So whilst I was busy buying godawful records by members of The Quo, at the same time I was racking up some unintentional points with Britannia Music.
Long-term readers may remember that I mentioned this particular company once before. In the mid-1980s, anytime you opened a weekend newspaper, a leaflet would invariably fall out, advertising Britannia’s 3 for £20 introductory offer, which I have to admit this teenage brain fell for.
Having succumbed, they would send you a booklet every month, detailing all of their wares (of which you had to buy a certain amount within a certain amount of time or…well, actually, as these were the days where you paid for any postal purchases by cheque, I’m not sure what the “or..” was. They’d tell my parents??) and bigging up their Album of The Month.
And here’s where the real money-spinner was for them: they just assumed that you would want to buy the Album of the Month. If you didn’t, you had to tick a box on a form and post it back to them by a certain date. Miss that cut off point, and suddenly you were the proud owner of…well, you’ll see.
You know me by now. I ended up with some stuff that I would not have ordinarily bought. Like this:
Go West – Don’t Look Down
and this…
Spandau Ballet – Highly Strung
…which contains one of the most cringe-worthy lyrics ever:
“She used to be a diplomat, but now she’s down the laundromat”
Although I can’t really complain, as it did mean I owned this, which is an absolutely belting New Romantic classic:
Spandau Ballet – To Cut a Long Story Short
Both of these inadvertent purchases would, in the fullness of time, actually prove their worth. I’ll explain that later.
So that’s my excuse for owning those. I have no such excuse, nor do I think I need one, for owning this:
…which I intentionally bought, not so that I owned any of their guitars-as-bagpipes records (if you don’t know what I mean by that, then go YouTube “In a Big Country”), but so that I owned this, which I still adore to this day (and I don’t care what you think):
Big Country – Chance
I also bought this:
…a collection of tracks by bands who had played at Live Aid, mostly because, if memory serves, it was only £1.99, but also because it contained this (and again, I don’t care what you think about me liking this either):
The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays
Has there been a greater record written about a shooting spree at a school? I think not, and let’s face it, there’s been plenty of opportunities for somebody to have a go at writing one.
But wait. Here comes the good bit.
Yet again, I can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by giving you this brilliant piece of Japanese pop, which samples the piano bit at the start of “…Mondays” (and, whilst we’re at it, the German bit from the start of “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” by The Offspring, which in turn was sampling Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages” which…heck, we could be here all day if I carry on). (By the way, you should watch the Def Leppard video, it is unintentionally, bum-wigglingly, hilarious. Spinal Tap was spot on.)
Anyway, if you only click one link on this blog, I urge you to make it this one. You won’t regret it:
Puffy AmiYumi – Call Me What You Like
See? Told you.
More soon.
A History of Dubious Taste 