Tags Matching: white vinyl

Here’s a rare chance to pick up the rarest version of the First Strike Records pressing of the 2nd Chain of Strength 7″, from UK seller dylmatic.

Here’s my stupid story of the day I bought this record for anyone who is bored…

Somewhere around Xmas 1994 I took a trip to Wigan with a friend. We got the train from Leeds. The mission was to go to Alan’s, which was the record shop owned by Alan Woods (the dude who ran First Strike Records). The main reason for going was because Alan himself was selling some of his personal collection, and I had agreed to buy some of it, so I decided to go pick the stuff up and look through the racks in the shop at the same time.

I don’t remember the journey at all, nor how we even knew where in Wigan the shop was. But what I remember was that we didn’t spend hours looking for the place, and we didn’t buy a map or anything. Somehow we just got off the train and went straight there.

We then spent like and hour looking through the records. I don’t remember much, but what I do remember was:

1. Flicking through the 7″s and coming across a Chain 7″ on Mindpower. At that point I had never heard of the Mindpower version & had no idea what it was, but because it had a photocopied, cheap looking cover, I decided in my head that it was some kind of bootleg, so I glanced at it for like 10 seconds then flicked on. Ha!

2. The Strife LP ‘One Truth’ had just come out. I remember seeing the gatefold sleeve in that shop for the first time. It made me want the record badly. I bought it there and then.

3. Once I had found a few items in the racks that I wanted, I went to the counter. At this point, I hadn’t spoken to Alan himself nor anyone else. I had walked in the door and then just started looking through the records. But when I went to the counter with my selection, somehow Alan just knew who I was. He said something like “I’ve got some things for you in the back room” and he went off to collect them. I guess I was young and a bit awestruck so I didn’t ask him how he knew it was me. I wish I had though. To this day it kinda bugs me.

4. Because I bought a few bits and bobs he threw something extra into the bag. It was a Majority of One ‘Setting The Pace’ test press. This was my first test press. However, I remember looking at it (no sleeve, plain labels) and thinking “what a piece of crap! Why couldn’t he have given me something good, the tight bastard?”. Haha! Funnily enough though, I still have that record to this day.

5. This is the important memory… there was a “reduced” box on the counter. This contained some used 7″s (I remember it had the Yuckmouth and Blind Spot 7″s on Conversion records in there, plus similar crap) and numerous Chain Of Strength 7″s. There were loads of Chain 7″s. Numerous copies of every pressing. There was seriously at least 50 copies of the Chain 7″ in that box. I rooted through, found a single white vinyl copy, bought it, and left the rest of the copies behind. The price of each was £2 (circa $3).

If I could relive any day of my life again, that day would definitely be on the shortlist.

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