MONK IN LIVERPOOL [HOLD THE BEATLES]

Since trips are finite, the time spent with Gavin and his partner had to end and they came with us to Liverpool, where were were flying to our next stop in Paris. We were staying overnight at the hotel adjacent to the airport to be ready for the crack-of-dawn flight to Paris, and Gavin had planned our day in Liverpool to see the sights; having been born there. After the requisite cafe meal, we headed to the not so mean streets of Liverpool to see some music history.

Young Gavin would sometimes come to the site of the famous Gramophone Suite as a lad; the famous OMD recording studio where the first three albums that made their name and fame were recorded. It’s now a boutique hotel called Boutique 56 where the second story windows let us peer into the space where “Enola Gay” was recorded. The bar at street level is called “Manoeuvres.” And a visit to the hotel’s website reveal them leaning very heavily into the site’s history as OMD’s center of operations. How lovely to see that history embraced instead of papered over with unthinking Late Capitalism.

What visit to the city is complete without a visit to the legendary Erics? The very heart of Liverpool’s legendary Post-Punk scene where bands like the Crucial Three formed only to fractalize into many more crucial musical movers and shakers? Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark formed in a legendary fashion to play just one gig there for Paul + Andy’s youthful bucket list, only to find themselves courted by Factory Records afterward. Leading to a long musical destiny.

The windows above Eric’s Club now sport monochrome artwork featuring all of the many bands whose histories can legitimately be tied to the venue. Most, but not all, were UK acts: Echo + The Bunnymen, The Cure, The Stranglers, The Jam, The Clash, The Joy Division; with Blondie, TVLKING HEVDS, and Ramones representing the Atlantic side of the New Wave.

How many music clubs have the vaunted Blue Plaque? The original club only operated from 1976 to 1980 but those five years covered a huge historical reach. Wah!Heat played there the night of closing. It reopened under new ownership after a few decades adrift as nondescript venues, with OMD performing the re-opening night concert in 2011. An apt occurrence with both the band and their formative venue experiencing their second act.

Our next stop was the nearby National Museum Liverpool; an imposing brutalist structure that must exert a magnetic pull on my friend Gavin as it arcs dramatically towards Liverpool skies. And inside was a mini-museum of Liverpool’s rich music history, which, unbelievably, exists beyond the shadow of The Beatles. Photos to follow.

Following a quick spin through the “Creative City” permanent exhibit, we moved on to Cafe Tabac for a zesty mocktail and a rest before checking into our hotel. But along the streets of the city, we passed 81 Renshaw Records. Where we had one last quick dip into the spinning things.

81 RENSHAW RECORDS | LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

The day was Sunday, April 22nd; the day after Record Store Day, and the one thing I had to have was the Ultravox “Lament” Steven Wilson Remix Album. Technically, it’s an EP, but with 16-17 minutes per side, let an old fan indulge himself. Not wanting to spend more than a few minutes there, I asked the clerk for the disc and he took me right to it. Super service. The disc set me back £15.99; not bad for a RSD disc! And I was getting it at retail, not third party markup.

After I got the goods, the clerk took be in back to show me the autographed Ultravox siingles in a box he knew the exact location of. I still need a clear UK 7″ of “Vienna” and ” Sleepwalk!” but these copies he showed me were autographed, and £30-40 each, though all four members had signed. I’d prefer to have unmarked copies with my collector’s OCD in any case. Gavin was in the back of the shop where the used records were. He’d found two early singles by a friend of his who was in a New Wave band back in the day. Not the sort of goods one finds easily these days.

I gave only a cursory glance at the 7″ goods before packing it up and leaving the shop after no more than 10 minutes. I was there for one thing, basically, and I had gotten my copy in a hot second. But after arriving home after the trip I remembered that I was in the UK the day of Record Store Day… and the disc I was most concerned with buying was also for sale in the US! What I should have been gunning for was the Propagands red vinyl “Dr. Mabuse” LP that was a UK only item! And now selling for a median $77.17 on Discogs! Ay-Yi-Yi!

The whole UK/Europe music buying experience was actually dialed down from what would have been the intensity a decade ago. These days I’m spending much less on music and glad to be doing it. I try to beat my records for spending less each year! Compared to the big expenditures in California on the Amoeba store tour of 2104, this trip was about plenty of other things before buying more music I don’t have the time to listen to anyway. Comparatively, I spent no more than 40% of that trip’s music budget. Under $200.

It also helped that the World’s Biggest Record Show was not speaking much to me at all. I had hoped that many of the Cherry Red boxes we talk about [and many more that we don’t] would have been there in decent numbers but the fact was that they were entirely absent from the show! Heck, Cherry Red should have had a table at the show! But CDs, especially new CDs that were not Metal or Prog, were largely absent. And high-profile reissues and boxes like those by Blondie and Bryan Ferry? Also missing in action. I now know that if I really want things I will have to buy them mail order as not even in Europe are they available on the streets. And the dampening effect of international mail order costs is very real. Just the prices of the music, I could afford. But not the postage. In Wales, I actually tried to mail my box of music back so I didn’t have to take it on the plane with me but I was looking at over £100 in costs!

At the end of the day, the real reason for the trip was an amazing Nits concert that finally happened. Meeting our friends with whom we’ve had an intangible friendship only…until this point, and seeing wonderful nature, gardens, art, architecture, and modern dance in Paris. Not to mention the benefits of exiting America’s borders to see how everyone else does things. I may have no further Record Shopping Road Trips from the UK and Europe, but we’ve not closed the book yet on further excursions overseas. Far from it!

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