he went to Newcastle and thought about records...

Spent three days in Newcastle at a conference (for work). It was nice to be back in the North East, even if I only got to see - apart from an hour or so on Wednesday when I had a walk around Eldon Square - the inside of a conference centre and my hotel room. Still, I like Newcastle and like the journey; even not seeing much of it, it was nice to be there. I had a nice walk in the grounds (by Gosforth Park Races) and walked over a bridge which survived a disused railway line.

More typically, when it comes to grabbing my attention, I noticed that the Virgin Megastore in Newcastle now has listening posts on every rack of CDs, which one can use simply by scanning the barcode of any CD in the store, and listening immediately. This is a tremendous innovation! No more buying dodgy CDs on a whim and hating them when I get home. I listened to Pole, the new Tyrant compilation from Fabric, a Michael Mayer mix CD, one of the Andy Partridge demo CDs and the new Squarepusher album. And guess what? I wanted them all :-)

Haven't been down to the Churchill Square Virgin for a few weeks so will have to go down there to see what it's like. But I can't help remembering that, when I was a kid, Cadburys launched Twirl bars up North a year or so before they did down in London, and I had to get my Nan to send me them through the post 'til were launched in the 'sarf. So it's probably the same thing; might just have to spend a few further months spending money with the help of misguided, hopeful intuition...