RECORD STORE TALES Part 184:  Alan Cross

In 2003, we did a promotion with the Canadian DJ and writer, Alan Cross.  We were selling his book, although I couldn’t tell you which one anymore, and he came in to do a meet & greet / book signing deal.

I had no idea who Alan Cross was.

All I know is that I had to run down to Hortons and pick up a large container of coffee and some donuts.  And not to be alarmed, because he had a large dog that he was going to be bringing with him.  No problem, I liked dogs, and Al King from Encore Records had a large dog that he often brought with him.

Anyway, long story short:

1. The dog was cool, sat there quietly and bothered nobody.  I would have assumed the dog was dead if I didn’t know better!

2. Alan was cool to everybody.  We had a small turnout, but the people that did come out were obviously huge fans of this guy that I had never heard of.  I wasn’t into the radio at the time, but even my most recent ex, Radio Station Girl, had never heard of him either.  Her reason for not knowing him was that she knew nothing about music.  My excuse was that Cross specialized in alternative music, a genre I tended to loathe for sidelining my beloved heavy metal in the 1990’s.

But regardless, Alan was cool and spent a lot of time with every single person.  He had extended conversations and stayed longer than he was booked to stay.  So credit where credit’s due:  I’ve heard tales of people showing up to do signings and acting like total dicks.  Alan was not one of those people.  Every single person who spoke to me said how cool he was.  Which was nice, since I had no idea who he was!  At least I knew he was a nice guy!