RECORD STORE TALES Part 220: Blackout!
It seems like only last year, but in fact it was 10 years ago today. One of the only times we ever closed the store early was the Great Blackout of 2003. If you lived in, well, North America, you probably remember Blackout 2003.
I recall closing up shop in the mid-afternoon. It was obvious the power wasn’t coming back on, but the phones were working. We got the call to do our best to close up without power, and head home.
For many people, particularly in Toronto, this turned out to be an exceptional evening. People left their homes, went out and socialized. Many went to the beach. Me, I just sat at home and read a book until it was too dark to read. Then I turned in.
I fell asleep quickly, it was so quiet. Suddenly I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. I reached for my watch, my eyes trying to focus on the glowing hands. 4:30 am. I didn’t know what to think.
On the other end was Brandon “You Are So Punk”, who worked at our Niagara Falls location. That first night, they incredibly still had power, although that wasn’t going to last!
“Man, why are you calling?” I yawned. “It’s 4:30 in the morning.”
Brandon paused. “What are you talking about?”
Frustrated, I answered, “I’m looking at my watch, you’re calling me at 4:30 in the morning!”
Brandon paused again, and answered simply, “Dude. Your watch is upside down. It’s 10:00 pm. I just got home from work.”
D’Oh!
The next day, Friday the 15th, the power was restored in the early morning. Still, we weren’t supposed to be open. The government had advised all non-essential businesses to stay closed, and not put additional strain on our fried power grid. Us being so essential, were open (of course). That is until about mid-afternoon when we again had to close, due to rolling blackouts. The shit thing about that was that we were absolutely slammed with people that morning, we were overwhelmed. A lot of them were what I called “tire kickers” — they like to ask you a lot of questions but they don’t buy anything. Since nobody was open except us and a few other “essential” businesses, it was like a holiday for the general public. People brought in used discs by the box load to sell, I kid you not. I went through 300 discs from one guy alone. I had him leave his box behind because it was going to take a couple hours to go through, and then we ended up closing while he was out. He came back a few days later for his cash and unwanted discs (which was most of them).
When people reflect back on the blackout, they usually have fond memories and stories. Not me! I remember shit stories! Oh! And I had to throw out all the meat that I had bought that day before work too, because the fridge had no power. Fuck you, blackouts!
Wow. Sounds like you really had a blackout (baby). Someone should have turned ze spotlights on ze people!
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Souzern Ontario! You really know how to par-taaaaaaaaaaaaay!
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Haha Klaus rocks. And kudos on the Love/Hate vid. Love that song.
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I couldn’t resist. Between this and Why Do You Think They Call It Dope, that’s another album I need. Only 23 years late.
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Oh man, I thought you’d have that one for sure! There was a good edition out here that had a live EP included as bonus tracks.
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Ooh! Keep your eyes open for that for me?
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Will do. Couldn’t find it on the Amazon.ca site so it looks like it might be a UK/Europe thing. It had about 6-7 extra tracks I think
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Yep that debut from Love/Hate was a classic…Jizzy Pearl has a good set of pipes very distinct ala Pearcy ,no wonder Ratt had him front the band for a while…..
Seen these guys open for AcDc on the Razors Edge tour…….
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What an opening gig for a first album tour. These guys could have been huge but grunge hit, and I think the second album could have had a better single.
Anybody got any bootlegs of Ratt with Jizzy and Corabi?
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Popoff really rates that second Love/Hate album! I’ve still to get that one.
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It was always more common here than the first. I’ll have to check Discogs for that version with the live bonus tracks.
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The label is Bad Reputation if that helps. Looks like they’ve given Wasted In America the same treatment too! I might want to buy that pretty soon…
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Hmmm. Maybe I should wait until my recent Amazon order ships before I open a new can of worms.
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It’s the endless slippery slope!
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Escially when some jerk (koffkoff me) points out to Mike that there are 4 (FOUR) new Watchmen comics.
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Yeah and The Band two-fers. So when my wife is pissed off at me, I’ll tell her who the real problem is.
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I remember reading about this blackout in the news. We were living in Saskatchewan at the time. And it was a month after that that we were back in Ontario for our wedding, then out to Halifax to survive a hurricane. What a summer.
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When did you move to la belle province?
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We lived in Montréal from 1999-2001.
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Yeah, it went like this:
1999-2001 Montreal
2001-2005 Saskatoon
2005-now back in ON
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Well, welcome back!
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Thanks! We always just go where the school or work is. I’d imagine we’re here for good now, though. My folks would kill me if we moved away again and took their grandchildren with us. Given druthers though, man, I’d move back to Montréal. I really liked that city.
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Fave memory of (insert best THE DAMNED song here) of 2003 had to be seeing the Tim Hortons drive-thru line F-F-F-Freakin’ out….
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HAHAHA! Oh, Timmies addicts.
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