Brother Logic enters late and fails the Charity Shop Challenge
The Sheffield charity shops are never that kind to me - I never seem to find the funky Asian jazz or Japanese rap records that others find easily. Clearly, if I was to undertake this challenge, I would need some kind of grand scheme if it were to succeed. I felt I had two options - one to visit every charity shop in Sheffield (using various nerdy things to determine an optimal route between them) or give up on the hope of finding things and stick to the local area. I started the former, ran out of time and ended up doing the latter.
I started out on a lovely sunny day, loaded up the latest offering from Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo onto the ipod and walked up and then down into Broomhill.
I love the walk down from Crookes to Walkley - the view is incredible, though not best served by this picture:
Walkthrough of Crookes - I used to live round this way and it's lovely. There's not too many students and a nice set of shops
On the way down I pass the music department (which now has a new building in the shape of a speaker with a horrific indie name). When I was writing my BSc dissertation I used to come up here to the library to look in the Computer Music Journal. They have two libraries in this building, one for journals and one for books. They also have a listening room which I never used although I once bought some records they were selling off - some of which had those optimal listening setting filled in...
Ten pounds acquired in Broomhill my plan was simple, I would take it easy and then splurge if required in St Lukes and the shop in Walkley, both having the best chance of decent records
I started in Oxfam
I managed to resist the game temptations:
And the long haired guitarist but alas, came out with nothing - though I did spot some of our donations in there. Down the road from oxfam is Shelter:
And despite not having much, I picked up liberation suite on myrrh on the basis of it looking like funky rock.
Up from here is Record Collector which has seen better days and isn't open.
Help the Aged is worth a visit and usually has decent stock. My heart beat rises as I start pulling out lots of libraries (Boosey and Hawkes and Chappel mainly but Regency Line stuff too). Alas they are all of the orchestral variety and look poor. Confident of good stuff being found later on down the line I leave and head across the road to PDSA:
Here I find something on Supraphon which has the word GOLEM on the back - it looks promising and I also pick up the simpsons game (7 games with different rules played at the same time!). This is a mistake as I have to cart the game round for the rest of the morning and it doesn't quite fit in my bag.
This white paint covers the missive of local weirdo Grant Naturist who claims that Naturism will prevent rape. My friend has seen him and claims he has a jumper with his name on. The top right corner used to say DUTCH - NO JOKE I think which we never really worked out.
Save the children has no records - I once picked up an OCEAN mug here.
Mind has never had any decent records and still doesn't to this day.
I approve of barber shops named after the owner - note it's JOHN not JOHN'S. Down in Hillsborough there is the superior DAVE barbers.
This shop is not often entered as it's a mix of pet shop and charity shop and really stinks of pet food. However here I acquire the best record of the morning - Space Experience by John Keating. The lady behind the counter attempts to read the title, fails and tells me it's 50p. On the way out I remark that it's called Space Experience - 'Good Luck with that!' was the reply.
Help the Aged, Barnardo's and FABLE have no records of note
The mighty St. Lukes where I have picked up some interesting bits from time to time and has quite a big stock. Alas today they fail me and I come away empty handed.
How this guy got a diploma I don't know
This looks like the most inconvenient and stupid way of roasting chicken ever.
Down the deadly steps to Walkley - The RSPA shop here usually has some good stuff and I intend to spend the rest of my money (7.50 at this point) here.
Alas it was not meant to be, for they have stopped selling records and the smell in the shop and fighting my way past numerous large dogs gets the better of me. A Charity Shop Challenge failure I am.
We live down this road - it has a great view right down the valley
Awaiting me at home is the dough I put on before leaving
Later on Crackers comes round and we record our 50th episode of the radio show with him as a special guest. We also play A question of pop which goes on for about 4 hours but which we eventually win thanks to handy six rolling from Ian. All in all a dismal failure.
The lady and I both played our CSC records on the radio show which can be downloaded here:
http://gambloradio.com/mix/download/id/gambloradio-50
In short the Space Experience is great, the Josef gets a laugh of J and Ian and the Liberation Suite does indeed contain fair funky rock.
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Originally Posted by Brother Logic
that Japanese thing was quite a mad find though
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