Monday, 26 October 2009

I'm a Jinx Junkie - my record dealer is a Saint!


My name is Breena and I'm a Jinxoholic. "Hello Breena!" would say the people sitting all around me making a circle. Once a week, we would meet up somewhere in town and share our fears about not being able to find the right collector vinyl of a rare Depeche Mode pirate live album released only at 12 copies in Singapore in 1984! Or maybe that one and only concert ticket of Cabaret Voltaire from 1983 playing in Helsinki, Finland! Buying junk from Jinx can become more than a sport. It can quickly turn to addiction.

I've discovered Jinx Records when I was 15. I went to an old record shop where I lived at that time of my life and found a pile of old magazines underneath the table where vinyls of psychedelic rock bands were kept in boxes. I would go to that shop, rush to the magazines and not minding the thick dust all around me, look for music magazines such as Rolling Stones, Rock Sound, Best - a French magazine dedicated to the New Wave movement - and NME. There were just a handful of Rolling Stones magazines and only ONE NME - it's France, what do you expect!?! That day, I bought my first four vintage magazines! Amazed of what was in there, I came back to the shop the very next day in the morning. I was really excited about going back there! And I came back home with all the Best magazines I could find in the shop!

Going through the Best magazines, an advert for a record shop appeared in almost every Best magazines. They had vinyl, tapes, videos, books and memorabilia of whatever you want, from pop music to hard rock music! There was a phone number on the adverts so I rang. And to my surprise, the phone number was still working and a man picked up the phone! Unbelievable, it was a sign! So I asked a salesman if he could send me by post a list of all the new wave stuff they had and a week or so later, a thick letter arrived in the mailbox. Inside was a list filled with names of what would later become my idols, the sounds of good and bad times. It was better than a surprise birthday gift. I felt excited, eager to know as much as I could about all those names so I decided to get organised. I took two highlighters - one yellow and one green - and highlighted in yellow the items I wanted and in green the ones I didn't know. The list was a mess! But my very first order was a success. I ordered a promotional book from 1983 about Duran Duran, their second hand live album from 1984 called Arena - Recorded All Around The World and Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1981 Juju. And the best thing about Jinx is that when I received the parcel, they even thought about adding a new list!

I think that everything happens for a reason and coincidences don't exist! It was a sign, I had to know more about music and open my mind to new things, new names, new sounds. I've always loved Jinx Records and I always will. It is my "pêché mignon"!
Now go shop at Jinx > CLICK HERE! > http://www.jinxrecords.com

1 comment:

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