She Put Me Right on the First Mistake....

When I was 12 or 13 a record shop opened in Troon called "Speed" records.

I thought it was called Speed, because records played at different speeds. Apparently the Mushrooms painted to either side of the name "Speed" told everyone else something else.

Glen worked behind the counter, and me and my mate would go and and sit on the counter and yack to Glen. We would get him to play our choice of music - Slik, The Dead End Kinds, Sad Cafe. When "cool" kids came in he reverted to "other" music. In desperation at our pap choice of music, he would give us demo 45's and tell us to listen really hard.

My sister had a boyfriend at the time, and he and his pal, who played the air guitar, used to meet me and my pal of a Saturday and we would laugh over a coke in Togs, and he would try to advise me on the "correct" choice of music.

One afternoon, he dragged me into Speed, and handed me a copy of Sutherland Brothers and Quiver, and said "This is what you should be listening too", because it was so cheap, I was able to buy another one as well, Gallagher & Lyle.

I laughed hysterically at this choice of music, but complied with his instruction. It wasn't often you got a "big boy" giving you advise on your choice of music, and hey - maybe he knew something.

I did play them lots, and when the radio played Arms of Mary as the gobsmacker this morning, it took me back to wet Saturday afternoons in Togs where the only thing to worry about was whether the straws in the coke bottles had been recycled.