Sparky: Closer to home - Tower Records and dreams that die slowly ... This blog features boobs —

We could be self righteous and laugh about the one-sided relationship between a washed up nasty mouthed sex worker and the Guru — but few are immune to dreams.

Tower Records

Tower Records on the Sunset Strip

Tower Records was a retail music chain based in Sacramento, California. Tower was founded in 1960 by Russ Solomon in Sacramento, California. The store was named after his father's drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater^[1], where Solomon first started selling records.

History

Seven years after its founding, Tower Records expanded to San Francisco, opening a store in what was originally a grocery store at Bay and Columbus streets. The chain eventually expanded internationally and now includes stores in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. The store also established Tower Records stores in Japan, but those stores split off from main chain and are now independent. Arguably the most famous Tower Records outlet is the one located on the north side of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. In addition to CDs and cassette tapes (few carry vinyl LPs anymore), stores also sell DVDs, PSP movies, video games, accessories, toys and electronic gadgets like mp3 players, while a few Tower Records stores sell books as well, such as the stores in Brea, California and Sacramento. All these product lines and more are also available at Tower.com, which got its start in 1995 as one of the first music retailers to set up shop on the Internet. In New York City, twin Tower Records stores straddle lower Broadway - one an annex that still sells vinyl records, and the other selling modern items (CDs, DVDs, etc.). The store in Greenwich Village was famous in the 1980s for selling albums of European New Wave bands not yet popular in the U.S. and was a noted hangout for teenagers from through out the metropolitan area.

Tower Records entered bankruptcy for the first time in 2004. Factors cited were the heavy debt incurred during its aggressive expansion in the 1990s, growing competition from mass discounters, and internet piracy. ^[2].

On August 20, 2006, Tower Records filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy^[3] for the second time in order to facilitate a purchase of the company prior to the holiday shopping season.

On October 6, 2006, Great American Group won an auction of the company's assets and commenced going-out-of-business sales at many U.S. Tower Records locations the following day^[4].

Tower Records in the United Kingdom

Originally Tower Records was just a London-based concern, with the store at 1 Piccadilly Circus being joined by a couple of smaller outlets (for example Kensington High Street). However by the start of the 1990s the chain had grown to encompass a number of other stores, with large entertainment stores also selling movies, books, magazines and games in Birmingham and Glasgow, as well as a number of smaller stores that had been purchased from rival American retailer Sam Goody when it had left the UK marketplace (for example of this express format - Weston-Super-Mare).

However with tough trading conditions in the UK market, as well as the company's trouble in the States, the firm followed Sam Goody in retreating from the UK market. The London stores in Piccadilly and Kensington were sold to Virgin Group, who for a while traded under the Tower brand at the former site until the store could be fully refurbished, while the other stores were closed.

External links

• Tower Records
• The Rolling Stones
• They Might Be Giants

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It always ends in tears ...

I used to go to GlamourCon in the 90s to scout for artists, once being there with a famous composer (who had been the musical director for Sonny & Cher). What I didn't know was that Hugh Hefner used to promote the band and that many Playboy Playmates had fond memories of my friend.

Denise at her prime courtesy of Wikipedia

It got me to meet my playmate dreamgirl Denise Michele who was then the twin to my long suffering ex-girlfriend to my shock (I'm sure they could still pass for twins). Life is funny. And I made good friends with Jade East - who was a semi retired pornstar, who'd also hang around SDCC. We often go to films and eat dinner. She was always good company. She was very classy always.

The Guru's agressive bit of rough trade is a stupid bargain basement wannabe Heidi Fleiss — and I'm certain she doesn't know who ended up with the really important 'black book' or who ended up dead or who left town. And information I knew thirdhand in 1998 isn't really important this late date.

The real trick with dreams is keeping your pants zipped. Worked for me - Sparky