Jul 29: 2001

2001 saw some classic album releases.

Yes released 'Magnification' - an album with full orchestra which had some excellent individual tracks. By now I was married and living in a village on the North Norfolk coast and I remember listening to this while driving through the edge of the Sandringham Estate on the way to work in King's Lynn.

Also out in 2001:

Tenacious D were very popular, thanks to Jack Black's involvement. Their lyrics are vary sweary Mary and crude.

Parental advisory. Don't watch the following video... or enjoy it!

Tribute:

The demon in the video is played by Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters.

What were you listening to in 2001?

Apr 30: The 'Clockwork Orange' Record Shop

A cross posting from my Geography in/on Film blog. Check it out... there are some overlaps with the music one.

Record shops used to be a much bigger part of the fabric of towns and cities. Some cities still have some decent record shops. Norwich does fairly well for vinyl emporiums...

Perhaps the most stylised and 'perfect' of these on screen is the one in Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange'.

The filming location for the record shop scene was the basement of the Chelsea Drugstore on London's Kings Road which was designed by architect Antony Cloughley and designer Colin Golding. It was inspired by Le Drugstore on Boulevard St Germain in Paris, Chelsea Drugstore opened in 1968 and included bars, a chemist, newsstands, record stores and food outlets, and was open up to 16 hours a day.

The store closed down in 1985 and was a McDonalds for a while. Located on the corner of Royal Avenue and King’s Road in Chelsea, several high profile bands and artists met each other for the first time within its walls.

This article goes into more details on the value of record shops.

A record store condenses all forms of culture and counter-culture into one perfect space. You generally encounter interesting people in these places and conversations can be struck up quite easily.

It was also frequented by The Rolling Stones and is mentioned in their lyrics for You Can’t Always Get What You Want as well as in The Kinks’ Did Ya (“Now the Chelsea Drugstore needs a fix…”).

The music playing in the scene is by Wendy Carlos.

This blog explores the real-life records which are featured. I noticed the 2001 soundtrack album by the desk where he asks about his order.