Tubes was run by Steve, whose brother was In Swervedriver… which is pretty cool I guess. I was there for about three years – just as vinyl’s obituary was being written for the first time – so things were pretty tough.

I remember Harlequin, too. I think I got Blondie’s Plastic Letters in there, which was one of the first records I ever bought.

And who could forget Venus? Or more to the point, who could forget grumpy Stu, the blonde haired biker with the Mr Bungle T-shirt who used to work in there? Christ, he was miserable. I used to go in there and he’d say ‘let’s go and have some lunch,’ and you’d go and have lunch with him and he wouldn’t say a word. Not one bloody word.

Nice enough chap though.

Important Venus Records purchases include Zen Arcade by Husker Du and Joni Mitchell’s Hejira. Important? More like life-changing if I’m honest.

Actually I love this kind of story – it’s what I think a blog really should be. Unfortunately as a single person you run out of them quite quickly and I really like hearing other people’s too.

Now… I’m not sure about Tubes, was it taken over by Venus? St George’s Street? And do you remember Harlequin Records, that used to be in King’s Walk years and years and years ago? That was where the pre-teenage birthday treat records came from.

This was one of those things which was just so nice to write that it’s a pleasure in itself but thank you for the nice comments, and a huge thank you to Matthew for organising us to do this at all.

The guy that ran it was called something like Kazic. I’ll check with some other people and get that confirmed. My mate Tim and I used to really fancy his wife… she had no name of course, we only ever referred to her as ‘Mrs Wax’.

And Jack’s bookshop… what a place that was. ‘Books And More F**king Books’ as myself and a few contemporaries used to call it.

Bloody hell, Winchester Wax, Jack’s Bookshop… it’ll be Tubes Records next.

There is nothing so good for your night’s sleep than spending a couple of hours reading before it commences.

Thanks Adam, this is brilliant. I love these tales.

It resonates…

Except for that bit about giving up music for books. Obviously. I mean, WTF ??!! xx