The parting shot

The three amoebas...

When Alan met Harri...

Another sad day without Jake Holloway

'Alarm call 6.30am, Harri's snoring work Brighty way before that , shit , shower, shave, jump in the wagon with cup of coffee.  150 miles later, Mickey D's was as good a breakfast we could get. As Noon approached the golden ball of Knoxville sparkled in the sunlight. We hit some stores & rarers were to be found, gems of the  day, Johnny Pate 'Set a Pattern' (think found that sealed copy in the 25c box) & 2 mint copies of Edge of Daybreak - Eyes of Love (wow , you don't see those in E17). High tea time & we head north through the smokey mountains. Seven Hours later, the road got the better of us & we came to rest in Lexington...residing in a beautiful 19th century manor house...our last nite in fine style, a mexican takeway in the room, watching Obama give McCAin a pasting ...at least from where i'm laying......bye bye America...

Top 5 dishwasher makes: Lee & Harri's way home

No rarers today, Jake Holloway we miss you.

12 long hours in the SUV, 700 miles of highway, the scariest rainstorms in living memory. A wall of water confronted us as we crossed the state line to Arkansas, as crazy men in large trucks sped by at 60 mph. Finally had to stop as we approached Jackson. going to try & make up time tomorrow if the weather lets us.

The last days of Austin

Lee & Stephen have now departed and are somewhere between Dallas and St. Louis by now. We had a great last night together shooting pool, eating BBQ and seeing the sights of downtown Austin. They have been awesome company! Topo Gigio! Stephen was made up when I told him Liverpool came from 2-0 down to win 3-2!

The friends of sound party was cool and I picked up some Rarers from other dealers. I was greeted by some of my ATX posse, namely Dirk D, Julie, Chris and Bradley... Me and Gavin rocked up with new recruit Des from Aberdeen who's a lovely man!

I'm off to meet up with Bradders now for a last hang out downtown...

I'll be glad to get back to E17 as I'm bunged up with AC cold and aches all over... but this has been a trip of a lifetime... We go East to West Coast next time... Thanks for watching.

The Show

Sorry for the no post y'day, but we all got a little besmirtched on the Dos Equis & Tequila. 

The show was awesome. A lot of transactions were going on in the parking lot and many scuffles for rarers were happening. 

We got in, set up the table and did some laps of the huge room. I saw many faces from the past and some from my last Austin trip. Mark Lamar was in the house  scoring Rockabilly 45s and DJ Shadow was buying up some interesting pieces. 

Dave from the Friends of Sound store here in Austin gave me a warm welcome and helps me score some great finds. There are so many records here that I have never seen before... But heard about... at a price! I picked up some bargains early on, tailgating Dirty Harri as he seems to have the most luck, and he lets me have his rejects. We moved fast while commander Bright held the fort on the stall.

After about 50 laps of the room we called it a day and headed downtown to meet up with the mighty Dirk Diggla who Hari took an immediate shine to! A rake of beers later and some wobbling we didn't wake up untill 11am and got to the show at 12.30 missing out on a mornings trade. Harri said it was pretty quite and making $'s was a struggle.

I'm off to Friends of Sound tonight for an instore party with Gavin who used to work at Mr Bongo, no doubt more wax will be obtained.

Wacky Waco

Woke up in Little Rock, Akansas, spent the night sharing with Lee, so as you can imagine the spectacular scenery took a back seat to memories of the previous nights fond memories and dealing with the fact I had to constantly shift in the passenger seat. First stop was a no show so on to Dallas. 5 hours and some dodgy breakfast later we approached Dallas. The time in the car goes by quite quickly with a constant barrage of sexual innuendo, "name the best 5" quizzes and Lee offering to show himself to us in various states of undress.

Coming in to Dallas there is a beautiful lake, whose name escapes me, that we drove over the top of on a 2 mile bridge. Dallas beckoned- we drove straight through to Grand Prairie, home of "Forever Young" Records- the $15 store. All records are $15 and up- decent selection but a bit distressing when constantly pulling records that are nearly always just a bit too much dosh. Stephen found a nice latin jazz album- Ray Herrera on Sims, though it seems he always pulls some decent things wherever he goes. Not sure about Amir and Muro- in my book Steve's the "King of digging". After buying a Freda Payne album (secret sample!) we decided to drive to Waco for the night to join a sect?

After about an hour looking for a hotel and somewhere decent to eat, we happened upon the Comfort Inn suites- three to the room tonight- here goes..................................

Day 4 - Birthday guest blog by Brighty

Woke early in a grotty overpaid hotel room, the sound of Brighty knocking hard on the door. No time to sleep, Mc breakfast on the highway, Nashville soon blinked up ahead as we waved goodbye to the Southerly tip on the Appalachian mountains. First diggin' zone proved to be a non starter, piles of uncared for vinyl , straight out the door & onto the next spot, half comic collections , half vinyl, brown paper bag in hand, and a re-set on the Sat Nav we headed down town to Lawrence's next door to Ernest Tubbs , a Country n Western store since 1947...fast forward to the present & it had morphed into a caricature of it former glory. Smiling outside we took in a simple Burger lunch by way of celebration of Brighty's entrance into middle age.

We hit Interstate 40W , 200 miles of land, broken early on by the Mississippi river & we hit Memphis, Tennessee. No time for Gracelands, we made the last round at Shangri' La, a delicious spot, which yielded some tasty nuggets.  We headed  east, chasing the sun, as we crossed the state line into Arkansas, and soon the lights of Little Rock and kingsize motel bed beckoned.

Happy birthday Vicky...

Birthday greets from Chatanooga!

Big Dig Part II

Very hot again, 88 degrees... Went back to finish up the dusty diggin'. Scored some hits, around 180 records in all, very worried about how many more I will get and how to get them all home! Lee will be very weighed down with Disco! In Tennessee now. Drove thru Georgia this afternoon via Atlanta and ended up near Chatanooga. Off to Nashville tomorrow to hit up some stores there and maybe a drop in at Graceland if we have the time. Roll on!

Day 2... 1st spot

An early start, out the door by 6:30am. The Explorer needed an oil change so that put us back an hour. We headed further south, a lot of driving to be done. Two Carolinas and many hours later we arrive at out destination... It's 85 degress, mosquitos, talk of snakes and around 5 barns full to the brim of tunes. I'm getting bitten to death while checking out each and every one of the 1000s of unplayed disco 12"s in my barn. Lee is on grading duty and clearing the way for the onslaught of digging. Piles of records start to amass against the barn doors... it was a good day. We brought our tunes in from the light rain and called it a day after a good 5 hour session. Back to the scene of the crime tomorrow for the same 5 hour dose, but you really need 5 days!

A short hop and we're downtown eating the finest baby back ribs, drinking beer and planning our next stops before heading to Austin for the big one. Watch this space...

Newark-Delaware-Maryland-DC-Virginia

So...

Finally got here! Picked up the Explorer... loaded up, and off...

In a hotel in Virginia at the moment. Crossed five states in an evening. Travelled down from New Jersey via Delaware, Maryland and D.C. to Fredericksburg. Going to hit up some good spots tomorrow further down south. Weather is pretty grim with rain slowing the highway traffic down to walking pace... Saw a pretty mad truck fire as it poured down making visibility next to nothing! Off to bed now as it seems that we've been up for ages and have driven long into the night.