Various factors had kept me from ever attending any record convention in the past, ranging from time considerations, family concerns, location of the event as well as being extremely satisfied finding missing musical curios in one of the excellent shops that used to exist in the valley (and to the continued existence to those brave souls still flying the independent flag in this confused world).
Somehow all of the previous factors that worked against me were not present today, so I made it down to the Eugene Hilton this morning to check out what was available, for a three dollar admittance.
Being of the mind that what I don't see I won't be bothered if somebody else buys, I strolled in a few minutes after the 10 a.m. opening to find a large number of people already flipping through the stacks, and it took a few minutes of wandering around to see what kind of merchandise and who was selling it. After getting my bearings, I was proceeded to seek out the vendors with stock of "post-punk music" :rolleyes at labels:.
There were a few sellers who had sections devoted to "new wave/indie, etc", and some of them really knew what their rarer records were worth, I recall seeing a U.S. copy of the Pop Group's For How Much Longer.... with a $ 50 price tag on it, as well as an Orange Juice six song EP for $ 22.
While I may have a slight completest tendency when it comes to my favourite artists, I have never been bothered as one man was with things like "matrix numbers on original pressings, etc" in those attempts; if the record was there in front of me, in good shape and at a good price, I will buy the damn thing and forget most of the small details. The most conversation I would engage with the sellers is to ask questions about their product and to thank them for their selection that they did offer, not to reminisce about things that had occurred 20+ years in the past and of which they may not be remotely interested ( I did hear more than a couple of brusque "Uh-huhs" from some sellers as I made my rounds).
Sadly, yet predictably, I did not come across any Mekons or Triffids stuff that I did not already have, but amongst other things, I finally did get a 12" copy of Scritti Politti's The Word Girl which featured a version of the song with toasting from Ranking Ann, a fantastic take only available on that single. Only three bucks, and in great shape. Also, the 1987 disc from Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, haven't played it to see if the ABBA samples are on this one. (EDIT AT 8 P.M. they are....:) ) There were quite a few other purchases, including a Rusty Warren album, but it was all rounded off nicely with a couple of fan DVD compilations for both the Stranglers and the Gang Of Four.
I left as a happy camper after a couple of hours shopping, it was nice to see some other records that I'd known in various ways in the past and the memories that they brought. About the only slight regret was that I didn't find anything by the Kinks that I deemed absolutely crucial, but hey, there's always next year, right?
Oh yeah, a local television station, KVAL, was there, there's a STORY on their site now.
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