I’m two thirds of the way through a mini European tour. That is to say the week before last I was in France (with work, so mostly I saw only the office and the hotel); I have just returned from a looong weekend in Berlin (boys – or should I say grumpy old men – on tour); and later this week it’s off to Kernow (ha ha!) with Mrs Darce.
Since saying a few weeks ago that I was planning to hit the car-boot sales with some regularity this year (in search of vinyl) I find I haven’t had the opportunity. However, whilst in Berlin I did manage to convince my friends that it would be a good idea to seek out a flea market or two. We walked around in circles for a while failing to find one I had some details of, but in doing so did find we all liked the district of Kreuzberg. In my opinion the only way you experience the real soul of a city is to get away from the big tourist spots – and looking for flea markets and records shops certainly enables you to do that! I did find one junk shop with quite a lot of vinyl. In the end though it only yielded a couple of LPs worth the 1 Euro asking price – and those I bought for the covers not the music. The fact that I could happily spend all day – given half the chance – getting my fingers dusty, AND also actually buy records for the covers not the musical content caused much consternation within the group, I think. Still, everyone had to agree one of the LPs (“Wolfgang Reich’s Neue Ernte” – go on see if you can find an image on t’net) was a gem and couldn’t be left in the shop.
Yesterday, walking towards the Berliner Dom (you have to see the sights too, and the Berliner Dom is definitely worth seeing), records were not on my mind but then we walked past the University outside which a guy was selling second hand books – and some records! I had a quick browse – well, you have to don’t you? – all the time thinking do I really want to cart around an LP all day long? I overcame that thought and was glad I did. “Cinnamon Flower” by The Charlie Rouse Band is a cracker. Fortunately it was “still in shrink” as the jargon goes because we got caught in a downpour later in the day.
Here’s a track from the album – beautiful to my ears - with a sort of appropriate title given that it was bought in Berlin and we are now of course 20 years on from the Wall coming down.The Charlie Rouse Band – A New Dawn (mp3) 1977
Buy “Cinnamon Flower”
2 comments:
That's just lovely Darce. We'll have to have you permanently trawling the junk shops of continental Europe if this is the sort of thing you can furnish us with.
As for Wolfgang, who I did Google - well, really.
Wolfgang is a cheeky chappy isn't he?
We are planning a trip to Krakow later this year, somehow I think that may pose more of a challenge on the vinyl front - but you never know.
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