He'll like it even more now there's a sale on... On a serious note, this is really bad news. Aside from the 4,000 plus people set to lose their jobs, we now have NO MUSIC SHOPS LEFT IN IPSWICH. OK, so you can pick up scraps in CEX or vinyl in Out Of Time, but that's it. Bloody download generation.
Wow, is Out of Time still there? Got many a record there in my youth until the rave scene came about and I started going across the street to Red Eye to buy drum and bass.
When did Rex Records go? I remember we used to have Andy's, Our Price, Out of Time, Rex, HMV, Virgin, Compact Disc shop, Woolies... Debenhams even used to have a record shop!
Out of time is still there and is brilliant for rummaging round but it hardly compares to the likes of HMV. My teenage years are slowly disappearing. HMV and JJB were both 'must visits' for me.
I was at college in Cambridge (obviously) and we Had Streetwise, Parrot and loads of little vinyl rummaging places. All gone now. Fopp is pretty good though. TBH (old man comment coming) most modern music is transient and doesn't last like the likes of The Doors, The Who, Led Zep, etc, so what's the point owning it in a physical format? There are exceptions, but when you can buy their output on CD for pennies on Amazon, how can the High Street compare? The answer is to offer something extra. Live gigs, signings or just some well listened people with advice. We have none of that. Oh well. I'm running out of space for CDs and vinyl anyway.
Ah Hawkings! Parrott Records down King Street and Andys Records along Fitzroy Street where I bought serious amounts of vinyl back in the 80s!
Glad to see McLean has gone places then... Apart from his hatred of your town centre, what have you all thought of him?
Still got all my tape packs from the Dreamscapes I used to go to down at Milton Keynes Sanctuary (****in' sweatbox hellhole, but my best memories) I'm still mixing old school and new liquid drum and bass today, although using a midi controller now with mp3's because I have a kid and don't want to spend the insane amount of cash I used to on vinyl. I have some mixes I will be uploading to either youtube or soundcloud soon so I'll send you a link if you're interested. LTJ and Conrad = the best ever DnB pairing. I was never into the hardstep style of DJ Hype.
Hawkings I have actually had an idea floating around in my mind of how to solve this for a while now, but I might actually do it so I'm afraid I can't share it. I sort of wish it was ready to capitalise on this news!
Thanks for your responses. I sort of fell into what was known as intelligent drum n' bass when I first moved to Ipswich many years ago. A housemate of mine had some Conrad, Bukem, et al records (courtesy of Red Eye) and a pair of SL12-10s. I remember mixing in some Hendrix (Are You Experienced?). Probably badly, but still groundbreaking! I fell out of love with it when I grew up a bit and ran out of puff... Parrot Records was the place for 90s grunge/rock as they used to buy cheap tapes (tapes!) destined for the far east and flog them for £4 or £5 each. They also had some decent vinyl and even some CDs. Streetwise was the place for second hand stuff and bootlegs, which they sold openly! You could see a gig on Friday at The Corn Exchange or The Junction and there'd be a C90 of the gig on Monday at Streetwise. I bought a 1970 Hendrix double vinyl bootleg for £10 in 1993. It's worth £250 now! I'm much more into blues, rock and psych stuff now. It fits better with my axework. I rarely buy new music, because there's almost 100 years of awesome stuff still to discover. Everything from Django Reinhardt to The Hives gets played at Chez Hawkings. Ah! Halcyon daze...
What guitar do you play SHFB?At the age of 47 I've started to try to teach myself electric guitar(hard work!!!)
I have a few electrics and a couple of acoustics. Purple Strat - rewired so I don't change pickups accidentally. Gould GS135 - basically a cheap Gibson 335 copy, but sounds great. Cherry red. Looks a bit like Uncle Noel's Union Jack guitar. De Armond T400 - massive hollowbody jazz beast. Natural light wood colour. Plays better than a Gretsch - Google it. Plus a battered old acoustic and a Spanish nylon strung dreadnought. If you want to learn, just listen to Santana. It's easy if you split it into parts. Good luck.
"If you want to learn, just listen to Santana. It's easy if you split it into parts. Good luck." If only it were that easy!!
I go down to Ipswich regularly (I have family down there), and when I go to the town centre, HMV and JJB were the two main visits. Depressing really that the high street is being torn slowly apart...
Edited this thread as I thought that a music thread would be quite interesting... My first album that I bought for myself (not given as a gift) would probably have been one of the early 'Now that's what I call music' offerings but I would probably say the first single ever purchased was Hanson - MmmBop which is probably even more embarrassing! My favourite music shop was called 'Reveloution records' based in the Norfolk town of Diss. I'd spend hours and hours each week flicking through the vinyls, CD's and looking through all the amazing artwork and learning some interesting band names and genres, they also had record signings and the odd small acoustic gig - In fact they had some very good artists there and the first album that I remember buying from there was Foo Fighters 'The colour and the Shape' (which I would buy again today) The shop closed and moved to Norwich and I visited there again a couple of times but the last I heard was that it had closed a few years ago - which is very sad as the level of service and customer care was second to none and the owners (from Harleston) had built the shop from nothing and clearly (loved and knew) everything there was about music. For me that was the beginning of the demise of Physical copies of Music.
First LP I had for the old record player in my bedroom was Complete Madness, the best of and I had Rod Stewart's Sailing. First album I owned as mine was Thriller and the first single I bought was Prince's Batman. I have absolutely no idea what the first album was I bought with my own money but I have a horrible feeling it was New Kids On The Block. I went through a phase of buying every number one single from about 1989 to 1992 or so. I went completely mad on Virgin Megastores 5 albums for 30 quid type deals so I now have around 3000 CDs, which are all on my itunes, gathering dust.
ELO Out of the Blue on vinyl from Parrot Records in Queen Street Ipswich.I think I played it through headphones on my parents music centre every day after school for about two years PS This could turn into a guilty pleasures/secrets thread.(Cue the cool kids with their Joy Division,Clash etc-not that I don't now think they're great it's just at the time I was really geeky!)
