kjb
Proof reading not always a strength
When I was a kid I had a Saturday job for a while in White Rabbit Records in Barnet c. late 1974-5. My first boss was convinced the Byrds were the greatest band ever and his replacement thought that Neil Young was the greatest singer. Looking both both wished they were in San Francisco in 1967 and were, of course, complete heroes to me. I loved working there, finding out about cult American bands and generally, much to the amusement of the managers, spend nearly everything I earn on yet another cult record at the end of every shift - I was playing First Pull Up Them Pull Down by Hot Tuna just the other day.
Sadly I got sacked on the weekend following 24th February. The owner had ordered in a pile of boxes of Physical Graffiti which had been released that weekend and told us he wanted us to play the record non stop and sell every copy he'd bought in. At the end of the day, once business was slowing, I put on a Little Feat LP - we'd been promoting The Warner Brothers Music Show sampler and associated records in the few weeks before. The Owner returned unexpectedly and I had a rather sad "we don't need a Saturday boy" conversation afterwards. As a 14 year old I thought I was cool as you like - my next Saturday job was in a petrol station.... I've never really forgiven Zeppelin tbh.
Its briefly but fondly remembered here by Jon Wozencroft from Touch Music.
White Rabbit - British Record Shop Archive
I did get another record store job a few years later in the Record department of Welwyn Department Store but that was no where near as a cool although, one day, another one of the people who ran the store got nicked while we were working. She and her husband, who worked in another part of the store, had apparently faked identities and were on the run from somewhere in Scotland. I'm not sure anyone has fond memories of the record department in Welwyn Department Store.
Otherwise my early buying was split between two branches of Alex Strickland records - one in Southgate and another in Barnet with increasingly regular trips up to London and the first Virgin Megastores which had loads of cheap American deletions by all the cult artists I'd listen to in While Rabbit - which explains why I have 5 Mike Nesmith records in the "rarely played" box upstairs.
Sadly I got sacked on the weekend following 24th February. The owner had ordered in a pile of boxes of Physical Graffiti which had been released that weekend and told us he wanted us to play the record non stop and sell every copy he'd bought in. At the end of the day, once business was slowing, I put on a Little Feat LP - we'd been promoting The Warner Brothers Music Show sampler and associated records in the few weeks before. The Owner returned unexpectedly and I had a rather sad "we don't need a Saturday boy" conversation afterwards. As a 14 year old I thought I was cool as you like - my next Saturday job was in a petrol station.... I've never really forgiven Zeppelin tbh.
Its briefly but fondly remembered here by Jon Wozencroft from Touch Music.
White Rabbit - British Record Shop Archive
I did get another record store job a few years later in the Record department of Welwyn Department Store but that was no where near as a cool although, one day, another one of the people who ran the store got nicked while we were working. She and her husband, who worked in another part of the store, had apparently faked identities and were on the run from somewhere in Scotland. I'm not sure anyone has fond memories of the record department in Welwyn Department Store.
Otherwise my early buying was split between two branches of Alex Strickland records - one in Southgate and another in Barnet with increasingly regular trips up to London and the first Virgin Megastores which had loads of cheap American deletions by all the cult artists I'd listen to in While Rabbit - which explains why I have 5 Mike Nesmith records in the "rarely played" box upstairs.
