Thursday, September 28, 2023

don't get angry at the stones store

howdy pop pickers


the original title for this post was going to be you can't always get what you want at the stones store, but just sometimes you might find you get what you need at another record store around the corner. whereas that would have been something (or a bit) of a mouthful, it pretty much sums up this post, look you see. 

so, it is that The Rolling Stones, often now simply referred to as The Ro££ing $tone$, have a new single out. an actual, proper physical format too, being ostensible available as a CD single, a store exclusive 7" single (remember that part) and a "limited" 10" single. in each instance just the one (1) track, as has become the unfortunate norm when acts put out a single these days. 

being in central London (innit) (see previous post) gave me a wonderful opportunity, then. i, your humble narrator, had a chance to go to the official (note this) Stones stone, located on Carnaby Street. on one side i have grown weary of spending coins in the vicinity of £10 (!!!) for one track singles, yet i do for some reason still feel a need to purchase at least one (1) single a year. making the provenance of the single this year being the actual Stones shop sealed the deal. in mind if not reality. 


off i went to the Stones store, then. i had, with it being the week of release of the single (Anger, by the way, is what it is called), expected a display in the store. no. a member of staff approached, so i asked for a copy of it. they said sorry but they had decided not to stock it. i politely pointed out that one version (the 7") was a "store exclusive", to which they replied yes, but still no. apparently they might elect to have a copy or two available on October 20th, when the full tilt album, Hackney Diamonds, gets released. oh. 

how is it that i am displaying my copy of the single here? well, as it happens, what i consider to be the single (excuse the pun) best vibes store in London (innit), Sister Ray, had as many copies of the 10" variation of Anger as i would care to purchase. just the one, thanks. indeed i asked about the CD single, but they had sold out. never mind. 

any good? i mean is the song, single, Anger, any good? yes, actually. better than it has any business being. it's getting huge radio play, so the PR machine is in full swing. when i play the song back in my mind (which is cheaper than trying to buy it) it feels like it has "borrowed" from Should I Stay Or Should I Go off of The Clash, but then when i hear it properly, it does not. that said, considering how many bands have "borrowed" off the Stones over the last 60 (!!) or so years, it's hardly an issue if they opt to borrow back. 


rather confusingly it is being referred to as the "first" single off of said new album. which is called Hackney Diamonds if you missed that. my understanding was that the single they released in those hardly missed lockdown (plague) days, Living In A Ghost Town, was the first single off of the album they were working on. looking at the tracklisting announced, thought, suggests that it has been ditched. 

for what you can actually buy at the Stones store, if not their new record, well. quite an ecclesiastical selection of items. you can get some highly expensive chocolate, apparently made by (the incumbent) Mrs Ronnie Wood. or you can buy some very expensive prints, signed by Ronnie Wood. they also have t-shirts, jackets and what have you, all of a size ideal for bean poles or garden rakes. and a couple of records off of the Stones, just not the new one. 

yes. i have not bought may records this year, as the U2 one sounded f*****g awful and is overpriced, the Depeche Mode one is very overpriced and the James one is them deciding best they do a sleepy breezy acoustic record too, but i shall purchase Hackney Diamonds as and when it comes out. possibly not chance it on the Stones store having it, though. 




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






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