Watched a really good program on the TV last Friday, BBC Four, "Pop charts Britania : 60 years of the top 10"

Not sure how long the link will work, so if you missed it watch soon. It brought back lots of memories of working at Prides and later in my own store Diskits. It was followed by another great program "Sound it out" a film about an independent record store of the same name in Stockton-on-Tees. I watched it with my wife Jenny and she commented, it's just as untidy as your shop was!! My comment was, it's not untidy, that's what a good record store looks like, make the customers search for those bargains and rare treats. Too organised and people miss seeing little gems.

The range of customers were as varied and wonderful as those we had pass through our door. Asking for the bizarre and the obscure. As with us at Diskits everything asked for was greeted with if we haven't got it we'll do our best to. 

Going back to Prides, I remember the first Christmas that the Grimsby store opened a little old grannie coming in with a piece of paper and asking if we had the latest Jet Throttle record. Looking slightly puzzled the staff asked to look at the piece of paper, it said, "latest Jethro Tull LP please grandma"

Some days we got asked for things that the person asking didn't know the song title, the artist and couldn't even remember what it sounded like, but were a bit annoyed that we didn't either !! It became a bit like twenty questions, until somehow one of us worked it out. 

This must be a good time to thank my team at Diskits for all the great work they did over the nearly 19 years we were open. Vicki, who was my first employee, started as a Saturday girl while we were still in The Trading Post market, and started full time on leaving school at the time we decide to move across the road into number 7.

A couple of pictures of the Trading Post stall.

Every bit of space was taken up, Saturdays were great, when it got busy not much space to move, but no seemed to mind.

A rarity, a sunny day in Sutton !!!

Once we moved into the shop we needed extra help and Mark started coming in on Saturdays, after he had previously done his work experience with us. What an experience working with a couple of loonies like us !! He soon fitted in and sad to say for him, became just as daft as we were.  Fairly soon after this we needed another full time member of staf and after interviewing dozens of applicants, this quiet long haired young man arrived one Saturday morning asking if the job had gone yet. I said no, would you like an interview, and the rest as they say is history. We had found our missing link KP, Kim.