Islington Junk Tour.

We decided, as it was an absolutely vile day, to take a trip to Walthamstow and go on to somewhere else as a spur of the moment thing rather than plan anything at all.

After doing well we decided on the way back to look round Islington and Highbury as A. it was on the Victoria line and didn't have to change trains or even lines and B. It was somewhere I had never been before. 

Most of my Charity shop haul had at that point come from Oxfam in Walthamstow, some ace singles there including The Beloved Your love takes me Higher and Ongaku 3 (Pink Elln and Atom Heart) which are ace.
So we decided to exit the tube and see what delights Islington has in store. 

Short answer not much.

Longer answer as follows.

If you are remotely leftwing or a ponce that gets off on the whole organic, wholefood, sustainable wankery that is wrong with modern society then Islington is quite probably heaven to you but for me its kind of a living hell.  There are only so many bearded lefties one can take before you positively have to kill everyone in the room, and this was my tipping point.  As you come out of the station you will find a Marie Curie cancer research shop, not only is it massive but its the only charity shop you'll find for miles around.  They didn't have a bad selection at all, with a massive array of both CDs and records, we managed to find some old Guerilla records stuff including D.O.P. so was reasonably happy. 

We decided to trek down the high street and found out a few troubling things about Islington, their sole supermarkets are either Waitrose or Budgens (I had to google where my nearest Budgens was, because up until that point I'd never actually seen one in the flesh.)  After a trek past the 7th identical ethnic cafe, (although with no actual ethnic people there, I don't think I saw a black face once) we came to a token working class cafe called Workers Cafe, a name so weirdly marxist you may just stick up a sign saying, Here be Proles. 

On the plus side I did see Schram and Scheddle from the Michael Rosen poem of the same name, though it was on the other side of the street so didn't go in.  We went past a McDonalds and ended up in Angel which had a Cancer Research shop complete with a well stocked vinyl selection.  We got a Funkstorung album and I love Sourcelab 3 with Jean Jacques Perry and some early Black Strobe (I'm a sucker for electro and weirdness), before getting the tube back home.

Bromley Junk Tour.

We decided to get the bus to Bromley one of the nicer areas of town, and unlike east London, not one of my regular haunts.  Its a double jump from where I live, a bus to Lewisham and a choice of buses to Bromley and its Glades Shopping Centre.  With a little side trip as well to Catford seeing as its on the way back.

I did quite well, with a few decent records and a few weird ones as well.  The red cross had some vinyl that wasn't from the ark and we managed to pick up a Heimelektro ep (ELF live) and a Miss Yetti remix EP (half remembered from a Hacker Mix CD).

Our main trip to Bromley was a little disappointing as both Gamestation and CEX had closed down.  Back in the day  that CEX was cool it was the first ever place I saw import playstation games (we picked up Dragon Quest 7 there before the import side was totally killed off) and FFV for Snes in all its job class and impenetrable Japaneseness.  Square did a ballsed up job of localising it for anthology and it took the GBA version before they added a decent script.  Those days are sadly long gone with them dealing with more second hand phones and other peripheral junk.  

There was a few things that did stand out, this includes seeing the worlds blackest child throwing a rugby ball around with his pal.  They also had a guy handing out driving school leaflets which makes a change from the usual weirdos.  Speaking of which they still have the Socialist wankers down by the bus stop in Lewisham, apparently everything is still the tories fault nothing changes.

So we get the bus back to Lewisham and get off early at Catford with its decent array of charity shops.  We managed to pick up quite a few things including some old UK Garage (DJ Hype, maybe awful maybe not) a Californian Raisins EP and The Spoken Word of Rock n Roll. We also got a poetry CD with Michael Rosens Boogy Woogie Buggy on it (still sealed) and an Eat Static EP (because old trance is the bomb.)
Our bus home had fat sea cows rowing with a mum with a pushchair, which just made me reach for my revolver.

Stand out Tracks

Poems For Children Michael Rosen and Friends. 41 Poets for Oxfam.

A mix of poems for Oxfam from Plummeister Michael Rosen (he has Boogy Woogy Buggy and Really!) and a few other nice poems from Ian McMillan, Roger McGough and Gervase Phinn.  Mostly got for the Michael Rosen stuff but the whole of this could be used if I'm in a sentence mixing mood. Like I said above its still sealed and we got this from The Salvation Army for 99p instead of Oxfam.

The Spoken Word of Rock n Roll

Stars Organisation for Spastics grouped together about a billion celebrities for this hatecrime on wax.
Theres Stephen Fry from QI (a baffling version of Elvis Hound Dog), Cannon and Ball, Frank Bruno, Babs Windsor and Russell Grant. Speaking over rock n roll classics.  Thankfully theres no Jimmy Saville but they do cover Gary Glitters Do you Wanna Touch me (if he does call the police) so we are spared Jingle Jangle Jewellery.   Apparently this is sought after because Roger Moore is on this (as is noted Astronomer Patrick Moore) why I  haven't a clue as its balls awful.  The S.O.S is now just the Stars Organisation, though this sort of thing is still going on I believe.

We'll try and get a link going for this if it isn't shot down by the copyright cunts at Youtube.

Walthamstow Junk tour.

Thank fuck Sport relief is over, because it was becoming nigh on impossible to avoid all the ballyhoo and indeed constant hard sell, of the Beebs ad machine in full on war mode.  Something that is handled with all the subtlety of a full on marching band. To avoid the horror I decided we needed to escape and what better way than a junk tour. 

By the way before I ruin it by banging on about the Beeb, this is the first junk tour of the new year.  A trip out to east London, not quite the east end, but close, you won't find any cockneys here but every other nation is well represented.  Walthamstow is pretty decent actually, known for its massive street market (and dog track Greyhound Enthusiasts, we had Catford on our side of the river until it closed in the early 2000's) and quite a few charity shops (thrift stores to the Americans.)  This will be the basis of today's tour. 

Exiting through the bus station you come to a small park, that is seemingly the home to the Socialist Wanker party, perennial miseryguts, who, even when labour are in power, remain humourless Marxists, possibly the worst kind of human being ever.  There were the local christians out in force handing out leaflets and an african  handing out cards advertising the services of a Marabout.

The market itself is about a mile long strip of stalls selling everything from Islamic CDs (my favourite We remember Allah) to your more regular fruit and veg.  There are a few items of interest there including a few stalls selling Ashens worthy toys, a particularly horrendous doll (luminous doll if I recall right) and an Islamic version of those educational Vtech rip offs.  Onto the shops itself.

Scope.  Previously the Spastics Society before everyone got sniffy over the name Spastic.  Scope are big players in the charity shop buisness.  Every town seems to have a Scope, no matter how large or small.  Walthamstows Scope is situated right at the top of the market making it the first stop on the list. 

We got a Terranova CD there, their not bad DJ Kicks mix album: a mix of breaks, rap and electro along with a few techno classics (largely Carl Craig stuff) made this an must purchase.

A small pit stop to visit the excellent indie game store (almost hidden behind of all things a butchers stall) just down from the 99p store.  We picked up Star Ocean Second Evolution for PSP (a rework of the PSOne classic) before moving down to Age UK.

Age UK.  Previously known as Age Concern, before they were amalgamated with Help The aged a few years ago.  They are another mainstay of the Charity shop system. They didn't seem to be selling much but we did pick up a classic Geogaddi by Boards of Canada. The Sandersons homespun IDM, straight from the wilds of scotland. We've never actually owned a BOC album, just odd tracks on selected compilations, so far we like what we hear.

Moving further down and the market eventually peters out into a mass of Polski Skleps and Pardotuves supplying the Eastern Europeans in the area.  Our destination is Oxfam a massive store on the corner of the street, and its here we hit paydirt. They sell a lot of books and stuff often at a horrendous price, we didn't get anything here but there were one or two things of interest.  They had an Abicah Soul Project ep for sale, for fans of deep house, and in the childrens book rack a signed Michael Rosen Poetry anthology.

I really regret not buying this, theres bits I remember from YTPs including Harrybo (who we learned died age 17) and various bits that sound familiar including Abdul and I think Melanie, oh one of them was titled conversations with a six year old.  No poems on "plams", no poems on the school inspector and no none on no-o-o-o breathing which is a shame, as it seemed  -click-          

NICE.  

Our final shop was Crest a local charity and proper dingy as well.  There was a rich vein of old commercial dance including LFO, a Guy Called Gerald Voodoo Ray and what I grabbed House fly by Tricky Disco.
Old Warp tracks are what I grew up with and its a nice to finally end the day as we started it.