petty/churlish? Probably. Can I move on and not let it spoil the rest of my life? Of course.

But while I'm here, and while RSD19 is still, for some anyway, fresh in the mind, another thing that annoys the hell out of me - folk queuing thru the night to enter the store at 9:00 a.m. and buy a single by, let's say Generation X, for a fiver (red vinyl, picture sleeve) and, by eleven bells, are selling it on ebay for a score. Probably the same charlatans who buy four tickets for a gig, keep two and sell the other pair on the secondary market. We are the secondary market and everyone is now a tout - since venues stopped selling their own tickets exclusively and it all went online.

I don't know what Tony James (bass player with Gen X - pictured above) would have to say about it. Though he's probably too busy preparing for the re-release of the band's eponymous album - first released in the Summer of 1978. Back when the hair atop his head was all very much his own.

Generation X - Your Generation (1977)

on

6 comments:

  1. Alyson24 April 2019 at 08:50

    indeed, the Americanisation of everything relating to retail - We have an online Shop but of late I've given in and now call it our online Store. BUT, we can't turn the clock back and if these special days give people pleasure why fight it. You are right though, sad that a lot of it is purely down to profiteering by people who aren't really there for the records themselves.

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    Replies
    1. John Medd25 April 2019 at 20:07

      Stop the world, I want to get off. I wasn't made for these times.

      Delete
  2. C24 April 2019 at 21:29

    Summer 1978 and my sister's boyfriend bought me the album for my 15th birthday. Not my favourite album at the time but I loved the singles and fancied Derwood so it earned its place.

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  3. The Swede25 April 2019 at 09:15

    Whatever Tony's chosen method was - syrup, weave, transplant - the end result is very good indeed and suits him to a tee. Very much the gracefully ageing (king) rocker.

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