Record stores of the day

One advantage we had being in a city region was the variety and number of shops we had and in particular of record shops which were always a haunt on Saturday's and hols which was only bettered if one caught the train to the Black Country or Manchester which had the national chains such as HMV although we gained one in 1992.

I remember going to it on the first day of opening inside the then titled Potteries Shopping Centre, the first massive mall we had in the city centre opened in late 1988.

The real strength of this area for shopping was the independents and that certainly came into it given our six district centres plus one layout rather than that of one centre and surburbs cos its's less of a city and more of conurbation.

Thus in each district you had their own "local" record stores which for me meant Replay Records on Tunstall high street which had a large selection 12 inch and seven inch singles apart from albums and discount bins for anything that had peaked.

It didn't do much with other media such as cassettes unlike some although it did sell blank tapes for taping your own which I did a lot of .

We also had our own Woolworths which had a fair sized music section and was the first place I bought a record from before Replay opened and they had a top 75 7 inch single wall, rotating racks of pre-recorded tapes and budget albums followed by main racks for chart and selected back catalogue.

Chrissy's Market Store on Saturday's was a gem for having used records, heavily discounted import albums and singles an example of which was the mere £1.49 I paid for the 1978 Paul Stanley solo album as a sealed cut out where I'd of paid normally around a fiver for as a new domestic copy.

From time to time I would go into the City Centre and for a period I worked in it so it was a lunch time, before the bus comes in destination which in the mid 80's had around five large stores each with their own specialities such as Japanese imports, ticket sales or extensive quality used sections.

For much of 80's and 90's, Mike Lloyd Music Mega Store was the place to be because it had the biggest selection of compact discs, very extensive vinyl back catalogue, trade ins and sold tickets to local venues such as the Victoria Hall plus Bingley Hall, Stafford.

Many was the day I'd be in surrounded by students holding our Bluetones albums on vinyl in line while the upstairs held publications, discounted and used vinyl.

It was the first place locally to stock blank and pre-recorded MiniDiscs and had its own version of the Sony Music Nice Price paper catalogue printed with new mid price re-releases

As the bags your purchases went in stated there were branches too in Queen Street Wolverhampton and Newcastle although the city centre branch was the main one.

 

As befitted an area with two universities despite being sandwiched between Manchester in the North and Big Bad Brum the area was largely self sufficient with its own network of shops rivalling larger population areas.

Enlightenment

Well I did get away this weekend but in a lot ways the bigger thing wasn't to be found in the ultimate destination but more what was learned along the way.

Travel, especially by train can be subject to change and that change might be really quite rapid.

With me I had arrived in very good time and checked the overhead screens for the latest travel information as it was becoming apparent an earlier Manchester train was running rather late  and so it was with just under two minutes before our train was due as that train arrived that message you dread came over the Tannoys.

"Will passenger on platform 6 for the London Northwestern Service to Birmingham New Street please standby for an announcement".

Sure enough we we told our train now was coming in on Platform 11 and in the process of moving at speed I almost fell over and fell my case at which point an Afro-Carribean woman comes along and picks it up and says she'll help me.

So we form a partnership getting to this platform - me feeling progressive more like the child in this relationship of sorts and one missed direction we do get about about and I thanked her most purfusly.

Getting off at the other end a bit shaken up still, a white guy with strong Black Country accent sees I'm a bit shaken and not only offers to take my case for me down the stairs but sees me into station concourse

We often read of the worst of people and it can be easy to buy into it but certainly I felt I had met some of the best examples of humanity you could for in the most ordinary of situations.

I love doodling

I've always loved doodling, in meetings frequently, all over my exercise books in school or when I'm with other ageplayers as it just destresses me in those sorts of situations totally.

It's also a reason why I tend to keep some colouring books with me from more generic age range ones to those with a single theme because a good half an hour or more working through that neatly helps a lot and indeed in a well planned littles event thing of this nature can be laid on as they can be completed whenever it suits unlike most other sorts of arts and crafts which need to have any mess and spilages contained and things like tables set up.

Consequencies

This kind of conversation at school lunch is so relatable you know.

One kid I hung out with, would hatch a master plan involving deception of Adult Authority figures in our lives such as Teachers or parents in really quite glowing terms about the ease it could be done we all should be in on it.

For our part our minds and our bottoms recalled the spankings we'd had for previous possibly lesser infractions in vivid technocolor so we'd look at each other and say 'meh', 'that can't really work out, John'

That was the beauty of a spanking: You recall the feeling so strongly you never want to go back so it deters you from inappropriate behaviour without getting into really lengthy explinations into why you shouldn't.

You feel the Zolt flash through and that's it.

Tv from the past - Robot Wars

It's been a warm and challenging week with the weather so I thought I'd talk about something else.

Some periods of time with me are in a bit of a fog other periods a lot more vivid but in the great going through of everything a few things came back and that is where we are this week.

Robot Wars was a series that run initially from 1998 to the 2000's starting on BBC Two that had a simple premise.

It was originally presented by Jeremy Clarkson but for series two onwards was Craig Charles.

Make a robot, form a team and compete in a do or die battle against other robots and teams on a stage circuit with a pit and other things to slow you down or for that matter bring you down.

Yes, there are flames to consume robots!

The robot featured is Stinger

The facts and figures Top Trumps style are shown here

Suprisingly hidden away was my Model of that Robot from the era that had escaped my recollection of life in the late 90's , a momento of the show I watched with Dad who loved it and oddly enough Mum.

Being alert

 

Rabbit jumped into a hollow and Pooh and Piglet jumped after him. They crouched in the bracken, listening. The Forest was very silent when you stopped and listened to it. They could see nothing and hear nothing.

“H’sh!” said Rabbit.

“I am,” said Pooh. 

A.A.Milne

Sometimes to descern something you need to switch off the background noise and focus more on what is left.

Summertime shorts blues

I was out On Monday when I recalled something that happened around nine years ago one morning on a day rather like today.

We have a relative large garden being on a corner plot so you have front, corner and rear which interestingly enough actually has a different post code than the reminder of the house as we bought that seperately and we have more mowed portions and other bits where various plants and flowers are planted.

Being near woodland we have a good number of birds about and birds do spread seeds about about and that has resulted on occasions in having things like wild poppies growing.

Well for a number of years we had a few growing near the front door, just a few inches from the door handle and lock on the right and towards where the door meets the brickwork on the left so while they were out you'd try to avoid catching them as these poppies were quite big with tissue paper consitency petals.

One day I was going out and I had a pair of olive five inch inside leg short trousers on I'd bought probably from British Home Stores as they did have more old school hiking shorts in and I noticed the poppy was sticking out a fair bit so I went to turn sharp right to avoid it as I appeared stuck to something.

It transpired I'd missed aim and got the back of my shorts caught on the brickwork which had torn the back in a way that even if you did sow them up, it would show as part of material was missing.

"Damn" thought I as I had to go back into the house to change to something more ahem decent.

"Why does trying to save the poppy cost me my shorts" ?

Ever since then I have been very careful at this time of year not to risk damaging my short trousers while getting out via the front door.