Some Background

Starting anything new is always a challenge, and this is no exception. I installed this blog weeks ago, fiddled with it, installed various templates and plug-ins, but failed to come up with a good starting point … how hard can it be … just offer some opinion about whatever is going on in the world and someone will pass on by, maybe read it and possibly leave a comment. Repeat, over and over, and you’ve gone and got yourself a bonafide ‘established’ blog that someone, somewhere … maybe, possibly … might find remotely interesting. Hmmm. Really?

The starting point … this morning, like every other weekday morning, I pass several charity shops on the way into work. Outside one of them were some records. Nothing astounding in that as there are normally some Mantovani or Harry Secombe (you know the score!) stacked neatly in a ‘leather effect’ carry case. This lot however were obviously dance music. A quick flick through and it turns out to be a mixed batch of what looked to be mostly Drum & Bass and UK Garage. I’ve been checking records in charity shops for many years, mostly for old disco and funk tracks, and I’ve never seen much in the way of dance music on sale.

What Do You Mean It’s Not For Sale?

Being partial to a little UK Garage and some of the darker late 90’s Drum & Bass I decide to pay the shop a visit during my lunch hour to have a better look through the tunes I’d seen that morning. I have a word with the lady behind the counter and she says they were all taken ‘downstairs’ to be sorted, so she called the manager to see if I could go down a take a look. All good so far. The manager arrives and I explain how I’d seen these records out the front of the shop and how I’d be interested in having a good look through. Her response, “Sorry sir, I can’t sell them to you as they are promotional items“. Er … what? So I ask if they would be willing to give them away and accept a totally unrelated donation. Yes, that would be fine, except, “I’m sorry sir, but I’ve thrown all the records in the bin.” I asked if I could extract them from bins. Looking a little bemused, she agreed.

Deepest Digging

So, I’m out the back of this charity shop rifling through their bins pulling out handfulls of unplayed vinyl. Fierce & Optical’s ’Serum‘ in one batch, the Kemal & Rob Data remix of ‘The Nephilim‘ in another. I ask the manager if this is standard practice. She explains that they cannot sell any item that is labelled promotional, whether it’s clothing, vinyl, CD’s, videos or ornaments. I tried to find some definitive statement relating to this, but could find nothing in the Code Of Charity Retailing regulations relating to the specifics of what a charity shop can, or cannot, sell. It may only be the policy of that one charity, but I got the impression that this was applicable to everyone.

It transpires that only a couple of records were ‘promo copies‘. Spending time sorting through them all would have been too time consuming, so to be on the safe side, they just bin the lot!

Got Any Hardcore?

Long forgotten collections of old skool vinyl must still be tucked away in garages, lofts and spare rooms across the country. Now in the charge of parents, ex-girlfriends/boyfriends or once wannabe DJ’s who’ve long since lost interest in the music, ultimately these collections will probably end up on Ebay, at car boot sales, sold to a second hand record shop or donated to a charity shop. If it’s the charity shop option, then one look at the original promo of Music Takes You, and the whole lot will end up in the bin!