Happy Record Store Day

Apparently it's Record Store day. So happy record store day. Not.

Record stores were one of the reasons I stopped listening to music for over a decade, not the only one it is true, maybe not even the main one, but it was certainly a major nail in the coffin.

In general I'm glad almost all have gone to the wall. There is all this tosh about all the help and advice they gave, I can put hand on heart and say I have *never* been given any help or advice in one, just sneered at by some spiky haired foetus that has done one to many experiments in facial piercing.

The final straw I remember was the lady in front of me wishing to pay and to ask about albums by Mick Ronson being abused by the pair of 'youffs' behind the counter because a. they had never heard of Mick Ronson anyway (!) and B. they would rather carry on chatting in the most lurid possible terms about their unsavoury doings of the evening before rather then do their jobs or give any form of help or advice other then to leave them alone.

That was the last time, I couldn't get out fast enough, out of the darkness and volumes of 'music' that would be considered dangerous in a disco, or a building site,  so you immediately couldn't remember why you went in there in the first place and the crowds of milling teenagers , not buying or even looking at anything, probably also wondering what the hell they had gone in there for...

I am now a music fan again, I buy and listen to music constantly. I love Muse, and My Chemical Romance, and Marilyn Manson. I also love The National, and Elbow and Doves. I also love Pink Floyd and Roxy Music and The Rolling Stones. And Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington and Nina Simone. God I have even been known to love Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, and Andy Williams.

And where do I go now? Amazon. They are fast and efficient, and most importantly they could not care *less* who I buy or what my taste is. They just want me to carry on doing it so they will all have a business and stay in a job.

Kind of bet all the Our Price Records, and Virgins and Tower Records and all those oh so superior 'independents' had thought of that before...

Good riddance.

There will be more. You have been warned :-)