Posts by 81stcolumn
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In late 1987, I got another record store job, this one working out the back at the big Virgin store in Marble Arch. Richard Branson had just taken the company public and the accountants had begun to arrive, but there was still a touch of the counter-culture about the place and the people who worked there, who nearly all seemed to be on the way to one dream or another.
Looking at the time line you only just missed the days of the “Virgin Party”.
Richard Branson used to run an annual employee party at the Manor just outside Oxford. As I understand it the majority of employees were invited an interesting mix of airline staff, music sales and industry peeps. It was a ticket only affair and the tickets were sent out before the event. Proper popstars and management went up to the Manor itself and everyone else partied in the grounds. There were marquees, bouncy castles music free food and drink etc. The event ran from early afternoon until late, it was credited as quite a night too.
I was there for what was probably the last year that it ran, doing some security and goforing on the day. I started on the gate with Richard meeting greeting and directing traffic; red tickets to the grounds green tickets up the drive and a walkie-talkie to check “the list”. It was interesting watching how Branson stood at the gate for at least two hours shaking hands and switching on his seemingly sincere smile for incoming celebs etc. A good proportion of the Cooltempo and Virgin roster turned up during the day and were directed up to the manor (one well known band then signed to WEA showed up crammed into a yellow Vauxhall Chevette – those were the days). Mid afternoon Richard was off to party and I was left on the gate with a couple of others.
Shortly after Richard took off, people started arriving in numbers, all with tickets. Then a lot of people started turning up with tickets, I mean a lot of people. I got called away from the gate and got sent for supplies. Over the next couple of hours a handful of us took a truck and cleaned out some off-licenses, the better part of a cash and carry along with several fast food outlets. The food and drink still ran out because there by was by now a huge number of people all turning up with tickets. We tried rationing the food and drink and then had to shut the gate altogether (which resulted in the main road back to Oxford being blocked at one point). There was a near riot in the grounds with people trying to leave and other hungry, thirsty people wanting satisfaction. At one point I was stood on a trestle table that got charged as two slabs of warm canned lager arrived (I tried to defended myself with a yellow fluoro jacket!). The Police eventually turned up and shut everything down. It appears that a disgruntled employee or printer had printed several thousand extra tickets and they were being given away on street corners in Oxford and London.
While my experiences of Richard Branson were mixed, I always admired the fact that he kept writing the cheques and running the credit card for as long as possible that day. I also know that when it got ugly, it was scary and we were lucky that nothing serious happened. I guess a combination of the police, the accountants and the scare put an end to what was quite an employee party in its day.
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Had no idea about the connection – when you said Leyton Buzzards I thought of “I’m hanging around” and the picture of Russell Harty on the cover.
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Yep felt very strange on Tuesday......
And the weekend came starting with Your Love, a track which I swear just brought the joint to a halt when we first played it. But we white boys in the UK caught on quick and off to Black Market Records we went.....
Its fair to say a number of us owe House music if not Chicago a living; given the above, my list is inspired by rather than a tribute to.
Playing in the background of te doco posted earllier. The same crew gave us the sublime break for love.
Adonis stitches nicely with the bookend of this set.
Lets not forget that Frankie was born in New York. This from the late Manny Skretching; I figure that anyone who mixed Jungle owes this one.
And the boys all sorted for E's and whizz ran off with the ball and came back with this (its all in there somewhere). This track kept me in a living for a whole year..... the break starts at 3:00 and who could fail to be inspired. The "pump it up boy" sample came of course from Chicago.
Stuff the Isle of Wight the real Woodstock of a generation in the UK was found around the M25 it was something else to see 2000 or more spotty herbetesses and herberts dancing to this as the sun rose.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Chicago and and especially Frankie Knuckles. -
I'm kind of gob smacked by today's Key announcement that he's wangled NZ products (in particular mussels) to appear on Alibaba ....
Which would be an a hollow victory indeed given what we now know about the struggles that NZ produce faces at the border.
I look forward with interest to the next round of close friends that will be invited to dinner.
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I think we sort of dealt with those issues. The Labour Party's sort of down in the weeds going through various aspects of it.
Perhaps someone should remind the Prime Minister that there is a difference between ordinary and noxious weeds.
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I was at a party sat on some stairs in a hallway between two doors. Chaos theory describes pattern points and pinch points that connect two attractor states. And there sits me, at University for the first time between two lives; one rejected the other unshaped by endeavour. The strange thing is that I am there at all. I can only recall going to one “proper” party in my time at University. I never have felt comfortable making conversation with strangers when I have no job to do. So it is odd to see me animated and at ease in this picture. Elements of chaotic systems are known to do unstable things preceding and between phase shifts.
It is definitely me though, the bleached Levis, offensive earrings, the little rubber band that retains the tongue of my favourite leather belt. Oh yeah, that’s me in a very novel state.
I got my second chance at life through education. To be captured on such flattering terms just as my life was flipping from one state to another seems to underline my extraordinary good fortune.
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Hard News: Drugs, development and reality, in reply to Luke Williamson,
Which does beg the question about the value of these middle men and the "value added" services they provide.
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Why doesn’t the US just buy the lot and process it into morphine for pain relief in the developing world?
I suspect it has something to do with the profits from a stealth bomber being linked to the ability to hire security for the altogether too common gated communities in the developed world. After all how else can they stop poverty stricken addicts from be-spoiling their lifestyles and stealing their belongings?
Two less sarcastic points do stick out though -
A lot of the dialogue in this piece returns to our relationship with primary producers and how those in poorer countries cannot make a living (as with some richer ones). The commodification of primary produce and free market economics just don't work in this context. I don't think the ongoing food security problems elsewhere are unrelated to the way we buy food and what we expect to pay for it.
I tried to imagine what would happen if we did eliminate opium poppies, coca, marijuana etc. The nightmare scenario would see massive growth in synthetics, which should scare everyone.
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A bit sad really Quax has not only marginalised himself but also the needs of those he purports to represent.
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Hard News: Lowering the Stakes, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Manufacturers stated life-span for helmets is 3-4 years. While I suspect this is probably a little on the short side the reasoning behind this is real. The foam inside helmets does become brittle and is not immune to certain types of spray solvents/propellants, regardless of the state of the shell. Fit really does matter, not only for crash protection but slippage that at best distracts and at worst obstructs view. The whole point of the foam is that it aids deceleration something undermined by the size of the gap between head and functional body of the helmet.
