Saturday 3 October 2015

Record shop regulars

As anyone who’s ever worked in a shop probably appreciates, regular customers tend to earn handy nicknames.  Not that they have a clue what they are themselves.  These useful identification labels are an important secret, closely guarded by the knowing assistants on the other side of the counter.  As a customer I must've had a few too and I'm glad I don't know what they are.  

From '83 to '87 I was one of those knowing assistants, however, in an independent record shop; it was a long time ago and sadly I can’t recall many names now, but... let me think… well, there was Worzel Gummidge… and Bog Monster… and Tiger Man…and the Fraggles… and plenty of other less imaginative tags too - and we knew who we were talking about, even if they didn’t.

Other regulars, however, actively introduced themselves in the way they wanted to be addressed. For example, there was ‘Neil the Mod’.  The ‘Mod’ part of his name was emphatic.  I don’t think we ever knew his surname –  I mean, when we reserved, say, the latest 2 Tone release for him, it was just ‘Neil the Mod’ that we wrote as his name on the order slip.  As instructed by him.  He was never seen wearing anything but full (‘80s) mod regalia, such as his parka (with target), pork pie hat, sta-prest trousers, etc.   

I remember the first few times he came in - he must only have been in his early teens and he was just a little too exuberant.  If there had been such a thing as ‘The X Factor’ or ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ at the time, you might have thought you’d accidentally walked into an audition on any occasion that he was in the shop.  Before you had time to say ‘Green Onions’ he’d be singing to you.  Mind you, that was nothing new when you worked in a record store.  People frequently came in and said, “There’s this single I want, and I can’t remember what it’s called, or who it’s by, but it goes a bit like this…” and then self-consciously proceeded to ‘da-de-da’ a few bars with maybe the odd memorable word thrown in (something really useful like 'love' or 'baby'- not much narrowing down to be done there, then).  But these were quietly sung by the enquirer at close range, and only after checking that the shop was devoid of other customers and possible eavesdroppers.  Conversely, Neil the Mod actually wanted everybody to hear him.  He sang at full volume and even threw in a few dance moves too.  It was as if he had no embarrassment filter; the more attention he could get, the better.  At first this was a little tiresome but, I suppose, at least we knew we were in for a bit of free entertainment when he was around. 

However, over time he calmed down as he grew from a rather over-enthusiastic teenager into a more focused young man.  It was then I realised that his career as some kind of performer had been inevitable; he started to get entertainment work at holiday camps and local events, and in a way he’d been practising his art on us in the shop.  Maybe it was really quite a privilege to witness his early forays into singing publicly.  A few years after I’d left my job there I bumped into him (and his guitar) in town where he’d apparently been doing a bit of busking between seasonal leisure resort bookings.  He'd ditched the full Quadrophenia gear in favour of a more subdued retro look.  We had a bit of a chat before he said “So what song is it gonna be – fancy a bit of Beatles?”  Then, right in the middle of a busy retail centre full of Saturday shoppers he launched boldly, and perfectly, into ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, the Carl Perkins number, as performed by the early Beatles.  If you’re familiar with this you’ll know there is no handy guitar intro, no time to take breath nor get in tune with a few chords at the start….  It's just the vocal that kicks it off.  It takes guts.

Then in came his vibrant, strumming guitar.  His performance was strong, captivating, pitch-perfect and LOUD.  The shoppers all stopped to watch, their worn-down faces lighting up with admiring smiles, feet tapping in time.   You just couldn’t fail to be both impressed and uplifted.

(Pork pie) hats off to Neil the Mod.  I hope he's doing well, wherever he is now, and I hope he's still singing.

7 comments:

  1. Love this post! We had a 2 Tone regular in dress, musical habit and spirit too, and that was in 1993... and he was about 15! I'm going to play some Bodysnatchers in honor of Neil the Mod right now. The singing customers reference is such a smile. We had those in America as well. The shop I worked at was in the sticks. So, we would get contemporary country types singing their wants. Brutal and funny at the same time.

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    1. Ah thanks, Brian - yes I can imagine it does resonate! It's good to know that record shops the world over were (are?) probably always going to be frequented by Neil the Mods!
      It could be a bit embarrassing having a stranger sing to you, couldn't it? Not so bad if you recognised the song - which, I'm sure like me you really hoped you would - no matter how out of tune the rendition.

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  2. I loved this post, C, and could certainly relate to parts of it! (I'm grateful that it's inspired me to troll through my memory bank for a few of my own stories about customers, record finds, etc. - although I don't think I can match your style!)

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    1. Thanks Marie. I'd love to read more about your record shop days and experiences. Most people can relate to being on one or other side of the counter, so it's always of interest!

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  3. Great post. For a while post-uni/pre-career I was a "knowing shop assistant" in an independent hi-fi shop. We had nicknamed regulars too, but the best, most regular was Miss Bus Stop. She only ever came in the shop once but walked past nearly every day (on the way to her bus stop, hence the name). And every day, she looked in the window at us, with a knowing smile of her own. Knowing, in this case I think, that we (D, T and I) all fancied her rotten.

    One summery day, towards the end of my 18 months there, she walked past as usual, looked in as usual, smiled knowingly as usual. T, always the boldest of us, decided that enough was enough and charged down the road after her, catching her as she got onto a bus. He got on too, and said something along the lines of "Every time you walk past the shop it brightens up our day" which was pretty smooth of him. But then he ruined it somewhat by adding "We were wondering if you'd like to go out with one of us?" You know, any one of three?! Who knows what her reaction would have been if he hadn't had to then get off the bus before it departed...

    She still walked by the shop after that, and still looked in, and still smiled. But something in the quality of the smile changed, I always thought.

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    1. Thanks Martin.
      I love your tale! Brilliant, so funny (and actually rather sweet). I'm sure Miss Bus Stop has probably told it to a few people as well....

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    2. Sigh. She's probably Mrs BMW X5 now...

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