Vintage Vinyl 3

Therapy? – Church Of Noise (7” red vinyl)
Bought from: Kelly's Records, Cardiff
Price paid: £3

I hate fish. OK, let me rephrase that - I have no problem with fish in their natural habitat, they're pretty amazing creatures, but I hate the smell of fish. Not keen on the taste of them either. This is why I generally don't venture into indoor markets very often. The overwhelming stench of the fresh fish stalls that waft up my unsuspecting nostrils whenever I walk past one makes my stomach churn. This is why it took me 13 years of living and working in South Wales to discover Kelly's Records.

It was MrsRobster who actually tipped me off. She's not a big market shopper either, but happened to be in Cardiff Market one afternoon and chanced across "a big second hand record stall" that she thought I'd like. So next time I was in town, I held my nose and set off to find it. I found it. To be honest, I couldn't have missed it. Kelly's Records is huge. Located on the balcony level, it stocks tens of thousands of lovely vinyl things of all genres, shapes, sizes and ages. It also has quite a substantial CD stock as well as DVDs, videos and cassettes. Me, I stood aghast when I got there not knowing where to start.

This pic doesn't really do Kelly's justice to be honest, It's only a tiny part of it.

MrsRobster and the girls knew I wouldn't be moving from there any time soon, and two hours later they came to find me. I wasn't even close to being finished! I had, however, picked up a few items. I was mainly interested in 7" singles and one that caught my eye was my favourite Therapy? track Church Of Noise on red vinyl. It's more like a 12" masquerading as a 7" actually as it contains three tracks including a remix of the title song, and plays at 33rpm. I paid £3 for it, which isn't bad as I've seen copies around for between £5-£10. It's in really good nick, too.

Church of Noise originally appeared as the lead single from their fourth full-length album 'Semi-Detached' in 1998. It reached number 29 in the UK charts and was their penultimate top 40 hit. I rate it as one of their career highlights, especially that chorus:

  Welcome to the Church of NOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!

To be honest, I'm not sure why I picked this record out of the myriad of crazy things I spotted in Kelly's that rainy afternoon. Tis a good 'un, for sure, but not particularly adventurous of me. I also picked up an R.E.M. rarity to add to my collection. During my next visit, I picked up something a little less predictable, that will feature in a future episode. Oooh, you're curious now aren't you?!



Soundtrack:

• Church of Noise - Therapy? (from 'Semi-Detached')
• 60 Watt Bulb - Therapy? (side A, track 2 of 7")
• Church of Noise [Messenger mix] - Therapy? (side AA of 7")