the_record_spot

The usual "attack on my freedoms" arguments crack me up. It wasn't so much of a problem for MY rights not to breathe in the gunk and yes, it always WAS a problem for non-smokers by the way! And for all the arguments about government oppression, the usual "oh, I know so-and-so and he smoked all his days and he's 118" please, spare me this; the NHS bill for smoking related diseases would make you weep. The sight of a smoker's lungs post-mortem would make you wince and that my dad keeled over at 65 and my mum developed chronic asthma at 63 having both smoked since their teens suggests to me that it was at least a factor in my dad's death and my mum's condition (as it happens, I think she got off lightly - could've been much worse). I wholeheartedly believe in freedom of rights, but only where that freedom doesn't impinge negatively on me or anyone else. I don't smoke, never have and remember all too clearly sitting in smoke filled restaurants, cafes, etc as a child, my eyes streaming and hardly able to breathe. Not a gripe at all, that was the generation in which I grew up, but this is a long overdue move, it's the right move and if it can work on a bloody freezing cold night in Aberdeen when it's cutting up a gale, I'm pretty damn sure it'll work in the more temperate south!! (Sorry folks, I feel strongly about this!)

The approaching Olympics in London reminded me of this one....this guy's walking up to a sports stadium and sees an athlete coming towards him with a big long stick over his shoulder. He asks "are you a pole vaulter?", the guy goes "Naw, I'm a German, how d'you know my name was Walter?".

Hi Sean, thanks for the welcome. A thankless task and no mistake I'm sure. Always felt their website could've been better too. Never really felt they took enough advantage of that one. Either way, history now. I'm now championing Avalanche in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Bit of a swine to get to if you're in London admittedly, but great shops! London-wise, it's a tough call - the Record Exchange would be high on the list but they always stick those damn price stickers on that are a swine to remove!! Ah well, long live the record fairs....!

Sadly missed - bought loads of albums and CDs from Fopp over the years, in Edinburgh mainly, but more recently in London. Big mitskae was to take on Music Zone and the idea that they were here to drive out the independents in a patent nonsense given they were pretty much independent in spirit themselves and more aligned to challenging HMV and Virgin. As for the suggestion they only ever stocked mainstream stuff, this is slightly off the mark as well. It depends how obscure you want to go, but they had good coverage across the genres and sensibly priced. Maybe their smaller stores held smaller stock levels (understandably) but the niche shops will always be different. Doesn't necessarily make them better and it's all a question of taste anyway. Beanos left me stone cold - overpriced for the most part (certainly for the stuff I was interested in). No surprise they went to the wall - I hear they're still going but with more independent traders using the space? Fopp for me were a brilliant shop - sad to say, they shot themselves in the foot by aiming to high and the poster who mentioned they should've stuck to more off high street locations was bang on. What on earth they were doing in Tottenham Court Road, Camden, Edinburgh's Rose Street, et al, all high rent locations when the smart money would've kept them in clover a little further afield.