Are/were older recordings really so bad?

[RichardB]

Sorry to hear about the burglary . I had a break in once.

Me too. The perpetrator took the bog standard VCR (yes it was a while ago) and ignored the much more valuable (though no doubt not down the pub) DAT recorder that was sitting in the middle of the table.

[LHC]

It certainly comes to mine since I worked there from 1980 to 1982 or so, at the tail end of the LP era. I did have quite a considerable collection of those but disposed of almost all of them when I left the UK in 1993, and most of the CDs that replaced them unfortunately found their way to second hand shops later in the 90s owing to "cashflow issues" after which the collection began to grow again, though in the last 12 years or so there have been very few new acquisitions, and when I moved again in 2013 I left most of my CDs behind with my ex; I always pick up a few when I go back there, but my heart isn't in it really... I find the current situation with streaming and downloading much preferable, it puts the emphasis back on the music rather than on the object it's stored on.

I also worked at Farringdon Records, although my spell there was in the late 80s, so a few years after you. I left shortly after they were bought out by Our Price Records, who decided they wanted a classical outlet.

[Bryn]

Not to mention the one on the Strand (MDC?? ) where I must have spent a small fortune in the days when opera sets were £25 to £45 a go…it was just so near Charing X station.

Lingering in either before a night at ENO or ROH made for a very expensive evening.

Hmm. Bit of a dodgy shop, that. There uses to be a staff member there who talked me into purchasing the Medici set of Beethoven String Quartets. Possibly a Welshman from Abertawe.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Hmm. Bit of a dodgy shop, that. There uses to be a staff member there who talked me into purchasing the Medici set of Beethoven String Quartets. Possibly a Welshman from Abertawe.

It wasn’t the viola player trying to earn an extra few bob?
I never had any probs with the stuff they sold - seemed to be a perpetual sale on there…

[Ein Heldenleben]

Me too. The perpetrator took the bog standard VCR (yes it was a while ago) and ignored the much more valuable (though no doubt not down the pub) DAT recorder that was sitting in the middle of the table.

That’s the secret - buy stuff that few recognise or know how to work….

[Bryn]

It wasn’t the viola player trying to earn an extra few bob?
I never had any probs with the stuff they sold - seemed to be a perpetual sale on there…

No, I think this one plays guitar and fiddles around with all manner of electronics and has an alleged history of yodelling. The dodgiest aspect of the place was the amount of hard-earned cash I spent there. Their sales bins were always worth a trawl through.

[Joseph K]

Sorry to hear about the burglary . I had a break in once . The thieves carefully put all my opera boxed sets in a carrier bag and then left them.Perhaps they realised the black market for classic recordings of Verdi, Wagner, Strauss was unlikely to provide “a shot in the arm” as the investigating officer described it . They did Nick two very expensive guitars but left my 1970’s hifi …

Ach, sorry to hear that. They took my classical guitar, hifi, laptop, TV/DVD combo, all my DVDs and my USB stick (lots of lost photos on there!) and misc. other stuff, in addition to the CDs. But not long after I saw some of my CDs in the local pawn shop and so managed to get about two-dozen of them back, as well as finding out who the culprits were. I knew the people who did it (yes, I've fraternised with unpleasant morons) and it wasn't that long ago that I received what I believe to be the last of the reparations they were forced to pay me.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Ach, sorry to hear that. They took my classical guitar, hifi, laptop, TV/DVD combo, all my DVDs and my USB stick (lots of lost photos on there!) and misc. other stuff, in addition to the CDs. But not long after I saw some of my CDs in the local pawn shop and so managed to get about two-dozen of them back, as well as finding out who the culprits were. I knew the people who did it (yes, I've fraternised with unpleasant morons) and it wasn't that long ago that I received what I believe to be the last of the reparations they were forced to pay me.

Interesting- nicking a mem stick is a really nasty trick…

[mathias broucek]

Another Farringdon alumnus, albeit only a holiday job in the summer of 1986!