Seeing free sheets in shops made us think we could do that. 44 years on and the music shop has become a venue.
Beat Generation has just arrived to inspire another generation. Sounds evolve and we absorb, even absolve as we get older and less tribal. I can dig the Dancing Queen again. It sits well in a mix with the Only Ones, monochrome set, Martha and the muffins. Echoes of the past indeed. Let's face it who wouldn't take a walk along action straza one more time while painting SAHB on every passing wall. I was writing a song the other day and i introduced a sinister and comedic Alex Harvey laugh, oh how he did laugh. It worked well.
The sound system in Beat Generation is so good you can already see the way ahead for the next 44 years of the record buying public.
I'm only witness to part of the evolution, from the days of Groucho in Dundee, Goldrush in Perth, the Virgin superstores in Glasgow and Edinburgh etc etc we've evolved.
My first record was bought in the Record Exchange in clerk st. Later on Record Shak and Ripping Records further down the many named A701 to the south Bridge would sell Deadbeats among the 100,000's of tickets they'd sell each year for gigs. They must've sold several million in their time. What would they have given for a £3 booking fee.
Enough of the history, what of this new generation of beats. The chains have gone, now so many local record shops offer an array of old and new styles. I often sit on the bench in the meadows dedicated to the owner of Record Shak and think what a great job. Annually I pop in at Christmas time to Avalanche in the centre and buy a Deadbeat tee shirt and a few others from the selection. It reminds me of what you'd find in Cockburn Street in the 70's and 80's. It's an outstanding contribution to help Waverley market out of just being a brand name greasy spoon. Cockburn Street might've migrated itself into coffee bars and restaurants but there's still a few wee locals from back in the day jostling with the new clientele of 2026 Edinburgh.
I remember when I was working at my mum's place, the picnic basket, on Nicholson street she added Brie, date and apple, chicken and avocado, and sundry other conceptions to the 1985 menu at £1. I scoffed and said I'll sell more cheese and pickle at 25p. I was wrong. Issue29 had me advertising vegan pizzas but the damage was done. She was right, the tide had turned and she was selling out the brie every day.
Money was distorting our high street 40 years ago so it's great to see our communities evolve. Music communities as well as locals, with festivals filling the streets with visitors. I'm a regular Camino tourist in Spain another great dynamic community that changes every day week or month I go. It's all about community.
I love looking back but looking forward is what the record shop is doing today.
Vinyl Villains appeared on the back of a 1985 Deadbeat.
Opposite Sandy Bells in forest road is certainly an Irish bar now and that space has been many things to many people. What a history I don't have time to do it justice, only mention it once sold records too and before that gave out free oranges.
I had hoped to write a review of the gig in Glasgow at this stage but sadly I was ill. I'm told I missed a great show with Davy and Malcolm. Gutted I was. Great venue too the coffee bar on the southside putting on the post Creeping Bent production, with Stephen Pastel.
So back to the music and another venue I watched another brother in. The Grassmarket really has become a buskers paradise. The Americans flock there for it's authentic music and listen to the music of their era. They lap it up and as they have passports are most assuringly more biddible. They tip £20 when the hat goes around the kind of figure I'd only dream of back in the day when we played la sorbonne or the jailhouse. If we put the hat around it would get nicked. Back in the day the Grassmarket folk singer gigs were usually interrupted by one or two angry pissed punters now it's very respectable.
To be fair the early 80's was very funny too when it wasn't tragic. The things people stole to flog for drugs was hysterical.
At the end of the 80's I was in a night club in Hulme, Manchester bull rings. I was dancing and a stiletto heel had caught my leather jacket. I laughed and said "you've caught my coat in your shoe", to which my dance partner laughed and said "she's nicking it ya daft jock." Later on we were having a spliff in the bull rings watching the show. A guy came out a flat running with a telly under his arm. Next thing someone's chasing him. Ah, 1989 I don't really remember much but I can still picture that and the poll tax rally at Maine Road, but sadly not who played.
Drugs weren't cheap and it was quite mad. It was similar in the earlier part of the 80's too when the jacket wasn't too cheap either.
Great memories are something that always made me laugh with the Deadbeat Tapes when we were putting them together. So many bands reached the end of their teens and wrote nostalgic songs.
It's a crime and like my leather jacket a really funny crime. "Looking back on the days...." A great opening line and one Ritchie probably enjoys singing now with all the humour of, "fucks sake.... Did I really write that song on my 20th birthday".
I love the lyrics I love the music it brings me to the moment. In my case the moment was brilliant. I remember little as at my unfiltered best or worst. I have moments people tell me about, I have songs I wrote or sang, tapes and pictures of glorious gigs I clearly enjoyed. I don't have the imagery of my balls falling out of the gold lamet nappy in front of an unsuspecting fan. Not the smell of the flesh burning or me hitting the high notes quicker.
I don't remember, I just smile at my embarrassing moment and apologise for the poor people whose cigarettes I put out by accident.
My admiration is for the record shops and the venues. We showcased the TSB AKA Tayside Bar. In later years the irony that our golf sweep is called the TSB based on the Thistle Street Bar pleases me endlessly. Every week I feel I'm hitting this shot for Brian and the real TSB. The bar that launched a 1000 careers, albeit most were in drinking not music. The venue, the toasties, I never tire of praising the best bar I ever drunk in. I've drunk in 1000's of bars and I'm so lucky to have drunk there, so often at so many times of the day. Oh yes, I'm a drunk, I've a pulse and I am proud. People like Brian helped me through me life and now nostalgia has given way to LUKEATME. My apologies and back to the story about the record shops and music.
