@Knight1119 @WillC My husband wrote this: “I left Brum in 84, so my spiritual home was the basement of Virgin Tottenham Court Road. So many bits of gold found there, and latterly Tower Piccadilly (after they modernised Virgin). But I do have a soft spot for the Virgin on the corner of Corporation St and Bull St, and latterly the Tower Records upstairs on the corner of Corporation St and New St, not forgetting the big HMV where the Co-Op used to be. All gone now. Only “Nostalgia and Comics” left on Smallbrook Queensway now.” I think he’s really sad that all these iconic places of his youth are no more.
2 Likes
Oh @KinkyMira i frequented all those including Revolver Records and Tempest in Brum! As for Nostalgia and Comics i used to visit weekly! I actually had my name published in the programme for their con at the Motorcycle Museum on 1986, where Alan Moore and Chris Claremont were guests! I wonder if he remembers Jason the hippy freak customer assistant in Nostalgia and Comics? Also Fantastic Store which ended up in The Virgin Megastore!
1 Like
Oh god, he thinks he remembers Jason. Top bloke. My husband won one of his most prized possessions there - a signed framed original first page of a Babylon 5 comic. It is still proudly on our wall. He remembers Tempest, but not Revolver.
1 Like
Revolver was a couple of doors up from Birmingham Odeon mid to late 80’s Yes Jason was a laugh! I got an Alan Davis signed Captain Britain tp from there and won a Batman vs Predator ashcan edition which I still have somewhere! Small world eh?
Yes, very. As he’s just pointed out, you and he could have met in one of those shops, as he was in there every month ago even when he moved down south. The only music shop he remembers by the Odeon was the HMV nearer the ramp to the New St Shopping Centre.
1 Like
That is a shame @KinkyMira, I really sympathise, I used to really enjoy buying records & especially going to Virgin in Tottenham Court Road. I used to live in record shops, I would buy powerful hi Fi stack systems (my pride and joy). Music was my life through my late teens to late twenties, then playing my music through powerful car stereos. Nowadays though I like the portability and ease of listening to music from IPods to iPhones on Spotify.
2 Likes
Most likely! From about 1981 to the late 90’s I was there weekly! I remember HMV being in New Street too! Also the great venues like The Institute ( owned by Andy Taylor of Duran Duran) The Powerhouse, The Hummingbird, The Odeon, Edwards No8, The Birmingham Rock Cafe etc!
1 Like
@Knight1119 I think it’s the only thing that sends him really nostalgic. The fact that kids today don’t know the joy of the basement of a Virgin Megastore, of finding that little piece of gold, some random import from Australia or Canada, with tracks no one has heard of (and still not on Spotify to this day!). The joy, the elation, just not the same as just getting something on Amazon or Spotify.
As for digital music, everything we own is ripped, data perfectly collected and on our server, including so we can get to them via remote access from our phones. Still doesn’t beat a wall of CDs though!
2 Likes
I will always buy cd’s as they support the artist whereas the streaming sites pay the artists a pittance. Plus i would never part wity my cd’s as that would be like giving your children away! I say that having no children!
2 Likes
Reading this thread has made me realise that I’ve got music on every format there’s ever been. I’ve got a ton (literally) of 78s - and I still play them! 
Well, when I say “every format”… I haven’t got any wax cylinders. 
2 Likes
I inherited 78’s when i was a kid! No idea what happened to them! John Hanson-The Student Prince comes to mind! Played on a red Dansette record player!
2 Likes
Agree wholeheartedly, and of course, with the internet, you can buy things direct from the artists - specials not in shops and the like. 100% goes to the artist then, and boy, at the moment, do they need it?!
3 Likes
You’re old!
1 Like
Definitely i like Ayreon/Anthony Arjen Luccasen and buying direct I get signed copies.
That’s true @KinkyMira, I remember the thrill of watching the staff fill the album sleeve, especially if I managed to get the record once it was outside the Top 40. I regularly used to keep my vinyl clean using a deionising gun & wiping the album covers. Unfortunately I think due to the limitations of vinyl, CD’s became very popular and established a platform for transferring music. I guess as technology advanced it was inevitable to go digital. I agree, I wonder what kids would make of replacing a stylus, moving an arm across a turntable.
1 Like
@KinkyMira did your OH ever visit Wolves? I was at gigs 2 or 3 times a week in the 80’s/90’s at The Civic or Wulfrun Hall plus we had peripheral venues like JB’s in Dudley and JB’s Junction 10 which as the names implies was just off Junction 10 of the M6! Then there was Bingley Hall, Stafford!
We most likely could have met! I was taking to a work colleague recently and she’s into rock too, she was telling me about her best gigs, one of which was Iron Maiden at Birmingham Odeon in late 81, when she told me she was down the front in front of Adrian Smith i told her so was i, so 40 years later two strangers are workmates!
1 Like
@WillC No, he was east Birmingham so went to Coventry, but didn’t make it to Wolves. Evenings out were fairly infrequent as he lived down south, so it was occasional “work” trips basically to shag what would now be called a Friend with Benefits.
@knight1119 One of our friends tried to show his 5 year old a record player, and the child was totally confused. Spinning a cassette tape round on a pencil absolutely blew his mind!
2 Likes
I ventured as far as Nottingham and Manchester for gigs! Cassettes and record players! On a similar theme i showed a young work colleague a pic of a 60’s/70’s dentist…he said it was like something out of American Horror Story!
Standing on the beach with a gun in my hand
(from Camus, The Stranger)
I remember singing along, care free but not sure it wouldn’t be banned now