55 From 55 - 2005

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

Something I obviously never experienced during my years working in record shops was corporate jargon, though as a store Manager in a rapidly expanding coffee business, I quickly found myself bombarded from above by all manner of meaningless mumbo-jumbo. This was a company where every thought was encouraged to be of the blue sky variety, wages were ring-fenced, conversations car-parked, staff incentivised, meetings facilitated, changes action-planned, information cascaded, coffees up-sold and cakes on-sold. Goals were achievable, stretch targets attainable, but progression was, ultimately, glass-ceilinged. Oh, and woe betide any person caught thinking inside the box.

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I've been a fan of The Sea and Cake for a very long time, but my absolute favourite Sea and Cake related LP is 2005's 'Who's Your New Professor', nominally a solo album by Sam Prekop, although ¾ of the band contributed towards its making. It's a platter that matters here at Swede Towers.

55 From 55 - 2004

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

Though it might initially appear an extravagance, a trip to see my cousin and her family in New York worked out to be far more affordable than a holiday in the UK. I was in the fortunate position of being able to pick and choose travel dates to ensure the cheapest combination of flights and when I arrived in Manhattan, I ate with the family and slept in their spare room - free bed and board!

On a one-man mission to eat all the snacks in my Cousin's apartment. 2004.

My main indulgence while in the Big Apple was, not surprisingly, music. There are always so many gigs going on - and all in such close proximity. Also, at that time there were still a lot of great record stores in town, all of which had cheapie bins to lose hours rummaging through. My general rule of thumb was to not spend more than $1.99 on a CD. Though I'm sad to note that it has since closed down, Bleeker Bob's was never one of my favourite stores, the staff were legendarily surly. That being said, while wading through a pile of dusty cardboard boxes in a darkened corner of Bob's during my 2004 trip, I did unearth a promo copy of 'The CBC Sessions' by The Hidden Cameras for the princely sum of 89c!. My kinda price.

55 From 55 - 2003

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

On moving to Norfolk in 2002 I met Mrs S, though at the time we were both otherwise attached and it would be another three years until we became anything more than just chums. We began exchanging music tips almost immediately though. The brooding 'Down Below Him' by Chicago's Low Skies was one of the first tunes she pushed my way.

55 From 55 - 2002

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far.

In January 2002, after 18 months with the coffee company (and in a echo of my first record shop job in 1981) I was offered the opportunity to manage my own store in Norfolk. The branch was located within a bookstore, the perfect environment. Occasionally, authors stopped in to sign stock while on promotional jaunts, in some cases hosting a reading and Q&A event in the evening. If I was on shift, I'd be sure to offer them a cuppa. Here I am with Our 'Enry.

55 From 55 - 2001

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

By the time my record shop closed in March 2000, I was in considerable debt. When asked, I always say that I had 10 really good years and 4 of increasingly swift decline. I should have pulled the plug around 1997, but when you're in the middle of it, you can't see the wood for the trees. And you always think it's going to get better.

In the Summer of 2000 I managed to secure employment in a newly opening branch of a modest sized national coffee shop chain. (15 years later, the same company is now a massive global brand.) As some regular readers might be aware, I am something of a coffee nerd and while my new employer's particular blend is nothing to write home about, I was really looking forward to working as a regular team member, able to leave work at the end of every day with no stress or worries. It lasted three days. The store's Manager walked out mid-shift, never to return and, purely because of my age, I was asked to take responsibility for the store (and ten staff) until a replacement could be found. I knew nothing about the company, ordering procedures, rotas or budgetary constraints. I'd barely even learned how to make a cup of coffee, but somehow I struggled through for a few weeks until a new Manager was recruited. 

New York, October 2001.

After the uncertainties of the latter years of my business, it was a joy to receive a weekly pay packet and have a regular holiday allowance. I had debts to repay, but, with careful budgeting, I planned a trip to see my cousin and her family in Manhattan at the end of October, coinciding with a couple of Bob Dylan gigs. One morning, on the way to work, I stopped off in our local Lunn Poly travel agents to book the ticket for my flight to New York. The date was September 10th 2001.

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Halifax Pier formed in Kentucky in 1998 and, by some accounts, are still musically active, though the last recordings I have by them date back to 2001. 'Lightly Noise' is from their second (and last?) LP titled 'Put Your Gloves On and Wave'. If I made you a CD, Minidisc or Cassette compilation at any point in the early noughties, this tune would've been on it.

55 From 55 - 2000

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

Dad drops by to see if there's any Frank Sinatra records in the sale!

Making the decision was by far the hardest thing. A friend who was with me, swore that she actually saw a weight visibly lift from my shoulders when I said the words out loud for the first time - I'm closing the shop. I informed my landlord, accountant and bank manager who were all incredibly supportive. At the end of trading a few days later, I removed the Oasis, 'Standing on the Shoulder of Giants', window display and replaced it with three words, each letter printed on an A4 sheet of paper for maximum impact - Closing Down Sale.

The photo from my last piece of local press, under the headline, 'End of the Road for Mr Music'.

Over the next few days I was genuinely overwhelmed by the number of kind comments, phone calls and good luck messages I recieved from customers old and new, some of whom no longer even lived in the town, but had shopped with me in the past and had somehow heard the news. Three pieces were written about the shop in the press and I was also interviewed on local radio. A chap of a similar age to me, with whom I'd only recently been discussing our mutual love of red wine, came in on the Friday afternoon and handed me a bottle. 'I've been saving this for a very long time' he said, 'but I want you to have it, with my best wishes for your future'. It was a 40 year old bottle of Rioja. I eventually opened it a year later and it remains the finest wine I've ever tasted.

Behind the counter, or where it used to be, after everything was gone. I spent 14 years of my life in that little space.

On the evening of Saturday March 25th, after a hectic and emotional week, I closed the door for the last time and sat in the old place in silence. The following morning, I started dismantling the racks, boxing up the stock and generally stripping the place bare. It took the best part of a week to complete the task. I'd been 26 years of age when I started the business and now I was three weeks short of my 40th birthday. 14 years, gone in a flash. It didn't seem possible.

55 From 55 - 1999

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

Promotional bits and bobs. The ridiculous amounts of stuff that record companies gave away. Quite apart from advance copies of singles and albums, in my time I was given bottle openers, pens, writing pads, bottles of plonk, hip-flasks, towels, cameras, denim jackets, cuddly toys, mugs, tea-pots, mouse-mats, baseball jackets, hats, sunglasses, presentation discs, concert tickets, hundreds of t-shirts, thousands of posters and many more strange and unconnected things that were used to plug the latest releases. Most of these items would come decorated in the band's logo or a sleeve design and the majority of them I would give away to genuine fans of the bands in question, as a thank-you for their custom. I often wonder how many of those freebies subsequently found their way onto eBay, when they were discovered at the back of a cupboard, years later.

1999 was my last full year of trading. HMV and Virgin were busy undercutting each other, supermarkets were selling CD's for less than cost price and a new phenomenon called file sharing was beginning to take hold. It was a very stressful time. No-one knew the full extent of the financial hole I was in, other than my accountant and bank manager and they were both pleading with me to throw in the towel. As midnight approached on December 31st, I took a walk along the prom, which was buzzing with people who were out and about to usher in the new millennium. I left the crowds behind and wandered to the quieter end of the beach and looked out into the darkness as the waves crashed in. I still hoped for a miracle, but in my gut I knew that the game was up.

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In 1999, ace UK post-rockers Fridge briefly signed to Go! Beat Records, who released the band's third album, 'Eph', as well as a couple of EP's. Kieran Hebden of Fridge later found great success trading as Four Tet. From the 'Of' EP, this is the fantastic 'Remix'.
('Remix' was nowhere to be found online, so this is my first attempt at using Box. Please let me know if I've uploaded this incorrectly!)

Fridge - 'Remix'