barclaycon

I fear for Alfreton Road. Not just because of the pubs closing, the area as a whole looks like it's going to be the next Arkwright Street. Decaying buildings, businesses closing. Ghost town scenario. I've no doubt that they'll just buldoze it and leave it as a wasteland for several decades.

People will still pay high prices for unusual vinyl records. There's an album called Saturnalia's Magic Love that has a 'leticular' printed label that changes image as it rotates, and the record itself is a picture disc. Looks amazing. Pity that the music isn't upto much (!) The best price I got when I was selling my vinyl collection was for Faust. The cover was an X-Ray of a fist on a transparent sleeve with transparent vinyl for the record. Somebody bought it for £90. My brother still has a few gems that he's held on to. Sex Pistols 'God Save the Queen' on A&M. (Bought from Boots in

Yeah. That particular lens thing is apparently called 'lenticular' printing. Something I wasn't aware of until I looked it up on Wiki. You used to get it on toys etc. as it gave a crude kind of 3D effect. I had always thought of it as a fresnel lens as it has that kind of 'ribbed' plastic shape. Anyway, that's the one that commands big bucks. The album itself is not one of their best. Though it did have a few good tracks on it - She's A Rainbow', 2000 Light Years from Home. Their psychedelic period. The Bill Wyman vocal track 'In Another Land' is unintentionally hysterical !

We've discussed this bus station quite a lot. It wasn't a particularly nice place, I have to say. Yes it was in a hole surrounded by concrete walls because they'd dug it into the hillside. The previous bus station that it replaced had been accommodated on the slope. Cliff has posted some good pictures. Mount Street bus station was typical of the times in that they assumed that it would be a shopping centre with lots of retail units. The build quality was just horrible un-faced concrete. I don't think a single unit of the place was ever occupied. So when you walked to it through the unde

Everything about Burtons was sheer quality. Again, like Pearsons and the big Co-Op, I just assumed it would be around forever. Another store that was synonymous with Nottingham. I always remember it as being full of shoppers. Then one day I come back to Notts and its gone !

Ah but does your copy have the fresnel lens on the front, that moves the picture when you tilt it ? That's the one that's worth all the money.

I'm not really sure Ian. Some services continued until there was a viable bus alternative in place. A lot of lines that got closed to passengers lived on for a few more years because of freight contracts. Even after Victoria closed there were still trains passing through the site - I've got pictures of an 'avoiding' line that they built so that trains could pass through even though Victoria centre was being built. Arkwright Street station that had been closed 1963 was re-opened in 1967 so they could run a shuttle service between Nottingham and Rugby, but that only lasted until 1969. Bits

The GCR was superbly designed and built. It benefited from all the latest technology - steam navvies and steel bridges, and was at a time when building railways was something the Victorians really knew how to do well. As well as the Berne loading gauge, it only had one level crossing all the way from Manchester to Nottingham. But like the planned HS2, it didn't go through places of great importance. The first stop of any real significance from London was Rugby. (Aylesbury and Charwelton not being particularly busy). That I think will be the downfall of HS2. The fact that it would be a fas

Just as a matter of interest, does anybody know what they're going to replace York House with ? Another office block ? Another concrete monstrocity ? This would be a great opportunity for Notts Council to be adventurous and come up with something that complements the Rose of England. A building that actually looks nice. I'm not holding my breath though.

It's been said many times before here. All we want is a decent product for a decent price. Tesco is getting a good kicking because they lied, they cheated and they treated their customers AND their suppliers with utter contempt. They weren't prepared to move with the times and adapt to the recession, they just arrogantly assumed that we'd HAVE to pay their prices in order to maintain their profits. It's quite funny really to see the huge Tesco in Long Eaton with the tiny Aldi next door. Last time I looked, the Aldi was swamped - whereas the Tesco was like a ghost town. Nobody's got an oun

Yes. Radio Nottingham was in York House. I went to a couple of the 'open days'. Remember Don Truscott, Eddie Gray, Dozy Dave Wilkinson ? Denis McCarthy was held in high regard at Radio Nottingham. His show was actually networked to other BBC Midlands radio stations as well. I don't know about playing long records. I think music shows were a rarity on Radio Nottingham as there were still 'needletime' restrictions at that time. It seemed to be mostly speech. Apparently Denis McCarthy was taken ill on air in January '96. Even though he insisted on finishing his programme, he died later that

I'm afraid there isn't much of a market for old vinyl now. Certainly nothing like there used to be. I had a pretty big collection of records and I sold them all by renting stalls at record fairs. I think I did 3 altogether. Got fairly reasonable prices. In the 1990's they sold quite well, but nowadays the market is quite small. If there's nothing rare about your records (limited edition, library music, oddities), then you're not really going to get much for them. There a whole generation that have grown up without ever having seen vinyl records. Playing equipment is becoming thin on the

I used to love going into Pearson's. It was part of my Saturday record shop tour. Walking across Upper Parliament Street from the Co-Op to Pearson's store with it's strange split levels down to Angel Row, there were always interesting goods in there. Strange that it also had a record department. Was there some sort of Scandinavian connection ? Did they have some sort of exclusive import deal for goods from Sweden ? There were certainly items in there that you wouldn't find anywhere else. Anyway, Pearson's seemed synonymous with Nottingham and it was a big shock to find one day that it had

They are in-between the Quantum physics. (Dark matter)

I think there is a Mac that has 12 core chips and yes, it is water cooled. The speed issue was important in the past because certain things couldn't be done without a fair degree of processing power. In my field (music production) you had to buy cards with extra processing power (DSP chips) to fit in the computer to get the job done. So there was speed and also DSP. The ability to do lots of calculations as well as doing them quickly. It's taken Microsoft this long to get to a 64 bit operating system as standard (2 to the power of 64). Even though their OS's had the ability to work 64 bit

Stephen Hawking has been warning about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. Maybe he's only just got to see 'The Terminator'.

I remember very clearly the riots in Nottingham in 1981. I was in my brother's flat in the Park which overlooked Derby Road. On the worst night we watched a whole swathe of them moving up Derby Road to Canning Circus smashing windows along the way. I'm convinced that a lot of the rioting was copycat bad behaviour rather than a 'rising up of the masses'. It's unfortunate but true that low intelligence types are more prone to the 'herd instinct' and being part of a gang. They just saw it as an opportunity to run amok and possibly do a bit of looting as well. A better example of people rioti

It's a great shame that political debate has been stifled here because it affects us all whether we live in Nottingham or not. And it is very interesting to hear another's point of view, even if it's a different one to your own. However, I completely understand why it's been stopped. Some people can't accept a difference of opinion. It's not about trying to 'win' an argument or ranting and raving, accusing people of offence, or verbally beating someone into submission. It is perfectly reasonable to say that you accept someone's point of view even if you don't agree. Agreeing to disagree

The Rose Grower was a strange anomaly because that patch of land had been empty for such a long time till they finally got permission to build that pub. I think Hardy Hanson had wanted to open a pub there ever since the estate had been planned, but there was lots of local opposition to it so it just remained a patch of open ground for years. It was also strange that there was a Co-Op opposite on the corner of Sandringham and Bankfield Drive. This apparently was put there because the Co-Op had previously had a mobile shop selling stuff on the newly-built estate. (I think at one point it becam

Re: Yes Malcolm. The origin of my nickname was from a dispute I had with aforesaid bank and I used that as the login. It's just kinda stuck. Not the bank I'm with now !

I used to get those too. Ridiculous. Blank cheques AND all your details. How stupid is that? Asking for trouble. I eventually got them stopped, but I was angry that I never asked for a loan in the first place. That's how desperate they are to get us to borrow because now we live in cautious times. Another thing that really annoys me is this 'tap n pay' that banks and CC companies have now adopted for all their cards. It is simply to promote casual use. People might go into Starbucks or the like for a cup of coffee and then be shocked by the time they reached the checkout that it had re

Yes, it's called 'contextual advertising' and it's one of the most irritating things on the internet. I really don't know how they've been allowed to get away with it. It's one of the most intrusive and invasive abuses of your privacy. Basically, your browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox) generates a 'cookie' (which is a little text file) when you go to a website. This just takes note of your settings i.e. what language you are using and possibly your login. Stored on your computer it means that next time you got to that website it will know what settings you use and will log you i

A guy called Charles Murray wrote a great book called 'The Emerging British Underclass' which discussed the difference between people who were poor and people who were benefit-dependant scroungers. He said that unfortunately we tend to lump them all together now and just refer to them as 'the poor'. If you remember from school, there were kids who were obviously from poor families but they were clothed, well presented and well mannered. Then there kids who were just trouble. Low life scrotes who were obviously on a trejectory towards low achievment and anti-social behaviour. The difference b

Some of the adverts are very funny and it's interesting that we remember a lot of the products and even how the jingles go - even after decades. Just shows how good people were at selling in those days. Now all they know is repitition and irritation. In-yer-face advertising. Shouting, and of course, lying. You'd be hard pressed to remember a TV advert from yesterday. I was lucky enough to meet a guy called John Webster in the 80's who was something of a legend as far as advertising goes and I remember 2 things he said that were very pertinent. Firstly, you can't irritate people into buyin

I regularly change Internet Service Provider because they all do the same thing i.e. entice you into signing up with them at a low rate - then wack up the price on your direct debit after the offer runs out. It's very hard to find out what they actually (or eventually) charge because the offers tend to be quite complicated. Talk Talk used to be absolutely dreadful because they had very low network capacity. They cut people off regularly because of 'contention'. Their assertion that it was unlimited was entirely bogus - but I must admit they have improved a lot over the last year. BT is alwa