Challenge #27: Sarah vs the Record Shop Pilgrimage

I've always wanted to go on a massive music buying splurge, visit loads of indie record shops and buy what the hell I want. Since I don't earn a lot I never really have any spare cash to do anything reckless - or anything much at all really - but with it being a special birthday I thought what the fuck, let's have some fun.

The plan

So, I came up with a plan. Visit as many record shops as I could during my birthday weekend in London. I gave myself no limits on spending, but I had to buy at least one thing from each shop I visited. I knew that part wouldn't be difficult since I usually want to buy shit loads of stuff.

Since there are only 274 record shops left in the UK - compared to over 2,200 in the 1980s - London was the obvious choice for accessing as many as possible. I did a lot of Googling, made a map (see below), saved some cash and off I went...

Camden (Tube station: Camden Town)

First stop was Camden and Out on the Floor Records (Inverness Street), a shop which I must have passed a thousand times and never noticed. It's pokey little shop, but it's got a ok punk section, which is always the first thing I have to check. Unfortunately, they keep all the second-hand punk and metal downstairs, which is only open at weekends, so there wasn't a great deal of trawling to be done.

I opted for 'Let's Get a Bit A Rockin' by the 101ers and that was it - first purchase in the bag. Oh and I also got a comment on my Amoeba tote bag, which was nice.

Here I am getting a little bit a rockin' 

at Out on the Floor

Camden Lock Vinyl (Camden Lock Place) was next on the list. I come here every December and always like flicking through the boxes of old punk 7" singles, although I rarely buy anything cos my visits are always a little too close to Christmas to be able to treat myself. Well, not today. Today I'm going to buy those old punk singles I always drool over.

The Clash and Sex Pistols singles

Then it was on to some place in the market that I'm not sure even has a name. I also come here quite often, but I think this visit was a lucky one as I found me 'Come on Pilgrim' by The Pixies from '87, which was probably my favourite find of the whole trip. It's got some of my favourite Pixies songs on it, including 'Nimrod's Son'.

The sleeve's a little battered, but I kinda like them like that as it shows they've been loved and used.

The Pixies was probably my fave purchase

Somewhere in Camden market

Rough Trade West (Tube station: Ladbroke Grove)

Then it was off for my first ever visit to Rough Trade West. I visit Rough Trade East every time I'm in London, but I'm not sure what took me so long to make it West, since it's awesome. East is great cos it's massive, has loads of vinyl and new stuff, plus a great book section, but West is a bit of an Aladdin's cave thanks to the downstairs second-hand section, meaning you've no idea what you might find.

It's also got a lot of heart thanks to the sleeves and posters all over the walls and the fact that it's tiny. My only complaint is that the racks are quite high up, so if you're a short arse like me you can only look about half way through before you start struggling.

I loved routing through the second-hand section. I actually an original 'Motown Junk' by the Manic Street Preachers that had me weeing my pants for a few minutes, but I decided to put it back as it was a little out of my price range. Plus, this was only my fourth stop and I knew I still had a few stops left of my tour.

I decided to go for 'True North' by Bad Religion on record, which was released in January and also came with a free CD of the album too. The awesome thing about buying new vinyl now is that most come with a download code too, so you can still add it to your iPod or what-not, as well as drinking in its beauty and actually holding it in your hands. And you just can't go wrong with a bit of Bad Religion.

Rough Trade East (Tube station: Aldgate East)

Rough Trade East is by far my favourite record shop for the following reasons: cool punk n hardcore sections in CD and vinyl, great book section, has an old school photo booth, does nice coffee and the staff are friendly. I have never once visited this shop and left empty handed. It's impossible.

After a dangerous amount of time browsing - for every five minutes you look you find at least one thing you want - I narrowed it down to the latest Mariachi el Bronx record (even though I have the CD cos  I knew it would sound amazing on record), 'God Save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols (reissue), Eight Miles High by Husker Du (reissue), Vaya by At the Drive-In and 'Songs the Lord Taught Us' by The Cramps. Awesome stuff.

Showing off the Mariachi

Reckless Records and Sister Ray on Berwick Street
(Tube station: Tottenham Court Road)

Then it was off to Reckless Records, which is the kind of record shop I really love. Since all the stuff is second-hand you don't know what you might find, so putting aside at least an hour for trawling is recommended. I got my hands on a Pegboy 12" EP from '93 and a Volbeat CD for a tenner. Not bad, not bad.

Sadly, while I like Reckless, what letting it down are the incredibly rude staff. The guy that served me basically just grunted at me, looked at me like I'd taken a shit on the counter when I asked for a bag - surely not an unusual request - and then chucked it at me. So while it is a pretty awesome shop, I'm not keen on the idea of giving my hard earned cash to such a dickhead.

Me and my Pegboy

Ahh, Sister Ray. I'm including it on my list, because I went in, but I didn't actually get to buy anything from here as there was only one person serving and a fucking massive queue. Since I had to catch my train home I left empty handed, which was obviously disappointing. I have been here before though and bought stuff, and I'm sure I'll be visiting again at some point, so it's not the end of the world.

That's my I-wanna-buy-shit-but-the-

queue's-too-long-and-if-I-stay-

I'm-going-to-miss-my-fooking-train face.

And so that was it, homeward bound with my arms about dropping off thanks to the weight of all that awesome shit...

Interesting little fact for you... 

Sister Ray and Reckless Records, on Berwick Street, can be seen on the left-hand side of the cover of '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' by Oasis.

Berwick Street 1995

Berwick Street 2013

Run down of my finds

Let's Get a Bit a Rockin' - 101ers (12")
Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols (7")
Know Your Rights - The Clash (7")
Come on Pilgrim - The Pixies (12")
True North - Bad Religion (12" plus free CD)
Mariachi el Bronx II - Mariachi el Bronx (12")
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols (7")
Eight Mile High - Husker Du (7")
Vaya - At the Drive-In (CD)
Songs the Lord Taught Us - The Cramps (CD)
Fore - Pegboy (12")
Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood - Volbeat (CD)


Total spends

Errrm, it was something in the region of £100. Whoopsies.

Thoughts 

The coolest and most fun way to lose a load of cash in two days. Also the perfect way to spend your 30th birthday if you love music. And I'm pretty sure I should take some of the credit for the rise in sales at independent record shops in the first half of the year - sales grew by 44% in the first six months of 2013. With this trip and then my Record Store Day splurge at Rough Trade East in April I think I've certainly done my bit.

Unfortunately, I didn't quite have enough time to visit all of the shops I had put on my list, but I did give it a good go and I'm sure I'll get to all the others at some point.


Plan your own record buying adventure 

If you fancy a little a record shop tour of London yourself then you might find the map below handy. Just remember to take plenty of cash!



View Sarah's Record Shop Pilgrimage in a larger map

Verdict: A most excellent win for my record collection! 

A massive fail for my bank balance.

Challenge #26: Sarah vs Golf

It's a cold, wet, miserable and windy morning in February. I have a week off and by rights should be horizontal on my sofa with some punk rock blasting out of the stereo, a good book in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other. Instead, I am stood in a soggy field trying to hit a ball with a stick.

When I added 'play a round of golf' to my list of things to do before 30 I envisioned blue skies, blazing sunshine and ice creams. I thought it would involve sun cream. Unfortunately, the summer of 2012 was heavy on the vile side and heavy on the rainfall, which is why I had put off the task. If I had known it would mean playing golf in the drizzle on a February morning I think I would've gotten it over and done with earlier.

So here I am at the Melton Mowbray golf course at 10am. 

Ready to tee off.

I've got all the professional gear on,

leopard print wellies and skinny jeans.

I took many chunks out of the grass.

I put them back though.

I know you're thinking it must've taken

me ages to tee off, but after missing

the ball completely the first time I

actually hit it on the second attempt.

I was impressed even if you're not.

It's in!

Wow, it only took 16 shots to complete one hole - I'm a natural!

This was on the second hole.

At this point I got bored and pretended to play

polo on an imaginary horse.

I don't need drugs to have a good time. 

I made improvements on the second hole and

managed to get it in with just 12 shots.

Confession time...

I known I said I was going to play a round of golf, but it took me over half an hour to play two holes. TWO HOLES! Plus it was cold and damp, so I called it a day after just the two. I still gave it a go though and did try really hard, but it is quite difficult to hit a ball with a stick. It's also not the most thrilling sport. Maybe in the summer it's more fun, but I don't recommend playing it for the first time in this weather.

Verdict: I gave it a go, so I win.

Challenge #25: Sarah vs the Bucket List

This wasn't on my original list of things before 30, as it came as a bit of a surprise challenge that I thought I would be waiting a very long time to do.

Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' sat on my bookshelf for about 10 years before I finally got around to reading it. I was packing my belongings up ready to move out, deciding what to keep and what to give away. Even though I hadn't made the effort to read it, I was reluctant to give it up. I sat on the floor and read a couple of pages, telling myself it would have to go if I couldn't get into it quickly, and ended up reading the whole book. Since then it has been my favourite book.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

The story of how Kerouac wrote 'On The Road' on one huge scroll of paper - supposedly in a three-week burst while on benzedrine - has always fascinated me and in my head I thought one day I would go and see it on display in America. So when I heard that the scroll was heading for the British Library late last year I had to go and see my favourite book in its original form.

The original 'On The Road' scroll

Me and the scroll.

A few facts about 'On The Road'

• The original scroll manuscript, typed by Kerouac in a three-week burst, measures 120ft
• It's only been fully rolled out twice
• It was bought for $2.43 million (£1.51 million) in 2001 - the highest ever amount for a literary manuscript
• That's $20,250 (£12,555) per foot
• It has a typo on the first line - 'I first met met Neal...'
• The end of the scroll was chewed by a dog
• More than 10 million copies of 'On The Road' have been sold - I own two of those

Verdict: WIN!

Challenge #24: Sarah vs The Nationals

It's a long time since I had anything published in a national magazine or any magazine now I think about it. I thought setting myself the challenge of getting something published nationally would spur me on to get writing and help me to keep my hand in features. Since I began working in PR I've been really worried that I will lose this skill, so writing other stuff is important to me.

I tried pitching my '30 before 30' thing to a couple of publications, but it's hard to get anyone to take any notice and I gave up. I realise now that this was a mistake, that I should have put a bit more effort in and worked a bit harder at it, but with two days to go before I turn 30 it's too late to be working on it now.

However, I do have a way of cheating through this challange in order to say I've completed it. My cunning plan involves using an article that was published in the Guardian last summer and passing it off as my own, because the basis of it was my own. You see, my press release about the country's first woodfuel co-operative made it into the Money section of the Guardian. Yes that may be Rupert Jones' name on there, but I did the donkey work so I'm claiming it as my own. Told you I had a cunning plan.

Guardian article from my press release

Verdict: It's not quite what I had in mind and it's not my byline, but I don't have enough time to be picky type of win.

Challenge #23: Sarah vs Sleeveface

Sleeveface describes itself as 'one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion'. It's basically a game that involves holding record sleeves over your face to create an amusing picture.

That doesn't sound too challenging I hear you say, but my brilliant plan was to create a whole series of photos using different records. I even got up before 8am on a Sunday - ON A SUNDAY - to trudge round the carboot sale in search of the perfect sleeve faces and bought some vile 80's pop records that have no place being in my collection. In fact, they are so vile I plan to melt them into vinyl bookends so that no-one can listen to them ever again.

Where was I? Ahh yes, the idea behind adding this to my list of things to do before I get dementia was to get creative with some records and  camera. This being me, however, I did one and told myself I would come back to it later, obviously I didn't. It was July when I did the first one. It's now February.

So here it is, my one attempt at Sleeveface, which got posted on the website. You have to admit though it is pretty awesome for a first go, especially when I just happened to be wearing the same jumper...

Verdict: Win

Challenge #19: Sarah vs BMXing

I was probably about seven-years-old when I gave up riding my little blue bike. Coincidently, it was around the time I bombed down the hill where I grew up, took my hands off the handle bars and went straight over them, creating a mess of both the pavement and my face.

That painful face-planting incident - along with the very wise decision to give up riding a bike - flashed through my mind as me and my BMX smashed into the ramp we were attempting to ride up. It was a combination of nervousness and indecision, I got a bit of a wobble on, made a half-arsed attempt to go up it, couldn't quite decide which ramp to go up and then... crunch. We were only 20 minutes into a two-hour BMX session and it was already the second time I had fallen off.

I like doing things that have an element of danger to them and get the adrenaline pumping, so I thought BMXing would be right up my street. Sadly, I hadn't taken into account the number of years it had been since I last rode a bike or my ability to injure myself at any given opportunity. I was crap and the falling off certainly didn't help my confidence, especially when the place was full of children who weren't falling over.

Having said that, normally in these falling over/knocking something over/doing something incredibly silly situations I would be mortified, but on this occasion I wasn't. I didn't actually give a shit whether anyone was watching it or filming it for YouTube because it was very funny and I'm happy to laugh at myself. Within just 20 minutes of entering the building I was bruised and bleeding.

That face says 'what the fuck am I doing??'

Evidence I did ride the bike

 And went up the ramps

Dan's so fast he's a blur. He was also very good,

which made my efforts look even worse.

Bless

Things I've learnt

Ok, so I was completely rubbish at this challenge, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. Up until now I had enjoyed all of my challenges and while I was a little gutted I couldn't get the hang of it, it's not the end of the world. I'm good at lots of things, but I can't be good at everything and there's no shame in that.


Other things I've learnt

BMXing is very cliquey. If you're into it and good at it, they have time for you. If you're not your 'instructor' will watch you fall over and bleed and not bother to ask if you are ok, and will then piss off and leave you to it because he basically can't be arsed with you. On a positive note, not everyone that worked there was a dick, but some really were.


Even more things I've learnt

Cheesecake makes everything better...



The aftermath

It wasn't until I got in the bath that night that I realised quite how much damage I'd done to myself. I haven't counted the bruises yet, but there are a lot.

Verdict: A wobbly and bruised win, but I don't think I'll be trying it again 

Challenge #18: Sarah vs Food

Please don't get the wrong impression about this post, it's not a 'Man vs Food' inspired excessive eating challenge, but my attempt to make something new in the kitchen. I'm not a big foodie, but I do have a sweet tooth and when I stumbled across an amazing cassette tape shaped cookie cutter it seemed the perfect excuse to spend a whopping £10 - gulp - on something I don't need but must have.


Peanut Butter Biscuits

Ingredients
225g margarine (plus extra for greasing)
225g smooth peanut butter
200g brown sugar
200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
275g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

I had planned to add some melted chocolate to them, but couldn't be arsed in the end.

The recipe also mentions 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt, but I didn't have either of these so I just left them out.


Tools
mixing bowl
scales
baking tray
wooden spoon shaped like a drum stick
guitar shaped spatula
awesome cassette tape cookie cutter

Additional Extras
'On the Impossible Past' by The Menzingers for singing along to.

Method
1. Mix margarine and peanut butter together until smooth, then add the sugars.

2. Beat eggs and add to the mix along with the flour. It helps to keep the mix smooth if you do this a little at a time.

3. Make into a massive ball and put in the fridge for half an hour to chill, which leaves just enough time to make a bookend out of a 12" record (how to blog post coming soon).

4. Grease your baking tray with some margarine and pre-heat your oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4. 

5. Pull off some of the mix to roll out. Dust your surface and rolling pin with flour first to stop them sticking to the mix. Cut out some biscuits with your awesome cutter - they may stick a little even with the dusting flour, so this is where you spatula comes in handy - and put them on the tray, but not too close because they expand while cooking. I forgot so my biscuits all stuck together, but it's fine I got away with it.

6. According to the recipe you only need to bake them for 10 minutes. I don't know whether it's because my biscuits were massive or too thick, but mine took 30 minutes to bake, which is something you probably need to know if you've only allowed yourself one hour's baking time and it turns into three.

7. Once they've eventually cooked - they should be golden brown and not too squidgy to touch - take them out, allow to cool slightly and place them on a wire cooling rack (or if you don't have one a chopping board will do).

8. Stand back and admired your handy work until they're cool enough to scoff four in one go.


Tips for not destroying your kitchen
It is essential to know where your biscuit mix is at all times, something I learned the hard way. Apparently it's really easy when rolling out the mixture to accidently drop some on the floor and not realise at all until you've stuck it to the bottom of your slipper boots and managed to walk it around most of your house. Only then will you realise, once it's all been deposited and all that remains is a greasy mess on the soles, after skidding across the tiled kitchen floor at a dangerous speed.

Verdict: I took them to work, everyone had some and no-one died, so I think it's a win.

Challenge #16: Sarah vs Pumpkin Carving

It's only taken 29 years, but I've finally got round to carving my first Halloween pumpkin. This challenge wasn't on my original list, but with Halloween just around the corner, it seemed like an ideal addition.

Pumpkins at the ready

I went for a Nightmare Before Christmas theme

I drew the design freehand by the way

Dan went for a Super Mario theme with a Boo Buddy

Scooping the brains out

Mine smelt funny cos it had a rotting bum

Poking the eyes out

Ta-da!

Feeling very proud of myself

Dan's turn

RAAAAAGGGGHHH!

I ain't afraid of no ghost

Candles in, fire brigade on standby

Pretty damn awesome, even if I do say so myself

Thanks to my parents for letting us destroy their kitchen with flying bits of pumpkin, rather than our own.

Verdict: WIN!