I’ve had a ridiculous day booting today, up early I hit a new boot in Arbroath next to the football ground at 7.15am, late I know TELL ME ABOUT IT. So I left home picked up a black McD coffee en-route and sauntered into the field to have a wander. The fruit & veg man was there, always a good sign, and I got about 3/4 the way along a row and there’s a bloke kneeling down in the familiar digging pose. I stood behind him to see what he was looking at as he flipped by original Mothers of Invention, Kevin Ayres, John Martyn albums, picking out the Genesis, Tull, Hendrix and Floyd, all originals in super clean nick (as far as I could tell by the sleeves). He got up asked how much they were, the woman said her husband, who was standing next to her, wanted a pound each, but I’ll let you have them for 50p each (!!) Jeez, god knows what he got tbh as I got down and pulled 25 in under 25 seconds including pink Island John Martyn, Andwella, unboxed Harvest albums by Kevin Ayres, BJH and others. But best of all the Omega Red Star album, I never even checked condition of any of them but when I got back to the car most look hardly played, just incredible for a collection like this to come out so cheap. I paid £15 for the lot as I was hardly going to give her £12.50 and she even gave me a canvas bag to put them in, crackers.
So happy as a clam but with a tinge of what I must have missed by minutes, curse you McD and your reasonably priced coffee! I headed home for breakfast and after porridge (I have a very Scottish wife) I headed out to the lunchtime boot that kicks off on a village green about 20 miles from me at 1pm. Arriving early so I could wander about and see what was out as they do like to tell the sellers here that there is NO SELLING BEFORE 1pm. So strict, but for me it means I can see where the records are and hit those stalls first. One bloke had an incredible amount of 70’s African & Indian albums and singles, I spent £60 with him, another lady had obscure labelled 7″ from the 80’s at 50p each so I basically spend all the money I had on me except for a fiver. As I was leaving a woman came up to me asking if I was still looking for records to which I replied erm, yes, “well go to the charity shop on the village high street it’s open today and they have loads of records.” So I did and they did indeed have more bleeding records albeit weird folk stuff, I spent £6 as I found a pound in the car and I came home and played many of them, cleaned some and watched my team win 5:1 and The Championship. So it has been a tiring but rewarding day but unfortunately this doesn’t happen every weekend.
A few things in life come under the heading: ‘Too Much Like Hard Work’.
This is a prime example… but I am grateful for the warning.
Sounds like a great day and I am a little bit envious..
My team also lifted the league one championship today with a scintillating display but sadly was unable to witness as I was coming back from a holiday in Krakow and Berlin.
I did however find a great little record shop in the centre of Berlin I had not seen before and bought some hard to find little beauties.
Our big plus at the weekend went the other way, deduping our vinyl and weeding out ‘will never play agains’ and finding a local dealer who will come round and give us a fair price (about half of what we might get if we sold them ourselves directly).
We did discover two editions of Bringing It All Back Home, one of which was retitled Subterranean Homesick Blues for the Dutch market by CBS. Exact same album and artwork, just a different title. As son said, they’ve replaced a simple to understand phrase with a much more complex one. One of the two will go in the next batch to be weeded out.
I had a UK cassette of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ many moons ago. Very strange; I seem to remember that this was the standard version for a long time.
Hmm not sure about that. I think import versions could be found in UK late 70s/early 80s with that name, but BIABH was always generally the standard title.
I am with those who think this was fun way to spend a weekend and what an impressive haul!
It looks like there were quite. a few issues with the alternative name from about 1983 up until 1991 in Europe at large (including the UK) on the Nice Price label. It was the time when Dylan’s stock was quite low I would guess. Mine came from about 87 which does tie in with some listings on Discogs.
I loved the Nice Price line, so many proper classic albums were had for £2.99 or so. That and the Island Life series were the pillars of my music listening in the 80s.
After months of intense pressure from the wife to clear out the record collection, we took a bunch to a car boot sale near Abroath at the weekend, where some cheeky bastards convinced the misses that they were only worth 50p each. I wanted at least a £1…. .
I admire your persistence. Last weekend I spent two hours in the various chazzas of Cromer, and one hour in the little music shop, and I’d had enough (and bought enough). There was a record fair in the community centre and I couldn’t be arsed – I went for a cuppa and a sarnie instead.
I find record fairs a bit difficult these days. You can get great bargains sometimes, but is it worth the competitive rifling through boxes with many others who may not have the greatest personal health regimes.