This turned out to be an unexpected Hop as I only went into town to do some
shopping but one thing led to another and before I knew it I was Hopping again,
it must be in my blood, sorry!
I was on my way to Milton Keynes when I stopped off in Towcester, a pretty
town quite near to Silverstone (home of the British GP this weekend) on the
A5 Watling Street. It's in desperate need of a bypass as it has a lot of heavy
traffic rumbling past its old buildings, it does however have a few charity shops
which I naturally gravitated towards.
First stop was Age UK formally Age Concern,
I have had some good finds here on previous visits.
Despite a fine selection of common discs I was taken by the book
on top which was basically arty pictures of things that folk have collected,
now who would have thought anyone would be interested in that kind of thing?!
Next door to that shop is my favourite sweet shop, I have been
a regular customer of their homemade goodies for some time.
Despite the tempting display of confectionary I am
still waiting for
him to get his delivery of my favourite treats - the old bloke who
makes them is in his 80's and is getting a bit behind with the demand
for his delicious sweets - c'mon old fella, pull yer finger out!
Round the corner and onto the main road is the Willen Hospice shop
Nothing but grubby old Wham on offer today, I did once pick up
an unplayed copy of #9 Bread Street in here, about 5 years ago...
A better selection of DVD's were available including Sonic Youth
and Pixies best of's - reasonably priced at £2.50 a go.
My last stop in Towcester was here at the RSPCA shop tucked away
in a blink-and-you'd-miss-it side alley. They refuse to put records on
the shop floor as
"they look untidy" so I put in a polite request
to see the vinyl out the back.
A box is duly pulled from behind the door but they all turn out to be
classical, I suppose even this Japanese album of Mozart is quite rare
but I am ignorant to the genre so jump back in my car and head to MK.
Stony Stratford is a lovely old town I lived in for several years and is
where I started my first Hop a few years ago. It has been in the news lately
as a local Councillor has been trying to ban smoking in the town centre, it has
been enforced in New York so you never know, it may happen in Stony too!
I saw plenty of folk who had no intention of stubbing it out just yet,
like this brave chap who was really enjoying his lovely fag.
I only stopped by a couple of shops in the High Street,
there are 3 others but they were very poorly stocked with vinyl.
This old Folk compilation on Topic was a nice find, it features tracks like
Poor Paddy Works On The Railway rather than
Down Under phew
Out of all the shops I visit on my travels it is this RSPCA in which
I always seem to find something, and I was not to be disappointed today.
Nothing really rare but such a great haul of childrens EPs and
even some Ska comps and soundtracks - a bargain £2.60 for the lot!
I spotted another blatant smoker on my way back to the car, puff it
up love as your time is running out if Councillor Bartlett gets his way.
Out of town and up to the industrial estate at the top of the road are
two furniture warehouses, both offer plenty of stuff to root around in but
the bike rack seems to anticipate more cyclists than probably ever turn up.
There is no shortage of boxes here...
This album by Canadian singer/songwriter R. Dean Taylor on Tamla was
the pick of the bunch, it doesn't have
There's A Ghost In My Houseon it though, but still a nice find.
Literally around the corner is yet another second-hand warehouse
Amongst the sleeveless singles I found this one with it's original
cover, I had not seen it before and it will make a fine addition to
my collection of space related records.
Despite what the sign says this shop does sell vinyl
However their stock has been reduced to a couple of sad and to be
honest rather overpriced albums - ah well, onto my last stop of the Hop
The Community Shop near our old studio in Crownhill
provided the best yield of my afternoon out and about.
The manager did me a good deal on this selection of railways EPs
and a lovely motorbike GP single I had never seen before, a fine
afternoon hopping and I was still yet to do my shopping.
