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Den Bosch Diary: Day Three

Third and final day of SDE in the Netherlands

By Paul Sinclair

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60

Read these before you read the below: Day One • Day Two


Sunday 14th April – SDE was in the Netherlands for Record Planet’s 58th ‘Mega Record & CD Fair’ and sadly, Sunday is the last day. Here’s SDE Editor Paul Sinclair’s final diary entry…

Having spent seven hours at the event on Saturday, there is a slight feeling of exhaustion, even if you know that there’s still plenty to see, because you probably missed loads of great records and CDs at the various stands. You definitely can’t replicate the excitement of day one, but on the other hand there’s a slightly calmer vibe in the various halls on the Sunday. There’s a lot less people in attendance, because you have to be some kind of maniac to do consecutive days (guilty as charged). At 10.00 when I arrived the place seemed half empty, when made walking around very pleasant. There were a few stands with covers over them which meant the owners were starting late.

There was one disaster. As I was dumping my suitcase in the cloakroom (I was heading straight to the train station afterwards), I realised I couldn’t find my reading glasses! In panic mode, I was patting and checking pockets, but they were nowhere to be found. In my somewhat dishevelled and confused state, I may as well have held up a big sign that read: “I am an old person. I need help”. I had to go back to the cloakroom where I’d literally only just dumped my suitcase and rucksack and ask the young girl behind the counter to go get them again, so I could check. The look she gave me was the kind of sympathetic look you give old people that need help. Luckily, I actually had packed a busted spare pair in my suitcase, for this very eventuality. Not ideal because one of the ‘arms’ – or whatever the bits that go around your ear are called – was missing. They sort of stayed on my face, if I didn’t look down too much, which of course you need to do quite a lot of at a record fair! They also looked a bit skew-whiff, giving me an attractive ‘care in the community’ type vibe. Later, I emailed the hotel, thinking I probably left them at reception, while checking out. Apparently not.

The halls were noticeably less busy on day two (click to enlarge)

The plan was to head off around 13.30, so roughly half-a-day to get things done. There were more bargains to be had, simply because dealers wanted to get rid of stock. I came across a stand with 12-inch singles for €1 each and bought about 15 of them, including singles from the Bee Gees, Tina Turner, OMD, Robbie Nevil, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Robert Palmer.

I also came across a dealer that had a massive pile of sealed Björk ‘Innocence’ box sets. This was her 2008 single that was released in this slightly ludicrous box which included 2 x 12″ singles, a CD and a DVD with 11 versions of the video (directors of the various videos were winners in a competion). There’s already 14 mixes of ‘Innocence’ across the two vinyl records and the CD, but if that isn’t enough there’s seven more on the DVD and a 5.1 surround mix (by Paul ‘P Dub’ Walton). Phew! The sticker on the box says it’s a “very very limited” multi-format collection. Unfortunately, this is ‘limited’ according to the 2008 definition of the word, and discogs report that they made 10,000 of these bastards! No wonder there were piles of them knocking around in Den Bosch. I bought one, obviously. For €15 it seemed rude not to. A classic case of ‘things you never knew you needed’ (and probably don’t, to be fair).

“Things you never knew you needed”. Björk’s ‘Innocence’ box set (click to enlarge)

Sometimes you just get dealers that hit the sweet spot. Great prices; nice mix of new and old stock; interesting records; friendly. I came across one like that today and bought a USA first edition of Paul Simon’s Greatest Hits, Etc. Not a record I own. Vinyl was mint, cover more like ‘EX’, but it was only €15. The same place had a copy of The Beatles’ Love Songs collection. Coincidentally, like Paul Simon, this is a 1977 compilation. My dad used to own the cassette tape of this at the time and in the late ’70s it was played endlessly in the car when I was 8 or 9. I think it’s a wonderful compilation and I’ve never owned a copy (Apple really should reissue this). I had actually seen one on Saturday but it was quite expensive and had a very flashy gold foil blocking. This German Electrola pressing wasn’t quite as bling-y and while the gatefold sleeve was in optimistic ‘VG’ condition, the records were mint. I don’t mind a slightly battered sleeve, if I’m honest. Anyway, it was only €18, so thank you very much! The other thing I bought was a sealed 2LP orange vinyl 30th anniversary edition of Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish for €30.

The SDE-curated deluxe 2CD set of It’s Immaterial’s debut album (click to enlarge)

Some guy had a decent selection of SHM-CDs or SACDs but I either had them, or I wasn’t interested in the artists/albums, or they were too expensive. I was quite chuffed to spot as a ‘Collectors item’ the 2CD deluxe edition of It’s Immaterial’s Life’s Hard And Then You Die, that I curated back in 2016. I’m still very proud of that (we have loads of T-shirts left on the SDE shop!).

I kept looking for Tears For Fears’ Elemental album but it was hopeless. No luck. Tears For Fears don’t seem to be ‘big’ enough, in collecting terms, to have their own sections in most stands, so you have to look under ‘T’ or ’80s’. Even though Elemental is a 90s album, you just know that no one is going to file it alongside 90s music like Grunge or Britpop. I stopped wasting time and started asking directly about TFF. It was either a shake of the head or they’d pull a 12-inch of ‘Shout’ from nowhere, like a rabbit from a hat. Not quite what I’m looking for, I’d say.

The Beatles Love Songs acquired for €18 (click to enlarge)

I didn’t find any individual Ryko David Bowie titles, but I did come across the vinyl version of the Sound + Vision box set, which contains six gatefold, clear vinyl records. I picked it up and the back has the not uncommon ‘bubbling’ where the black wrap on the back of the box has just aged. Also, unless these are actually sealed, you’re never going to get the etched plastic lid without marks; they are scuff magnets. For that reason, I wasn’t too bothered about the marks on this one. There was a bit of wear on the cover of the first vinyl record, but other than that, it all looked okay. “Mint” the guy said, as I was looking at this box, which had a €120 price tag. I shook my head. He shrugged and offered it to me for €100. I thought about trying to knock him down a bit more, but I have been after this for ages and €100 is a decent price. Longtime SDE readers might recall that I passed on buying this very box for $80 in New York in 2016 (check out the NY diary). Less than two months later, David Bowie was dead. €100 is about US $106, so I can take a $26 worth of inflation in seven-and-a-half years. Done! Later on, I realised this was missing the card OBI-type thing that slides over the right-hand-side. Oh well…

As lunchtime approached my energy levels were low. I’d spent about €300 which didn’t seem too bad. Because of the time and investment getting here, there’s a devil on your shoulder trying to convince you that you need to spend more to make it “worth it”. But I was done. I was hungry too, but sadly no Bossche Bols today (!), so I went without, planning to pick up some late lunch when I got back to Amsterdam, where I would be getting a 18.45 train home to London. A good 20-minute+ walk later and I was hot, sweaty, and knackered but on the train.

SDE reader ‘mysterioustraveller’ told me something quite amusing, via the comments section of this website. He’d been in London at the end of last week and was actually travelling to Amsterdam on the same train as me on Friday morning! He’d been reading the diary and said he’d be in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon and why don’t we meet in a record shop called Concerto? Let’s do it, I said.

Concerto record shop, in Amsterdam (click to enlarge)

So that’s what happened. I dumped my luggage again and headed off to Concerto, which was a slightly longer walk than anticipated. Concerto is a fairly big shop. I always like to support independent record shops when I’m visiting them and they had quite a good selection of surround sound discs. I ended up getting the DVD-A of Queen’s The Game, which was €50 and a slightly battered looking copy of the DVD-A of Neil Young’s Harvest, for €30. I was waiting for ‘mysterioustraveller’ to come up to me, but I thought he was probably in the vinyl section, which proved correct. It was lovely to meet an SDE reader in the flesh and we had a chat and I proffered my SDE enamel badge I was wearing as a token gift (think Blue Peter badge, except rarer!). We said our farewells because it was about 16.30 and I had a train to catch.

Back at Amsterdam Centraal, I was foolishly expecting a groovy Eurostar departure centre, with shops, restaurants and the like, but it’s just a room with a coffee machine. I’d arrived far too early to compound things. But we were on our way only a few minutes late of the 18.45 departure time.

I had a highly enjoyable weekend in the Netherlands, which is a beautiful country. I will definitely be back and want to thank you for joining me via this diary and perhaps on social media. I plan to do another trip in the next 12 months, most probably another European city, to check out record shops and maybe some more record fairs. Where next? I was thinking Hamburg but please give me your ideas….

Paul Sinclair

MONEY CAN’T BUY the ‘coveted’ SDE enamel badge!!

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60 Comments

60 thoughts on “Den Bosch Diary: Day Three”

  2. It was very nice meeting you in Amsterdam, Paul. I was genuinely surprised to see you: to recognize somebody from a picture, like A Star … or something. If you would like to do Den Bosch next year, I sure would like to help you out, at least for a day, for free … Why not, seems like fun, and although I was a regular visitor of fairs, in the 1990-2000’s, nowadays, I can’t be bothered, really, too much people and I have almost everything I really want, except for new stuff, of course.
    Concerto is a very old record shop, started in the 78rpm Era. It always stayed in the same place, but gradually went from one house to now 4, with lots of different, cozy spaces for all kinds of stuff, including books and dvd’s. What I like so much about the place, is that it seems ‘out of time’. Of course, they have the latest stuff, but it is just one thing next between all the different time-less aspects of the entertainment industry. There is also a coffeeshop, the black liquid variety, a place to relax in between all the exploration. This doubles as a performance area, every Saturday. Tomorrow the whole day through! That this works is proven by their long, always succesfull existence.
    There is even a 350 page book written about the history of the shop, published in 2021 by De Bezige Bij (The Busy Bee), one of the best Dutch publishing houses. I went there the first time in 1974, buying a second-hand copy of Grateful’s ‘Workingman’s Dead’. Now, for many years I go there about once every month. A friend, who accompanied me said: ‘You are like a delighted child in a candy supermarket !’. They know me well, I get a 10% discount d’office and sometimes they gave me something for free. They keep special posters and other treats for me. I can take vynils home and bring them back if there is something wrong with them, which is rather rare but reassuring when you buy one of those 12 lp-sets.

    This is what I bought last sunday:
    1) ‘The Music Of Frank Valli and the Four Seasons: Jersey Boys’ (3 cd + 1 dvd + 1 book, no fan but listening to a marvellous box set like this, you become one instantly, 25€),
    2) ‘The Complete Capitol Recordings Of Duke Ellington’ (numbered Mosaic box set of 5 cd’s with book, 105€, expensive but rare to find in perfect condition),
    3) ‘The Big Horn: The History Of The Honkin’ & Screamin’ Saxophone (one of these very fine Proper 4 cd+book box sets, which I love, as I do for these neat 50’s R&B instrumentals, 12€),
    4) ‘Colour Yes’, a expanded double vinyl edition of the 2nd, 2009 album by Matthew Halsall, from Manchester, one of my favorite contemporary musicians, on Gondwana Records, 30€),
    5) ‘Plenty, Plenty Soul: Americans In Sweden 1954-1959 Vol. 3’ (Swedish vintage double lp with American Jazz men recorded with excellent local musicians, 10 €),
    6) ‘Colosseum: Morituri Te Salutant’ (4 cd + book-box, 65€, a little bit too expensive, but, hey, it was standing in the racks already for 6 months, still in real mint condition and places like these are to be supported),
    7) ‘Mstislav Rostropovich ‎– The Complete EMI Recordings’ (26 cd’s + 2 dvd, instant buy an no further comment, 100€)
    8) for me, the most interesting: Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert (a new archival double-lp issue on Impulse, of this famous concert from 1971, for the 1st time, complete and in good sound, with Pharaoh Sanders and Jimmy Garrison, with a really nice big-format booklet, 40€)
    9) and in the movie section: ‘The Apu Trilogy’, the esthetically superb and historically very important movies by the great Indian director Satyijat Ray, in Blue-Ray, 100€)
    And a few more cheap second-hand lp’s and cd’s.
    Happy RSD …

  3. Come to Antwerp, Paul! I’ll show you around.
    ‘Sound + Vision box set’, is that the one with the cool and obscure CD VIDEO (compatible with LaserDisc)?

    1. Can I recommend hotel minerva! Perched on the hillside looking out to the bay and volcano( check its website) I got married in sorrento and stayed in this beautiful boutique hotel for a couple of weeks, please pop up and have a peroni and take a video you won’t be disappointed!

  8. Thanks again for sharing your trip with us! Truly enjoyed reading it. I probably would have bought two of those Bjork sets, just because. And I think that particular Beatles album looks better being a little rough around the edges, due to the faux leather look.

    Talking of regrets, back in 1989 at a used record store in Santa Cruz, CA I found an original, mint condition copy of Lynard Skynard’s “Street Survivors” with the original cover AND the upcoming tour poster inside (which included the “Dots for Tots” next to the only concerts they played before the tragic crash which I always found mysterious) for I think 2-3 dollars (these were back when you could get fantastic used records for a few bucks, man I miss those days). Since I was “on the job” I decided to wait and pick it up the following weekend. Then the ’89 earthquake happened, and the store was levelled. I try to be responsible and not instantly buy cool things, but memories like that make it hard.

  9. When I worked in HMV in the nineties, the most requested unavailable CD (by any act) was The Beatles Ballads. In the unlikely event that any of those Beatles compilations were to get a reissue, that would get my vote.

  11. Enjoyable read – all three! I have never heard of this event. Maybe one day I’ll go…
    I once found a perfect original copy of Pet Sounds in mono for $2 when it was long out of print at the time. The guy didn’t know what he had!

  12. Great article/diary! Really enjoyed it! Consider coming to Chicago sometime, there are so many record stores around now! And some nice bars, I’ll get your first beer!

  13. Whatever happened to that SDE of Elemental? Has it been long cancelled? It would be wonderful if it would get issued along with a reissue of the vinyl since it’s impossible to get without paying an arm and leg for it.

    1. No SDE of Elemental was ever announced, so not sure what you mean by “that SDE”…? Yes, people have discussed it and obviously I’d be as enthusiastic as anyone but something can’t be “cancelled” if it didn’t exist in the first place!!

        1. Actually, that’s true. It was a 2CD set, and it didn’t happen. I interviewed Roland for it. But I’m sure a box set will happen at some point but not sure when…

  14. I cannot believe you were at Concerto, my all time favorite record store. Having studied in Amsterdam, I spent countless hours there, first looking for cheap 12” singles, then cheap CD’s. It helped a great deal that I moved into my fraternity house on the Prinsengracht right around the corner from Concerto. Steven van Zandt famously called it the best record store in the world.

    What a great write up by the way. Reading through your story, I almost felt the same rush as I feel when scowering the vinyl and cd bins. Great read!!

    1. I always go to Concerto when in Amsterdam since the late 80s but unfortunately their prices have gone up too much for me there now. I bought several New Order/Joy Division overstock new vinyls in the early 90s there, think Atmosphere, Brotherhood, Power Corruption and Lies for then current on sale prices like fl. 5,- (€2.50) and a lot of used vinyl records and later CDs throughout the years.

  15. Really enjoyed these Diaries Paul and they brought back lots of happy record collecting memories.
    P.S. I was christened in the Union Chapel many years ago.

  16. My It’s Immaterial t shirt has been worn forever and still looks great.

    I visited Hamburg with work pre Covid and found a great record store – Zardoz Records. I bought a German edition of The Kick Inside and Steven Wilson’s Hand Cannot Erase LPs.

  17. I’m glad you’ve had a productive couple of days, Paul. You seem to have picked up some bargains!
    It’s funny you mention your memories associated with ‘The Beatles Love Songs’, from 1977. My experience of that album is exactly the same as yours – regarding the format and where and when I listened to it, back in the day. I too think it deserves a re-release, albeit using the 1977 mixes.

  18. What a weekend, Paul! Thank you for sharing all your adventures. My wife and I left Amsterdam just before the fair started. But, we saw some other nice places like Utrecht and the tulip gardens of Keukenhof. Visited Concerto for the second time now and got me a Herman Brood & His Wild Romance vinyl and a t-shirt. Are you familiar with dutch bands from the 70s? Other than Focus or Jan Akkerman. I recently discovered stuff like Solution and Ekseption. Also, Cuby & The Blizzards. Cheers from Glückstadt. Small town close to Hamburg. Rock On!

  19. 3 Very good reads here Paul, thank you!

    I have a few of those Bowie 90’s reissues with the extra tracks that are fantastic & glad I bought them when I did because they were never released again. A friend of Mine’s Cousin had the Rykodisc boxset & I can remember it being played to death in a hot summer of ’92.

    My chosen purchases at Record fairs were mostly live bootlegs. Got quite a few U2 & Duran Duran ones I still enjoy listening to from “Back in the day”

    Long live the ancient almost lost art of browsing for music!! Total pleasure!!

  20. Thank you for sharing your weekend experiences Paul, I throughly enjoyed reading them. Also glad you came across some multi-channel music and added a few to your collection.

  21. Sigh..after reading and being entertained about all your exploits (do you sneek all your goodies in when you get home,or is your partner very understanding Paul?),it’s brought back my (at least) once a week trip to my local record shop to browse.Due to various reasons it closed it’s doors years ago.

  22. So what did you do with the bag sleeved copy of the Madonna book then Paul… (in the picture!). Excellent series of articles, thanks.

    I was in Concerto today, good shop, bought loads of excellent condition vinyl for 5 euro each in recordfriend though including Nik Kershaw’ The Works (with an inner lyric sleeve, my Uk copy doesn’t have one). Massive tick off that one.

    1. Jesus, I didn’t hang around to check out the vinyl but I would have had that copy of ‘The Works’! Can’t complain, after my weekend though :)

  23. You’re making me jealous Paul! I haven’t been to a record fair in years. I prefer to get fleeced on eBay these days.

    I’ve always liked The Beatles Love Songs. It’s a very gentle compilation even though it’s often used as an example of EMI scraping the barrel. The packaging is tasteful too. I was lucky enough to buy a Canadian gold vinyl copy from the original HMV in Oxford Street in the early 80s. That had the gold foil faux leather cover. However I did a terrible thing with it. I was only 13 years old but it’s no excuse. Believing a Japanese style plastic inner sleeve to be better for storage I decided that it would be a good idea to glue two of these into the thick paper inners (that edition came with bespoke printed inners and a lyric book on fake aged paper) with Evo-Stick. The result? Glue leaked onto the surface of the discs! I tried to get it off but a few tracks skip terribly. I am still triggered to this day with the record collector’s equivalent of PTSD by this traumatic memory! I got replacement second hand discs many years later but it just wasn’t the same!

    I bought all the Ryko Bowie CDs when they were released which I still have and I’m pretty sure I picked up a second hand clear vinyl Sound and Vision box – I definitely have the original Ryko CD box. Pity you didn’t get the OBI but it’s a good set.

    1. I was obsessed with the Ryko CD reissues and bought them all and the original CD box set. But as I said, the only vinyl I bought was 12-inch singles and that was only because it was normally the only way to get remixes (although you’d get them on the occasional cassette single and later CD singles). I was into tapes in the 1980s which looking back may have been a mistake, but they were so portable and convenient!

      1. I picked up most of (possibly all of) the Ryko clear vinyl LPs years later from eBay. I seem to remember that set me back a pretty penny. They are things of beauty though. I’m still not sure if all the extra tracks made it to the later box sets? I’m no expert on Bowie – just a big fan. I’m walking encyclopedia (AKA bore) on The Beatles though!

        Back in the 80s I was a teenager totally out of step – I wanted to be living in the sixties! No Duran Duran or OMD for me – I preferred The Monkees and The Mamas and Papas! I was a huge Waterboys/World Party nut though…

  24. €30 for Neil Young’s Harvest on DVD-Audio. One of my bargain buys back in the day just before MVC shut down was buying a few Neil Young DVD-Audio discs for £1.99 each including Harvest. For some reason, someone thought it would be good idea to use an oversize folding card sleeve so I understand what you mean when it looks battered.

  25. I love Love Songs, my Dad played the tape in his car all the time. It was my introduction to the beatles back in the 70s. I even bought an overpriced, gray market CD version before all those fancy schmancy Beatles mono stereo remaster. Now I want a vinyl version…. Thank you, Paul, for sharing that piece of family nostalgia.
    Same with German only double vinyl by Dean Martin on Reprise: The most wonderful songs or beautiful or smth akin. Bright Orange gatefold. This one has the duet with Nancy Sinatra “Things” which still seems to be impossible to get on a Dean Martin re-issue. Memory lane…

  26. Great that you could hit Concerto, Paul, which I believe many think of as the big dog in AMS record stores.

    If you are hoping to revisit The Netherlands this year, you might be interested in the Haarlem Vinyl Festival, September 27 thru 29, just 15 minutes or so train ride west of Amsterdam.

    If venturing east, my favorite city in the country is Groningen, and not least because it has a great selection of record stores, and antique malls that also do a good job of keeping used vinyl in stock. If you visit Magic Buzz, the owner, Bertus, will give you a list and map of the other record stores in town. You won’t regret a visit to the northeast, and it’s a reasonable train and bus run to Hamburg.

    Very enjoyable reads these last few days, and thanks, always.

  28. Every time you mention the SDE enamel badge I go on a rollercoaster of emotion: delight, disappointment, envy, sadness…

    It’s been great following your adventures via the blogs and the ‘Twitter’ posts. Looking forward to seeing the swag video when you get a chance to upload this – and many more SDE odysseys in the future.

    1. Thanks! I try to have some badges on me when there’s a chance I might bump into SDE readers (say, at a gig). It’s fun to give them out…

          1. I booked a vip ticket, which guaranteed a set seat. I love that venue, but hate the scramble for seats. I even had my coat down one time, then when I came down from the bar someone was actually sitting on it!!

          2. That’s rude, although we had a similar thing the last time I was there!! The coat-on-pew used to be sacrosanct!
            Hopefully I’ll go along so look out for me on the night (appreciate it’s a way off..)

          3. Mr. Fry is appearing at a venue local to me, the Cheese and Grain in Frome, during this tour. I was going to mention the venue anyway, as it used to have a regular record fair every month but, having just looked, it seems to be no more. A certain Paul Young will be there, too but earlier in the year…

  29. The Concerto-shop is very nice… been there many times since 1995 or so. Pity that our FAME-shop had to quit about 10 years ago. It came back in a very small form (as part of Media Markt) near the Amsterdam Central Station but is now a goner too.

    I think the Mega-fair is always twice a year, so the next one in Den Bosch will be in november this year.

    Good to read that you enjoyed the weekend :-)

  30. Loved reading the diary and look forward to a video showing what you bought.
    You could try the Kempton Park Record Fair on the 19th May which is nearer to home!
    All the best and thank you for everything you do on this site.

  31. https://www.schallplatten-boersen.de/

    Hi Paul,

    via the link above you can stay up to date regarding record fairs in Germany.

    As you’ll notice the next one in Hamburg is going to take place on the upcoming weekend but i suppose that they are having more than one per year.

    Should you decide to visit one in Cologne or Düsseldorf instead please send me a note in the days ahead as i’d also love to meet you in the flesh someday.

    Re: It’s Immaterial t-shirts

    Sadly there seem to be only shirts sized large left over.
    On an optimistic day i might go for XL but there’s no way i’m going to fit into ‘large’ again in this life…

  32. This has been a fascinating diary – cheers Paul! Never knew this existed. I’ve now made a note that the 59th edition occurs in November – perfect time for a city break!

  33. I’ve really enjoyed your diaries Paul and your glasses story made me laugh. I think most of us can relate! I just wondered (maybe a silly question) about whether this is the same record fair as held in Utrecht, i.e. does it move around or are they two separate things? I’ve always wanted to go to something like this and reading this has confirmed it!

      1. They are refurbishing a lot at the Jaarbeurs complex in Utrecht at the moment. One of the biggest halls has been torn down. So perhaps that is why.

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