No Products in the Cart
Long before people had any inkling that the records they were buying would one day be valuable collectibles, it was not uncommon for them to write their name and address on the sleeve. Indeed, I’ve seen records with the name and/or address written on the sleeve, the inner AND the record itself! This was probably handy if you were accustomed to lending records to friends or taking them to parties. I’ll occasionally look up the address on GoogleMaps to check out the house where they lived and muse on the story of the record and its owner. This became an occasional series of facebook posts called “Oi! I’ve got your record!”
Marion
Marion Wilde grew up in the leafy middle-class suburb of Holcombe Brook on the outskirts of Manchester. Her copy of A Hard Day's Night has a nasty scratch on side one so I won't be offering it for sale. Shame because it’s a first pressing. I was going to give Marion the benefit of the doubt and presume it acquired that scratch after it served its tenure at 17 Springwater Avenue, but I was slightly troubled by the fact that Marion saw fit to write her name not once but TWICE on the sleeve. More troubling still are the moustache and goatee that have been drawn onto Ringo and George respectively. Marion had a thing or two to learn about looking after her LP collection. Don’t be like Marion.
Robin
Robin Cambell lived in Pembroke Dock, a fairly drab and remote town in Southwestern Wales with a long military history. It was unlikely to have been big enough to support a record shop so Robin would likely have bought this Moody Blues LP at a WHSmith or Woolworths. He might also have made the half-hour trip to Tenby to visit Dales, a legendary record shop that has been in business for more than seven decades. There weren’t any substantial concert venues anywhere close to Pembroke Dock, but it’s possible Robin made the two-hour trek to Aberystwyth to see the Moodies on February 6th 1969 when they played King’s Hall, a major concert venue that hosted Led Zeppelin, Free and The Rolling Stones long before it was demolished in 1989.
Sheila
Sheila Ford lived in Toxteth, the roughest part of Liverpool. Sheila’s copy of the Stones’ second album is in rather shoddy condition. It had previously belonged to another Liverpool resident whose name and address has been scratched out. The previous owner took it upon themselves to write a list of the Stones’ UK singles discography in the bottom left-corner, and I’ve deduced that they made this list in August 1967 when the We Love You single came out, as Dandelion was released as a single the following month and is not included here. The house shown is almost certainly not the house Sheila lived in (she lived at #94A which no longer exists). It’s likely the whole block was knocked down and redeveloped into these houses in the 1980s. I would have ridden my bike by here dozens of times when I was a student in Liverpool in the early 90s.
Oi! Marion, Robin and Sheila! I’ve got your records!
