Arooj Aftab - Arooj Aftab Live in London, Decca (2023)
Any titles not sold instore went on sale online tonigh and I managed to get a copy of this RSD for cost price online from Jumbo Records. Recorded live at the Barbican and featuring Anoushka Shankar. Lacquer cut by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI so should be a decent pressing
Listened to Aey Na Balam from the record on Youtube which is excellent.
It’s far too easy to order things online.
When the local HMV didn’t close I was amazed by how much space they’d dedicated to vinyl on the ground floor - trouble is going into the city has been made less and less appealing in recent years due to traffic problems if driving and poor public transport if not.
A few weeks ago I did venture into town - no vinyl on the ground floor anymore - it’s all moved upstairs. Lack of sales, prices too high, cost of living? I don’t know but one issue for me who used to enjoy browsing was how jam packed all the displays were making it difficult or nigh on impossible to flick through the titles available as they were so tightly packed. Fine if you knew you wanted a particular common artist but difficult to browse sections to find something interesting you’d not specifically gone there for.
I can drive into Southampton. It takes me half an hour, via 20+ sets of traffic lights, to get to the car park where I am charged a fiver for the privilege of spending money in their shops always assuming they actually have whatever I wish to buy, then another half hour via a similar number of traffic lights to get home.
Or, I can boot up the PC, make myself a cup of coffee, spend a relaxing half an hour and buy stuff I actually wish to buy.
We now have the prospect of congestion charging in a few years (to be debated by the council later this week, though it’s almost certainly a done deal), maybe ULEZ too.
Takes ages to go through town now. Why? 3 general lanes were replaced by 2 all vehicle and 1 bus lane. We now have 1 bus lane, 1 cycle lane virtually no one uses and (they’re on pavements, backstreets, cutting across you using short cuts instead) and 1 general purpose lane. So the council’s schemes which must have cost millions and caused disruption to car/business users and are frankly dangerous in many areas have created the bloody congestion/slow traffic.
I really despair of many of the things which are being forced upon us - not the principles behind them just that they are unrealistic and executed poorly.
Oh I absolutely agree AC.
All the money collected from tax payers goes on one madcap scheme after another and we’re left with public roads that are unsafe to drive on.
Here in the Fens our roads are more potholes than roads and I’m sure it’s much the same country wide.
Yet they built a guided bus route at huge cost alongside the A14 between The Huntingdon Area and Cambridge and I’ve never once seen one🤷🏻♂️
Paid £10 over the odds for a copy of Chet - Chet mono release last night so altogether I paid £20 more for the three releases I bought but did it from the comfort of my living room.
I’m lucky enough to live walking distance or a short bus ride from the record shops in Central Brighton and probably only go once or twice a year. I find it not only too much hassle being around that many people but also new vinyl is cheaper on line and used is now also too expensive.
My local shop (Hey Joe, Brentwood, Essex) opened at 8am and had the usual blurb about queues etc. I went at 8am expecting it to be empty but there was literally a 100m queue round the block ! I turned around and went home. I went back at 2pm and it was empty … still had loads of records so managed to get everything I wanted so was not a bad outcome in the end.
Managed to pick these two releases up…
Porcupine Tree - IA / DW / XT
Terry Callier - Hidden Conversations
Thats because they all turn up at the same time😂
WOW! 
Are those off the Guided Bus Route?
Yep
Unsurprisingly they’re not the first choice for many…
How!?
It’s a GUIDED bus route. There is nothing to contend with, they have the F’ing thing all to themselves 
The destination listed on the front is a former RAF base. Maybe the driver was inspired to try to become airborne.
Hmmn……you couldn’t make it up
Perhaps the driver had too much Red Bull…
Still doesn’t account for the others however!
This year I said no… I am running out of space and despite a few interesting titles I decided I would not surrend to the buying frenzy…
Hence…
Stevie Nicks Belladonna live
Duran Duran Carnival Rio live
Haircut One Hundred 100% live
Gun Club live at the Hacienda
Tori Amos Little Earthquakes rarities
… 
You Sir, are WEAK!!
I know threads do wander off in unpredictable directions but this post has no connection I can conceive of to Record Store Day. I suspect this is down to my lack of imagination or knowledge, hoping someone will illuminate me as to the connection.
It was a reply to comments from Gazza and Quicksticks. Keep up!
