I do remember Powwr being involved back in the day certainly in terms of the Mean fiddler and Power Station etc. Lost touch with all the scene now though and rarely go to gigs these days. Not sure what he's up to to be honest.
The 100 Club though. Still there, just about hanging on. Did one of my first gigs there, I should have one of those blue plaques outside.
The problem is that tellies, washing machines etc. may be cheap at Tesco and Asda now but once the likes of Currys and Argos go the supermarkets will have little competition and will be able to charge higher prices for electrical goods. And you don't "shop" online you dole scrounging spunk guzzler.
I actually agree but in the short term some people just can't afford it. I need to go replace my washing machine after trying in vain to fix it. Although being a dole scrounging spunk guzzler I'll not be buying a new one because I can't even afford one from a supermarket.
I think Upper Street was the power sation. Tottenham Court Road was the Astoria. The Marquee was round there as well and a strange little place called Break for the Border or the Borderline. Got a peach of a black eye at a Men They Couldn't Hang gig there!
I recall listening to a radio show regarding washing machines and an Aussie called in to say he used to be an engineer and claimed that all washing machine manufacturers used to work out how thin metal and plastic parts would be before they would start to fail and that modern machines were precision made to wear out after approx 3 years of normal use. The end result is you either have to buy expensive spare parts or a replacement machine. Not exactly the Kennedy Assasination as far as conspiracy theories go but it sort of makes sense. Bearing in mind the hourly rate for the repair man has to be added onto the cost of the parts it is little wonder that many opt to buy a new machine, and add to that the get-out clauses for many of the extended warranty schemes it almost pays to dump the old one as soon as it breaks down.
I use to shop in HMV up until about a year or 2 ago. I wanted the walking dead on dvd. So i looked it up on the HMV website and saw it was £9.99. There is a big HMV store less than a 5 minute walk from me so off i went. Got there and found it. Only now the price s £13.99. So i asked the shop assistant what was going on and she told me that the online price is often different. How can this be, when they have to post it to me instead of me picking it up? The reason is simple, unlike the town center, they have competition online so have to sell it at a reasonable price. But they can continue to rip off naive town center customers. Got what they deserved in my opinion.
HMV online is based in Guernsey and they don't (at least didn't) charge VAT which is why there is a price difference. It is slightly painful to watch these shops go down the pan - but they have been replaced by more efficient and cheaper ways to buy the same things. I can't imagine walking into a Currys and just wandering along and picking a TV which looked good - I'd be on the various price comparison sites looking for the company that is selling at the cheapest price. In economic terms this is called market efficiency - where everyone knows the true value of everything. The retailers who are going bust now are the companies who used to rely on market inefficiencies - such as being able to charge whatever they wanted for a TV because no **** could be annoyed walking around 10 different shops to see who was the cheapest.
I didn't know that. Makes sense i guess. Like you say though, know one in their right mind is going to pay more than they have to for something.
Problem is, town centres will fast become desolate wastelands at the current rate, because even the food stores which are expanding in this economy will eventually go under if the others do. Nobody will need a bite to eat in town if they aren't being dragged around by their spouse to look at various different types of shoe... As somebody who hates looking at shoes, that might not be such a bad thing! But in general, yeah, it's disastrous for the country's financial status surely... Will we all have to up-sticks and go begging for jobs in Poland etc?
The closing of the coal mines were a disaster 25 years ago as well - to go to the extremes I am sure the hunter gatherers were well pissed off when other humans started knocking down forests and planting farms. As we free humans from working in manual jobs they have always (eventually) went on to do jobs that require a higher level of intelligence and less menial graft. Personally I am cheering on the downfall of the likes of Clinton Cards - of all the things the western human mind is possible of accomplishing, selling pieces of over-priced paper to mark silly holidays is surely the most pointless.
A-****ing-men. Cards only serve to say: 'I can't be ****ed/don't like you enough to say this to you in person, so here's a pointless flap of tree with a picture of a cutesy-wutesy bear to keep up with tradition'.
