It's nice to be back on terra firma, even though its only Belgium, I've
been standing on me head for the last 2 months.
Now, I warn you, this is a long posting, better get the kettle on, spend
a penny or do what ya gotta do.
Grannys are great aren't they, they knew everything, and all those
sayings they know,"be careful for what you wish for it may just come
true", well one thing I'd always wished for was to go to the US and
spend a week or two sorting thru some undiscovered vinyl source,
thousands and thousands all cheap and unknown to the record shop owner.
Well I've been going regulary to US ever since joining my present
company 8 years ago, but as my interest in NS was only re-kindled last
year, this year was the first time I tried to combine a trip with a
record search. Back in May/June I did a coast to coast trip which
included a weekend stop over in Saint Louis MO. I asked my local office
to find me all the flea markets, whilst I 'phoned round all the record
shops. I had been recommended to a shop"Vintage Vinyl" and when I
called them the bloke at other end of 'phone said, that I'd find only
albums, there were no single specialists.
So off I go round the flea markets, and at the very last I spied out of
the corner of me eye a small trailor with records in, so I buy a few
odds and ends, and asked the bloke if he knew of any place in the
St.Louis area I could try, he sends me off to a shop, and low and behold
this shop has about 2/3000 singles. So I begin to look thru, plucking
out here and there, when the owner comes over and asks what I'm looking
for, I tell him mid sixties soul. He says that he has another shop and I
could try there too, so off I go again. Well the owner comes to this
shop too, and sees me buying only 2 records, so I give him that"sad dog"
look and then he tells me, well come back in a few months time and I
will have thousands more on show, because I have about 1 million single
downstairs in the cellar, so after a little begging I ask to see them,
so he lets be poke me head round the cellar door, and yes, this is
cellar stacked floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of singles.
So about every 3/4 weeks, I'm 'phoning him, asking when can I come over,
and every time he keeps putting me off, eventually he gives me a date
end October, so that's what its gotta be.
Initially it was planned to be a company trip then at the last moment it
got changed and I had to finance it privately.
So everything booked and I'm off, land at St.Louis airport, get in me
rented Chevvy Blazer & straight to shop, where I present myself to Jean
the shop owner, he looks as happy as he could be in seeing that I'd
actually arrived( BTW that's sarcasim). Now 2 weeks beforehand a pal of
mine asked me if he knew of a way to buy 10/20.000 soul singles, real
cheap, to jump start his record collection, this was to prove vital in
getting me in that cellar. Well after 10 minutes explaining what I was
doing there, the owner upon hearing that I was interested in buying
large quantities agrees to let me go thru any and everything I wanted
to, suggesting I first look in the shop as he was pulling stock out of
the cellar to put in racks in the shop ( which is vast and an ex library
building ) so in 4 hours and I've oinked out about 60 singles.
He told me that it was not economical for him to let me spend a week
there only to buy $50 worth of records, as he would have to be there to
make sure" I did everything correctly"
Sunday same thing, another 50-60 singles, and we agree that monday is
the "cellar" day.Well we get to the shop,and downstairs I go, well what can I say,
singles as far as the eye can see, my heart was actually beating faster,
about 7-800 square feet of vinyl, boxes and boxes just stacked all over
the place. A quick count showed a 1000 boxes, say with 500 singles per
box, there were boxes crammed under the stairs, under a table, in little
alcoves, every available space a had something stuffed in it. Imagine
being in a room and on the left is a doughnut the size of a sofa, Liz
Hurley dressed as Catwoman with handcuffs in her left hand and a riding
crop in her right, a giant screen TV showing next years European Nations
Cup and England are beating Germany 5-0, Owen just scoring a hat trick,
then maybe you have some idea how I felt. So I ask Jean the owner "many
people get down here ?", "no not many, I restrict it to one or two C & W
dealers I know", at this point I look up towards the heavens and thank
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