from the wilds of wales to chester

during 87 and 88 i lived between my parents home in telford and my girlfriend's home in the depths of powys.
living there is a whole other story involving morris minors, pet goats, sheep, and a donkey.
but that's not a story for here or now.

anyhow.
harriet (she was also in the colgates with me) shared my taste for records - in fact when we met it appeared we had identical collections - and we used to go record shopping a lot.
there was a small record shop in oswestry that we visited now and then.
it's where i bought both of these from:





and we used to go into shrewsbury a lot.
there were a couple of shops there that were always worth investigating.
there was one called durants which no longer exists - they used to have boxes of unsold 7"s under the counter which, if you asked nicely enough, you could rifle through.
i found this:



and across town, hidden in the basement of a shopping precinct was a tiny shop that sold second hand clothing, sticks of incence and some old records.
it was run by a guy called john who was also responsible for putting gigs on in shrewsbury (he put us on a number of times with pale saints, 14 iced bears, rosehips). he now runs caroline true records.
the only things i remember getting from his shop were these:





but our favourite place to go record shopping was chester.
it was an hour's drive away but it's a beautiful little city.

there were two record shops there at the time that i liked - both of them now gone - and we'd spend hours going through the racks.
i always came home with something great and i was always SO excited when asked, "fancy going to chester this weekend?"

of all the shopping trips there the one that sticks in my mind more than any other is the day i found all four of these:









you can imagine what that did to me can't you.

mind you, after that things were never the same going to chester.
there was always something to buy but it was never ever going to be as exciting as that day.

how could it be?