Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

The Last Record Shops of Engand (Part 8)

THOSE OLD RECORDS
BREWERY STREET SHOPPING CENTRE
RUGELEY
STAFFORDSHIRE
WS15 2DY

Now as I said last month in Last Record Shops of England Part 7, nowadays the yap is mostly about record shops closing and not record shops opening. So again this month I'm more than chuffed to feature a shop that has only been installed at its current location at The Brewery Shopping Centre Rugeley for the last eight months or so.

Also, usually, I only get to go to the Last Record Shops of England when I'm on my way to a gig or just knocking about the place trying to scrape a living for myself. Not today though, my need thumb thru' some old vinyl in an all new location has become too great to withstand; I decided to travel over to "THOSE OLD RECORDS" Rugeley purely to check it out for this crappy FANZINE. Yeah I realise, I'm taking all this thing far too seriously.

But let's be honest here no one in their "right mind" would ever simply choose to visit Rugeley, not without good reason, would they? I mean Rugeley is a huge opencast black grime leaden mine of a town situated on the edge of Cannock Chase the premier midland sight for unlawful gangland & unlawfaul domestic burials. Rugeley is the sort of place that makes Dudley seem chic. The sort of place that makes Gornal seem parochial. Yes you're right I've not been to Rugeley for a while.

So how wrong was I? OK so there was coal dust & tumble weed blowing down the High Street on the Saturday morning of my visit; and I did have to bide my time waiting for a fully pierced and tattooed old crone dressed head to toe in Halloween wear to pass by so I could ask the way to BREWERY SHOPPING CENTRE. But then BREWERY SHOPPING CENTRE was very easy to find cos it was located on the end of the black painted pointy finger of the fully pierced and tattooed old crone dressed head to toe in Halloween wear.

I looked about, Rugeley was…………………alright. So excited by the discovery of this new magical other world I decided I needed a piss. I ducked into THE GLASSWORKS pub (opposite the Brewery Shopping Centre) to use the lavvy. (For those who haven't been paying attention recently. Please be warned I am a recovering alcoholic of eight years & counting)

So guess what I found in THE GLASSWORKS PUB (other than my dick and a urinal). Yes you're right. The entire population of Rugeley! Every last man jack of them huddled round, and crouched over their golden condensation drenched glasses of liquid happiness. The High Def TV was glowing, the music was blaring out, and the surround sound system was in full swing. And what was playing - "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads, nah! "Working in a Coalmine" by DEVO, nope! "Every day is like Sunday" by Moz, no wrong again. There was no bittersweet melancholy drenched in alcohol here. The Rugeley massive were all happily listening to The Coral and "Pass it On" - What a bunch of selfish bastards.

With a shake of the head a roll of the eyes and an exaggerated suck of the teeth I made my way across the road to THOSE OLD RECORDS; and what a wonderful alcohol free place it was. Choc full of mainly vinyl goodies, all price graded CORRECTLY (why doesn't everyone do that) and run by a diamond geezer who lifted the stylus off the vinyl for a moment, flicked away the fluff and asked the assembled folk what they'd like to listen to next. Shocking, but why not, this isn't fucking Albania after all (not yet anyway - give the shiny faced aristocrat Cameron and his apologist intellectual dwarf Clegg a full term and it will be though - believe)

No, where was I again, oh yes the bloke at THOSE OLD RECORDS asked what we'd like to listen to next, which is a change coz in most record shops nowadays it's a case of "Sun Ra" 24/7 and you'll just have to like it. But not here. I wanted to ask him to play "Terminal Stupid" by the "The Snivelling Shits" but the words just wouldn't come (and anyway I've been barred from record shops before - and for less). No, I thumbed the vinyl in silence until...........bingo!

Now I'm often asked and that is "Ed with your 732,051 records, 8,752.00 CD's and 4 cassettes what do you actually buy when go to the "Last Records Shops of England". Well when I went to "Those Old Records" I bought this:

Lovely isn't it. This is not the standard LIVE Dr Feelgood "As it Happens" United Artists UK release from 1979 with the free 4 track 7" EP. (Is this sounding like a food ad?) Oh no, this is the all DUTCH Ariola version with free 4 track 12" RECORD. Yes all the same live tracks as the UK version but with an extra 5" of unadulterated widely spaced black luscious vinyl, YUM! The likes of "Milk & Alcohol" & "She's a Wind Up" plus 15 others for the price of a pint and a half of ale. Deal done, SORTED!

So don't go to bleedin' Ebay for you records people visit The Last Records Shops of England - go to THOSE OLD RECORDS get the geezer to play "Terminal Stupid" and think of me.

THOSE OLD RECORDS