Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 4 (A New Hope)

The tide is turning.

Ive had 2 positive encounters in the last week with charity shop workers that has changed my views and made me realize human nature isn't completely fucked in this day and age.

The first was with the man running the YMCA shop in Ramsgate High Street. I popped in there briefly after work a few Fridays ago and picked up some random reggae 12"s that were lying in between some random charity shop fodder. Not in the best condition but still nice to find given the records that were sandwiching them for 50p each.

Dennis Malcolm - So Many Ways
Foxy Brown - Fast Car
Lord Creator / Me-You And The Crew - Creation Medley / Creating Dub
Ray Mondo & Samantha Rose - Book Of Rules / Easy Loving
Pat Kelly / Dean Frazer - Whiter Shade Of Pale / Youth Sax

As i was leaving the shop i asked the man if he had any other records to look through. Immediately he said he had loads out the back and i could come back anytime and ask for him and he'd let me have a look through them. I went back the next day and sure enough he let me out the back and i spent about 30 mins looking through what he had. It wasn't very good but i spent another £6.00. As i was leaving again he said that he had a couple of storage containers full of 1000's of records and i should pop back in the new year and he'd bring some more in for me. Result!

The second encounter was the week after the first as i did my monthly circuit of my areas charity shops. It was a very good day for digging (possibly my best ever) as every shop i went into had a couple of bargains waiting for me.

In the Sense shop at the top of Margate High street these greeted me all in stunning condition for 3 for a £1.00:

Gary Numan – Berserker
Bushido - Among The Ruins
Maxtrack Orchestra - Another Day
Brandy - What About Us
Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
Newtrament - London Bridge Is Falling Down
Colm III - Take Me High
The Gap Band - Beep A Freak

A bit further down the road i pulled a couple of sealed Motown LP's out of another shop but the real gem i only noticed as i was leaving. A boxful of classical LP's yielded one of the best finds of my year. Now i've had a few of these in the past cheap (a white label copy for 10p and label copy for 50p) but never locally and i definitely wasn't expecting it from the box it was in as it was the only record of its style in the shop. D-Livin - Why is the name of the tune and it seems to have gone up in price since i sold my last copy for £25.00 a year or so back. Ive chucked this one up for £50.00 for starters and its still cheapest copy around!!

So onto Cliftonville and into a shop id only noticed the previous time id gone by. The 2 middle aged women manning the till were very friendly and after i looked through the same pile id gone through the time before and cracked a few jokes i noticed about 5 boxes of records next to the counter which i asked if i have a look at. No problem said the women as they got their coats on to go for a sly fag outside. 4 of the boxes were filled with the same old tat as you see time and time again but the last box had some assorted 12"s in pretty good nick so i pulled out all the ones that looked interesting. From the track titles and artwork i gathered that 3 of them were reggae records (2 of which were on coloured vinyl) so they went straight into the yes pile along with a few more random things. The women came back and we chatted a bit about vinyl and i obviously asked if they had any more out the back. Not out the back they said but 1000's more in storage. I bit the bullet and offered my services to sort the records out for them as they needed records cleared out of the shop that wouldn't sell. Well that's pretty easy for me as i pretty much know if the record is run of the mill pap and 90% of the stuff i looked through would fit into that category. They seemed more than happy for me to do this so numbers were exchanged and hopefully in the new year i can go back and look through the rest of what they have. Result!

Back to the reggae 12"s. When i got home and investigated them it seems that the Creation Rebel one is a seriously rare roots reggae tune from 1979 which routinely goes for £50.00 + on eBay.

Creation Rebel - Beware / Natty Conscience Free
Dennis Pinnock - The Feeling / Saturday Night Feeling
Freddy Clarke / The Internationals - My Star Attraction / Crucial Dub

Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 3 (Justice Is Served)

A breaking news update which greatly brightened my day and to a lesser extent made my Christmas.

Walking along the mean streets of Cliftonville this morning i passed the charity shop where i was barred from entering last month by the most foulest of crones. My eyes lit up as i saw the shop completely cleared out of all its stock and lying empty.

Now i can only dream of this Beelzebub being visited by the police or taxman and being carted away screaming to face some hard time for crimes against common decency. I still can hear her clearly saying that she "i make enough money for charity already". Obviously not enough. Beeeeatch!!