Stars buying music - good or bad!
Posted by steve on 8 July 2008 - 10:55pm.
In Fopp in Glasgow yesterday and realised Bobby Gillespie was standing in front of me. Had to see what he was buying. I would say he passed the test, Dexys Midnight Runners Searching For The Young Soul Rebels for a fiver.
Anyone seen a star increase/ruin their credibility with a purchase?
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did he see you glancing at what he bought?
if he had...you could have said "I'm just looking"...(Track 4 - see what i did there, eh!)
Oh - and you might let us know if he said anything about coming around to have words with Dorian Lynskey
Working in a record shop
I sold a Dr John album to Paul Young once. He climbed a little in my estimation. I also sold a Pogues album to Shane MacGowan, who proceeded to autograph it then sell it back at an inflated price.
I misread that first sentence as. . .
"I sold Dr John a Paul Young album once". You wouldn't believe how quickly I went back to the beginning to read it again.
sold sir!
I sold a couple of Japanese Deep Purple imports to Phil Oakey, he had Vic Reeves with him who bought an 808 State album.
Strangest of all was the time I sold a copy of Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls to Ben Elton !
Ah happy days at music retail!
Once bumped into Gerry Love
Once bumped into Gerry Love of Teenage Fanclub in said Fopp in Glasgow, Steve. Never clocked what he was buying though.
Somehow would have been nice if Gillespie had been caught out buying something completely uncool, he never lets that fan-boy rock and roll facade of his drop.
Plagiarism Begins At Home...
...I shall listen out for the Scream's forthcoming album then, 'The Devil's Horns (They Ain't Half Sharp')', containing songs such as 'Keep The Soul Fires Burning', 'Giro' and 'Blow 'til You're Blue In The Face'...
Books: a variation
Working in bookshops for years I had a few encounters, both with the the local rock stars and occaisional tourers. Some that I remember:
John Squire - The Celestine Prophecy (yep, 'fraid so)
Joe Strummer - mainly upmarket best-selling fiction
Richard Thompson - helped him pick a Christmas present for his youngest. The only time I ever became star-struck (he just looked amused and patrician at my attempts to say how much I enjoyed plying my trade for him, when he had done the same for me for so many years).
Liam-out-of-the-Prodigy and whichever Appleton he married: She bought lots of book on pregnancy and childbirth, he bought the book of Jackass the Movie.
Be warned
I was selling a CD on Ebay, starting at £1, when I received an email from the artist (who shall remain nameless because I can't remember) asking why I was selling it so cheap. Luckily, for me, it was for a charidee so they left me alone.
After an intense bidding war the CD finally went for...£1.
I wonder what Gillespie thought
of Screamadelica and Give Out But Don't Give In in a two pack selling for £3? And Riot City Blues for £3.
I think the only famous person I've met was the author Ian Rankin. I walked past him on a street. That's it. And I have no idea if he was Ian Rankin.
In the late 1980s...
I worked in the Hampstead branch of Our Price in London. One day in walks the recently de-shuttlecocked George Michael, just starting out on his wonderful solo career. He came up to the counter with a copy of 'Faith', the debut solo album by... him.
"Sorry for asking Mr Michael..." I asked, "but why are you buying a copy of your own album?"
"Because I can", he replied.
"Right you are then", I added in a state of confusion.
Fame, fame, fatal fame... it can play hideous tricks on the brain.
Was it a chart-return shop?
If not he's even doolallier than the story already makes him appear.
I'm afraid I can't tell you that....
I was only a lowly salesperson, aged 18. I don't remember anyone mentioning that it was...
Did your boss regularly. . .
appear for work in the morning in a Megadeth t-shirt and a Nolans gimme cap, slurping his coffee out of a Scritti Politti mug? If so, it was.
As a customer
it was easy to spot the chart return shop. I once bought an Elvis Costello 7" single and was given a free copy of his Get Happy LP.
Cunning devils these record company chaps...worthy of their own thread.
None of the above...
but the assistant manager did walk around one morning with a photograph of Stevie Nicks sellotaped to his crotch.
Classy.
"Because I can"
I think he meant that at last, I'm famous and I've got a record out, just like I always dreamed. So now I am going to complete my dream by going into a record shop and buying my very own CD. Sounds sane to me. If you released a CD, wouldn't you buy a copy from a shop, just for the thrill of it?
No
but I would put my Beany CDs at the front of lesser mortals in the racks, like Beatles, Bowie and Beefheart. Then I would linger menacingly near the cash desk and in my best Harry Enfield voice would say, "You don't want to buy that. Buy this one instead"
EBP
Emerson, Beany and Palmer not planning on releasing new material?
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/last-night-i-joined-genesis#commen...
EBP DVD PDQ
Live at the Bolton Arena, coming soon to Blockbuster.
so true that...
I think that Pet Shop Boys initial intent when working on their first single was that they would record it with Bobby O in America and then have the thrill of seeing it on sale in UK record shops on import.
It wasn't just that they wanted to see their record in the shops; neilandchris wanted to only be able to buy it on import!
I once served one of the neilandchris
The Lowe half of the relationship. I seem to recall it was a dance compilation affair. I was working in a Virgin wrestling with my troubled soul. I asked him nicely to sign the PDQ thingy again, and kept a copy for myself.
If it was my very first record....
then just maybe, but after having been a pop megastar for four years? Hmmm....
Maybe still not jaded
Maybe he just wasn't as jaded as all the other megastars at that point?
Stacey Earle
Stacey tells the story about buying her 1st album Simple Gearle in her local record store. The owner said she could have it; he's give it to her for free. But she said she was so proud to have it released she wanted to buy it, take it home and unwrap it.
She got a song of this experience too; the introduction is where she relates the above.It's called Makes Me Happy on the Dancin' With Them That Brung Me album.
What I would like to know
Is why it's taken oor Bobby the best part of thirty years to get round to buying a copy!
I'm guessing replacement
He asked Kevin Rowland about the "shoot those who arrange things" in a star question interview recently. That's enough of an excuse for me to post this:
Or the later version