Well, we had a three week vacation in Europe and the UK last month. It may have been that Ye Olde Monk got the chance to shop for the round discs in what were undoubtedly exotic climes, yes? We spent roughly a week in The Netherlands, followed by a week in Wales and England, with four days in Paris. No shopping in the later locale but the rest were keeping us busy enough. With old and new friends in tow! First up? The rather excellently appointed CD/DVD shop walking distance from our lodgings in Krommenie, Netherlands.

ERWIN VERMAST CD-DVD SHOP • | KROMMENIE, NETHERLANDS

We were staying in Krommenie, about 20 km north of Amsterdam in a houseboat on one of the region’s numerous canals. When walking in from the train station the first day we strode past the Erwin Vermast CD-DVD shop. A glimpse in the window revealed virtually none of the creeping kudzu that is modern vinyl. This was a shop that sold optical discs almost exclusively! I didn’t know when or if I would make it by the shop, but on the third day, we found ourselves with an opening, so we walked the ten minutes to the shop to see what it was like.

At the shop window there were the requisite gig flyers that all record stores were contractually bound to display, even if Krommenie was situated in a much more relaxed zone than the buzzing Amsterdam city life. As we can see, nearby Wormerveer was busy enough to be hosting metal acts [at good prices]. I went into the store and saw nothing but silver discs! If there were any modern LPs, they were so small in number that I could ignore them. This was a CD/DVD store like I had not seen since the late 90s!

I started at the “A” section and it was fat with ABC★★★ discs! All of the ones I had and a few more that were endemic to Europe, like the one above. As an ABC★★★ fan, their long absence from US stores really stuck in my craw, given their decent array of US hits. As usual, I move quickly to the “S” section since most acts I’m interested in begin with that letter. The new Simple Minds live version of “New Gold Dream” was staring me in the face in a way I have never experienced in The States. By now I was feeling that, yes, we weren’t in Kansas any more.

Further down the section and there was a card indicating the David Sylvian section. Certainly a rare bird at home, but not on these shores. The “Victim of Stars” compilation may have had a few rarities I needed but I would check Discogs on my device later. I was just giving the entire store a once over before getting down to serious shopping.

I looked for Nits, the Dutch band I was actually there to see that weekend, since the stock of their last two albums were burned up with their studio last year. Making them exceptionally difficult to buy from America. But no! There were no Nits CDs in the store. But I saw something in the “F” section that gave my eyeballs a jolt: A Fischer-Z section! John Watts British New Wave combo were apparently more popular in The Netherlands than anywhere else on the earth I’ve ever seen! I mean, I don’t remember ever seeing Fischer-Z CDs even in Time Traveler in Akron!

It was at that time that I couldn’t help but notice that this store had the largest selection of music video DVDs I’ve seen since, yes, Time Traveler’s late 90s heydays. The selection was incredibly deep as the full-rez photo for enlarging below will reveal. That shot below was only half of the music video DVDs. There was another huge rack of them perpendicular to this one that I could not frame in the shot.

I found a DVD that I was certainly planning to buy; the first thing I intended to walk out of here with: “Prince’s “Sign O’The Times” concert film; said to be the live Prince jam you need on video. I had never see it before and was ready to buy as I have had multistandard video gear for 32 years now! But soon after I saw this my little shopping trip came to an abrupt end.

The owner informed me [first in Dutch, until he ascertained that I spoke only English] that he had to visit the hospital now and was closing the shop early. So with that I complimented him on the stock and organization of the store and told him that I would try to get back there to actually buy some things at a later time. I felt that there were probably a lot of CDs to my liking if they had a large Fischer-Z section. Just a hunch. But, alas, the rest of the time in The Netherlands was packed with other, more pressing activities. I never made it back to Erwin Vermast CD-DVD Shop. My first record shopping excursion was inconclusive but there was always more on the horizon. The weekend would see me and comrade-in-discs chasinvictoria attending the largest Record Show in the world in Brabanthallen in ’s-Hertogenbosch. This will probably be a two-part posting…just saying.

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