my weekend and week off is saved

cheers chaps

I went for the Can spelling BTW

I used to operate one at WH Smiffs which was exciting at first but after you'd shrinkwrapped your watch or whatever for the 40th time, it got a bit dull.

Plus, doing one during the Christmas period meant that you could be sat on it all day and come home stinking of plastic and sweat.

Here, to serve all your rocular needs, are three of the seven or eight consummate professionals who manned (and in one case, but only on Saturdays, womanned) the first floor at HMV in 1977.

I've no idea what happened to one of them (he was Saturdays-only too, so over-familiarity wasn't encouraged). Another, then undoubtedly Plastic Bertrand's most enthusiastic advocate, is now a successful Lincoln's Inn barrister. The third one is me.

Rock R-S was my section. Yes, including Roogalator. Imagine that: a person was actually employed with the only mission of keeping the shelves stocked with rock and pop LPs and (those infernal new-fangled) 12-inch singles by artists whose names began with just two letters of the alphabet (well, and occasionally mutter "Downstairs" when someone asked for Acker Bilk). Another world, eh.

(To give you an idea of just how long ago that was, my impeccably maintained Bruce Springsteen section - perhaps the world's premier Bruce Springsteen section outside the Jersey Shore itself - had all of three records in it, and the latest was Born To Run.)

Bored with my life as a computer programmer in 1979, I applied for a job at the Record & Tape Exchange, as the idea of listening to music all day whilst being rude to the public quite appealed. I was given a music questionnaire to fill in; IIRC I struggled with the reggae questions, but thought I'd done OK otherwise. However, as I still had a job, and wasn't about to jack it in just in case they offered me one, they wouldn't interview me. Sad to report, I'm still bored and in IT.

...that Mr. Hepworth now pronounces the late Larry Knechtel's name according to the misspelled obituary in the mag. ;-)

1. Technoflash isn't just a phrase describing ELP ...thanks Fraser for reviving the spirit of the HORA

which was about 400 questions long and inevitably featured a question about Quicksilver Messenger Service. After completing it and having it checked, I asked a member of staff what mark I got - he replied in the most unimpressed manner possible "98%". I beamed and looked pleased with myself. He then said "Not that great really, we all got 100%."

I got the job and was later fired for playing Supertramp LPs instead of Butthole Surfers rarities. Probably.

This reminds me of an anecdote about a Fleet Street book editor, who had an arrangement with publishing companies to send him three copies of every book they wanted his paper to review.

One book would go on his own bookshelf, one would go to the reviewer, and one would be sold on to a bookseller in Charing Cross Road. But the ingenious part of the plan was this - the bookseller wouldn't pay in cash, but would instead settle the book editor's tab at El Vino's.

I remember Boots selling records - strange to think why a Chemist would do this but they did. And I remember the day WH Smiths stopped selling vinyl - it was seen as the end of the world!

Also do you remember controversial records being sold in brown wrappers. Virgin Records were selling Never Mind the Bollocks back in 1977 on the proviso that it was sold in a brown cover.

I think the closest thing we have to records shops talked about in the podcast are the gaming shops like Game and Playstation. Here you can trade in your second hand games and enquire if a new game will be coming out soon. Plus they have enthusiastic staff - often with pierced noses etc who would not have been out of place 20+ years ago in aforementioned record shops.

We have an Oxfam record shop in Reading - may well visit it this weekend.

I don't begrudge them a shilling and applaud the way they smartened up their act and have properly laid racks in their specialist stores etc.
But I think they need to be canny about selling records, the book price might be appropriate in central london but I was in wales recently and the stock was stupidly overpriced and I walked out with "brass in pocket".

go into the Camden Sue Ryder shop - 30 quid for a battered copy of 'Rattle and Hum' and 50 for a wafer thin 80's reissue of the Doors debut were there last time I popped in.

Either they are on crack or they hope their customers are

His passing was noted in the press in India, according to the GLW, who is currently out there. This was in the local press in the southern state of Kerala, not just the national press. I know he did a series about Indian cooking, filmed on location, but I was surprised he was so internationally known - I guess his shows must have been on BBC Worldwide or something similar.

...but I wanted to hold each of you down and break your punchably jaded noses after listening to the last Word oldlagcast. To be reminded of the smug snobbery that drove me away from independent record shops in the first place was most unsavoury.

I know that The Word demographic is perhaps a little too old for the doe-eyed hyperbole that the NME serves up, but a little enthusiasm for life (and at least some of the cultural pursuits that you hacks don't actually have to pay for) wouldn't go amiss now and again.

If Mark Ellen doesn't turn up on podcast day, then frankly it's all a bit too much like "Last Of The Summer Wine" with manbags.

...but I actually think that the beauty of podcasts is that they're just undirected conversations. They go where they will, as conversations do. And I would no more seek to rebut your points than I would waste time having a recap of a conversation in a pub. But I will say two things.
1. We don't hold anyone's age against them.
2. You won't find three people with more enthusiasm for life than the three on this podcast, one of whom has just emailed me from Beijing while another is having a ball at a wedding in Bexhill On Sea, leaving me to comment on this thread.

If you want carefully-calculated, let's-be-fair balance, there's an excellent provider of sound recordings called the BBC which does that brilliantly.

Ken might say rotary...

see thread passim

R and T E used to buy used audio tapes back in the day, I sold them a few myself i.e. home recorded C90s etc. Can Fraser illuminate what on earth they were able to do with them-presumably they couldn't resell them ?

For quite some time, I've had the slight sensation that I've come across Rob Fitzpatrick before. Rob, if you worked at HMV in Guildford and Beggar's Banquet in Putney, then this seems really quite likely. When were you working there?

Worked for Our Price for about four years. Had about as many managers, none of whom liked nor knew anything about music. It seemed to be the policy at OP: If you want to get on, hold music in contempt. I tried, God knows I tried - well, I wished to swell my salary from £9k a year to the princely managerial level of £12,000 - but I couldn't quite manage to suppress my enthusiasm.

Also, Ken Dodd once told me off for not displaying his video prominently enough. He was a right miserable old bugger.

and Jo Whiley will finish you off (and not in a pervsome way either),

and Jo Whiley will finish you off.

I worked at 'Record and Tape Exchange' in Notting Hill in the late 1980s and hated every minute of it! I only lasted for six months before I was fired for not being enthusiastic enough, so defected to 'Our Price' (I think the turn-over was pretty swift, although it also had its fair share of 'lifers'). The whole thing was most odd...paid daily cash in hand, but also having a tax code. If I remember rightly the svengali behind the operation was a guy called Brian, who conducted my initial interview over the phone (e.g. 'name two albums by Poco' etc.). One of the best perks was when record company bods would come into sell their personal promo copies of as-yet-unreleased lps. I can remember snaffling the first NWA lp and a signed copy of De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising. Fraser was right about the pricing policy, but I'm sure I can remember that records were also divided into a two-tiered hierarchy, with the really shit and/or scratched records being relegated to the basement. Anyway, with a few exceptions, most of the staff were a bunch of c***s who were too cool for school and rude not only to the customers, but also to new members of staff. Highlights include; Van Morrison's semi-frequent visits to the shop; Brian opening the 'Exchange Anything' shop and on the first day a customer bringing in a supermarket carrier bag full of horse meat; watching the 1988 Notting Hill carnival kick off from the relative safety of the shop counter; and extending my collection by pilfering literally hundreds of records. Happy days...hmmmmm.

I thought part of the job description was to be a dull dour miserable arse who only listened to The Fall (and defintely not any of the albums anyone actually bought), hated the world and was in nothing more than mumbling contact with their fellow employees\ inmates.

The feeling of intimidation and the bastards judging you on every purchase you make, never leaves you.

Back in the mid-80s I really wanted to work in a record shop and I went all the way to London for an interview with Our Price. The chap interviewing was portly, in his late 30s and had blonde highlights in his hair. I was made to wait (standing) by his desk while he attended to absolutely anything else other than spend time with me.

After about 30 minutes, I offered to come back a bit later if now was not a good time. To which he replied - aghast - that if I didn't want the job - I could just piss off right now. I convinced him that I did want the job and he eventually (after another silent half-hour) signalled that I may sit down. What a thoroughly nice bloke.

I didn't get the job (well, they didn't write or phone so I presume I didn't), but it put me off entering into the industry. I now know that he was a total and utter prat and you get these everywhere, but in my youth I thought that this was how it was in the world of record shops and I wanted no part of it.

I just wanted to stick up for Our Price....I worked there for 9 years from about 1989, loved virtually every minute of it. Admittedly I left because it no longer felt like I was working in a record shop.....with all the games, videos etc appearing on racks.....But I worked with some great, knowledgeable, passionate people. It was everything I dreamed of when I was a 14 year old lad and thought the greatest thing in the world was to work in a record shop......I even loved the snobbery that you got when you went into a record shop (but was far too customer-oriented to practice that myself!) I miss it so much now, and would give anything to spend an idyllic Friday afternoon writing up the new masterbags in preparation for Mondays new releases...........happy days.......

....EGS Records in Wakefield. Originally in the Bullring, then moved to the Ridings Centre. Pretty much filled the void left by the demise of the Record Bar. I worked Saturdays there from around 1981. When JAT Records opened barely a hefty skim of an LP across the Bullring, there developed quite a rivalry between the two stores. JAT was pretty much chart-fodder and nothing else - at EGS we tried to cater for all tastes. Things got so petty, our gaffer used to send junior staff across the Bullring with armfuls of red EGS carriers to stand outside JAT asking their customers to place their newly purchased copies of Too Low For Zero or Crisis in our record bags for a bit of freebie advertising.

I'm not sure where our vinyl was sourced, but customer returns never seemed to be sent back anywhere. I recall the boss giving me the run of the returns boxes; I'm not sure the words 'pig' and 'shit' have ever been better juxtaposed.

Ooh, there was also the Pop Inn, on the outside of the old Market Hall. Great place for punk 7" IIRC.

of '"Gloria's Record Bar" was?
Sorry, that's probably only applicable to South Side Weegies of a certain age.

I'm wondering if this is the beginning of a regular podcast feature:
The Hoary Old Record Shop Anecdote?