Comment
Ahh..dear Robs...the vinyl mecca of my youth, with the Barman and Robin prints, to all the demo 45s stuck to the back wall(..which occasionally fell down, only to be replaced by Rob with a discarded roll of packing tape!!)
I loved this place, from the moment I walked in as a very impressionable 13 year old in 1982 I was mesmerized!
..it just felt impossibly cool to me, with its incredible 5p boxes of 45s.. later to be the 20p back wall.. I would literally loose myself in how much I could injest just by looking at as many labels as I could before deciding both what to buy ..and how many I could afford..!
It taught me how to be me going in that shop, as a very shy teenager, going into Robs on a Saturday morning (..I would as It for him to open at 8.30 and much through a packet of custard creams while I waited! ..those that know the Thunderthumbs "moniker " will know that I stiĺ cherish a good biscuit as well as any record!) ..and every time I would wait patiently while Rob bought his 2 newspapers( - the sun and the mirror, which I assume he still does to this day?)
-From the newsagent at the bottom of Hurts Yard.. and then my search would begin..
And this was in the days when it still looked like a record store of the ..erm..traditional type shall we say, where you could go up to the counter and browse.. yes, browse, dear reader at the "New Wave " 45s to the right next to the stairs.. or the Mod/Two-tone to the left..
And then "dig" in the 20p bins ..for the best part of ..what 4 hours!
This is where my long, arduous and throughly enjoyable musical education began..and do you know? ..from that first day to this.. all I've ever wanted..was my own little record store.. just like Robs Record Mart..
..only without the mountainous climbing over boxes, people, coats, discarded bags of cash from the 1980s....that rare John Lennon Apple demo that Robs been looking for since 1996..!... I hope he never changes..
Halcyon days my friends....
Halcyon days.......
Name
Thunder Thumbs
(2018)
