AAGA CD - NOW AVAILABLE

Now that Christmas time is closing in on us all once again, some of you will no doubt be wondering what to buy off the record tokens you get. Problem solved - treat yourself to this AAGA CD.

The compilation called "The World Makes Me Sad Sometimes", on Rightback Records, is the first time a collection of AAGA's original 80's material has been given an official release, and so a good opportunity to hear for yourself why Factory Records wanted to showcase the band in Manchester at the time.

You'll know by now that I have featured many of  AAGA's cassettes on Retro, all displaying their homemade covers, well keeping the self assembly process going, here above is the CD cover when it was still work in progress at the design stage. The cover visuals were a joint effort by Mike Kane's daughter & son, with the AAGA logo the work of Dundee graphic artist, Nick Wright.

It will of course be available on iTunes and so on.

Finally, below is another reminder of the band's sound, this time from a gig at the Tayside Bar in 1984 -  catching AAGA in one of their more mellow moods.

A gig I was at too!

Thanks to Craig and Brian.

THE OTHER RECORD SHOP - INTERIOR - 1984

The photo at the top is of inside The Other Record Shop in the Overgate and was taken in May 1984.

A wee look around the shop shows that there is still plenty of vinyl to be had. However, the ominous appearance of the CD rack (like a Dalek in the centre of the store) would later go on to almost exterminate vinyl from record shops.

Compact Discs started to compete with vinyl in 1982 and although rock & pop acts were a bit tentative to try using this format at first, it wasn't long before everybody released their material on CD. This in turn became especially lucrative for record companies who chose to re-issue their back catalogue which then had punters purchasing their entire record collection all over again!
It was now pretty much the beginning of the end for vinyl.

DJ's and serious record collectors have prevented vinyl being killed off completely though, becoming more of a specialist commodity nowadays. I for one opted to hang onto most of my vinyl collection, many of which were purchased from this very shop.

Underneath the top picture is a reminder of the stores carrier bag.

Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.