The Rare Monro

DutchDean · Post by **DutchDean** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:14 pm

Do Woolies still sell records? I brought my first single at Woolies for 79p -
it was 'Heart Of Glass' by Blondie - I think in 1978.

Lena & Harry Smith · Post by **Lena & Harry Smith** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:49 pm

Tower Records still have Three stores in London.
Picadilly Circus, Kensington High Street, and Whiteleys Bayswater, and we had our usual E-Mail from them just a few days ago with the usual offers.
Woolworths do still sell CDs Dean, Video's DVDs even televisions and computors in our local store.

michduncg · Post by **michduncg** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 6:35 pm

Sorry to have to break this to you Lena & Harry but the Tower Records at Piccadilly Circus has been a Virgin Megastore for at least 2 years! I'm not sure when it changed hand, because I hadn't been to it for years. I loved it as Tower Records, and it's ok as a Virgin, but the HMV on Oxford St is so much easier to get around! I am guessing that they have pulled out of the UK altogether, but haven't been to High St Ken for years

michduncg · Post by **michduncg** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 6:42 pm

Ahh - just read Jons comments confirming the above!! Maybe Tower Records are spamming you Lena & Harry

Paul - Rock Hudson AND Paul McCartney? Thats a wide difference of opinion!

First record I bought was a Music for Pleasure 'Top of the Pops' album in WH Smith Middlesbrough. It was very cheap!

jon · Post by **jon** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:00 pm

I'm sure Mike is correct - the store in Kensington High Street (I used to work on Ken High Street - not in Tower or Virign though) is Virgin, not Tower. I once had a unpleasant experience in the classical records section of Tower in Piccadilly Circus. I made to pay with my Switch card for a CD costing just Â£7 and they left me standing there for ages claiming they were trying to verify whether I was the true holder of the card (I certainly was). I think it was one of those random security check things but it put me off going in there again until it had changed hands to Virgin. With chip and pin now here, I don't think customers face the same kind of procedure.

michduncg · Post by **michduncg** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:13 pm

Ahh - you'd think chip & pin would sort things out! It has in a way as the onus is on the customer. As retailers we are not supposed to touch the card at all to minimise opportunity for 'cloning' This is fine but it means that we can't physically check the card to ensure that its apropriate eg that the card says 'Mrs' but the person is a man. As long as the card user knows the PIN no, then thats enough for us! I know some customers who give their pin nos and cards to their housemaids and nannies for them to come shopping with.

I had a US customer in the other day who refused to sign the signature strip on the back of the card, as that could then be forged. For signature purposes they said I had to accept their driving licence. How mad is that! There is a box clearly marked 'Signature Strip' on the back of her Bank of America VISA card but she claimed it was against California law to sign it. IF she had dropped her card and I signed it, then my signature would match every time! For some reason she couldn't see my point as she said in America everyone would show their drivers licence - but I pointed out she was in Europe where we don't do that and I warned her card was at serious risk of abuse! She stormed off in a huff calling me impertinent!

Anyway - what was this thread about?!

jon · Post by **jon** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:36 pm

Can't believe - well, actually, I can believe - that people give their pin numbers to others such as their nannies: a recipe for disaster.

Lena & Harry Smith · Post by **Lena & Harry Smith** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:58 pm

Well Mike and Jon it looks as though you were correct on both counts, and this could be the final conclusion on Tower Records According to Macworld online magazine reports Tower Records files for Bankruptcy August 23rd due to online Music Services like ITunes and peer to peer file sharing driving their services out.
Just checking back on the deleted e-mail sent 4 days ago. (have rarely if ever used Tower records anyway.
Add our new address towerrecords@email.tower.com

with a message.
If unable to view paste the following link.

paul jh · Post by **paul jh** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:55 pm

Way back (around page 3) I stated that Les Baxter had recorded Lena and Harry's favourite song "Till". I've been searching my CDs for his version, but couldn't find it. Then yesterday when I was filing away CDs, I saw it on the Percy Faith greatest hits CD. I think it sounds like a Les Baxter arrangement and that's how I got confused.

Lena & Harry - You probably have the Percy Faith version of your favourite song, but if you don't, let me know and I'll make a copy to give to you at Fans Reunited.

Lena & Harry Smith · Post by **Lena & Harry Smith** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:07 pm

Hi Paul, thank you very much for your kind of offer and for thinking of us regarding the recording of Till, but yes we do have the Percy Faith album with this song "Greatest Hits " on Columbia. also with singers of whom-- were not named on the album unfortunately.
We have seven albums of Percy Faith. Six of these came from my cousin who served in the Canadian Air Force and was the DJ providing music for the air base during the day.
Also Paul, this has prompted us to play some of his music and one album,--- (incidently this one is the on Pickwick label) that we purchased here in the uk "The Sounds Of Music" this contains our real favourite "Fascination" the orchestration is superb, but also on this album is a very good singer namely Earl Wrightson. We wondered if you have heard of him.?

paul jh · Post by **paul jh** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:07 am

I've never heard of Earl Wrightson. I'm not sure I've heard the Percy Faith version of Fascination. Who recorded that most famous version of Fascination? I just can't recall it right now. My favourite Percy Faith albums are Jealousy and Christmas Is. He wrote the most luscious string arrangements!

That's an interesting story about your cousin as DJ in the Canadian Air Force.

michduncg · Post by **michduncg** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:21 pm

Must admit that I, like many others I suspect, only know Percy Faith through 'Theme from a Summer Place', which I remember Joannie and Cha-Chi dancing to in 'Happy Days'

I've loved that tune since I first heard it, and spent quite a while trying to find it (this was the lates 70s after all - no huge HMVs or internet then!). I have heard others tunes covered by his band since. but the string arrangement 'Summer Place' is so evocative, backed up with the saxophone and piano - a beautiful piece.

Pickwick Records Harry & Lena, whatever happended to them!? ! They specialised in compilations I think. I DO remember my 'Wombles Greatest Hits' album being one theirs in about 1977!

Lena & Harry Smith · Post by **Lena & Harry Smith** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:30 pm

Hi Paul, several artists have recorded Fascination, music by Marchetti and lyrics by dick Manning. Al Martino, Nat King Cole, Dinah Shore, Jane Morgan, recorded the song but british vocalist Lee Lawrence included the follow on words to the tune and then repeated the main lyrics which was omitted by the others.
My cousin served in the R.A.F. he is buried in Trenton Ontario.
While serving some of his time time in Palestine he removed a live bomb from the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and drove it out of the town saving many lives. He was awarded the B.E.M. British Empire Medal, for this brave act.

mariana44 · Post by **mariana44** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:00 pm

Hi Lena and Harry--you must be so proud of your cousin for his bravery---he is a true hero--a fitting story for us all, as we head towards Poppy day---there are probably lots more heroic acts like this , that we never hear about. They must never be forgotten !

I was in Ypres and Passchandale a few years ago, and I was astounded at the wonderful care and dedication that is being made out there, in the cemetaries that are filled with thousands of graves and names from World War 1--Just before we arrived, they had found 3 more bodies, and , incredibly managed to identify one--but they were all given a proper funeral service--and their gravestones stood out as they were stlll so new.

It was a very humbling expereince, and affected me more than I thought possible.

Lena & Harry Smith · Post by **Lena & Harry Smith** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:04 pm

Marian, i'm certainly very proud of my cousin. The sad part is that on one certain morning, the guys missed the music that was aired daily over the entire air base. They found him in bed. He had died from a massive heart attack. He was buried with full military honours and with family members in attendance.
Marian, That's a very interesting story of how the graves of the servicemen and women killed in action are taken so much care of in ypres ans Passchandale, and rightly so. We agree Marian, the veterans and servicemen and women from both world wars should never ever be forgotten.
We have read so many books on this subject, attended several of these ceremonies and heard some personal harrowing stories of what it was really like. Only those there could know.
At the Fiftieth Anniversary celebrations of the end of the second world war, it was a warm day and lots of the veterans were sitting on seats provided for them and young kids of all ages were going up to them, and shaking their hands and thanking them. That's what has left a mark on us.