AoF in NYC...

MUSIC & VIDEOS

Sadly there's not much treasures to be dug in NYC nowadays. All the 'alternative' record shops seem to think that a rare Scritti find is any single from Cupid & Psyche '85 -- that is, if they even know who Scritti is. There was a time when Scritti at least had its own section in the shops. Not anymore in most stores. Hopefully that will all change when the new LP is released in 1999. But until then...

Below is a list of stores where the AoF collection was amassed plus ones where you can still find the occasional artifacts (last inspected in late 1997). But don't dream of gold unless you have your own personal guardian angel and a direct line to GOD, or to GREEN!

BLEEKER BOB'S
Tel: 212-475-9677
118 West 3rd Street
between 6th Ave. & MacDougal St.
Had a few phase 3 12" singles, does mail order and will take names and inform when new stuff comes in. Also has a shop in LA, CA (tel: 213-951-9111).

GENERATION RECORD
Tel: 212-254-1100
210 Thompson Street
between West 3rd St. & West 2nd St.
Also had a few phase 3 12" singles in the basement New Wave section. Prices are generally cheap: approximately US$3-5.

REBEL REBEL
Bleeker Street
near corner of Grove St.
in West Greenwich Village
No longer have a section for Scritti, but was the location where AoF dug up phase 1's 7" SP1 (Skank Bloc Bologna single) and SP2 (Peel Session EP).

RECORD RUNNER
Jones Street
in West Greenwich Village
No longer have a section for Scritti, but still has a few phase 3 singles. The 7" are in the back stock room; ask for help.

SECOND COMING RECORDS
Sullivan St.
between West 3rd St. & West 2nd St.
Still had a section for Scritti which at last check has three 12" singles from phases 2 & 3. This is where AoF acquired phase 1's 4 A-sidesEP. Prices are cheap: US$2-3.

STRIDER RECORDS
Tel: 212-675-3040
22 Jones Street
New York NY 10014
in West Greenwich Village
Still had a few copies of 85's 7" Wood Beez and brown cover Perfect Way (North American release). This place is an increasingly rare vinyl only shop. 7" are behind counter. Prices are generally US$8 for ones in original picture sleeve. This is where AoF acquired Wood Beez picture disc.

TOWER RECORDS
Broadway in Greenwich Village
Still had phase 3 LP (Cupid & Psyche '85 and Provision) CDs on stock.

VIRGIN SUPERSTORE
Broadway
at corner of 46th St.
in touristy Time Square
Of course, right? (Or maybe not.) Still had phase 3 LP (Cupid & Psyche '85 and Provision) CDs on stock. Hopefully they will have enough sense to carry all the extra goodies when and if Scritti ever releases new material.

Be sure to check for online and UK mail order resources as well.

ARTICLES

5/16/97 NEW ARTICLES

No, I kid you not! If you have read the latest news at James Lawrence's UK website, you'd know that the rumor Green has been working on a new album scheduled for release in September/October has been confirmed by Virgin. So, that means there should be new articles to watch out for. James figures single would probably come out a month or so before the album and radio and magazine promotion should start a month prior, so all scholars are on red alert starting late June-early July.

As the plan right now is for UK releases only, British magazines would be a better bet. Keep your eyes on NME and Melody Maker which have sections for gossip and news on new releases. Once the promotion is in full force, also check out all the hip music mags such as Record Mirror, Q , Select, and Smash Hits (we'll see if Green's still a teeny-bopper idol).

Now, the best places to get these magazines in the US are the import record shops. Of the ones listed above, Rebel Rebel, Record Runner, and Virgin Superstore all carries the UK publications mentioned. Tower Records also has a magazine section in store as well as in its bookstore/videostore a block east on Lafayette Street which boost the best selection in NYC. Of bookstores and magazine shops proper, check out the Barnes & Nobles and Hudson News chains. The best chain locations for the occasion are in Greenwich Village near the N/R subway 8th Street stop. Barnes & Nobles is on Astor Place which is just a block south of 8th Street on the east side of Broadway, and Hudson News is right on Broadway between 8th Street and Astor Place.

BACK ISSUES

Old articles are even harder to come by. I mean, come on, it's 1997 already, the last Scritti release was back in 1991, that's more than FIVE (5) years ago! So unless there was a mega huge following, no back-issues resaler is going to carry back-issues from way back when...

...SO, ONLINE...

It's AoF to the rescue! Recognizing the difficulty of locating Scritti info outside of UK, AoF has put online its entire collection of articles for those unable to locate back issues -- many thanks to those publishers who kindly granted AoF permission to reproduce the articles. It's all done now -- except for a few Japanese articles which I can't read anymore. See Articles Archive Table of Content for listing. And if you are intent on hunting down every single piece of Scritti artifacts there ever was, the AoF list will give you some ideas of what's available on the articles front.

There are also other Scritti fans worldwide working on their own Scritti sites and articles collections, so AoF will continually check for these and will have links to them as they become available to the general public.

...AND OFFLINE...

James Lawrence in UK is putting out a bi-monthly Scritti Politti fanzine which will include articles he managed to dig up at record fairs in the UK, as well as any sent to him from Scritti scholars worldwide. Titled the Unofficial Scritti Politti Magazine [member SCC)], it is currenly free and can be obtained by writing to Mr. Lawrence via e-mail at

[email protected]

or snail-mail at

James Lawrence
7 Hazely
Tring
Herts
HP23 5JH
U.K.

So far, three issues are out and the fourth is 'on the press' at this very moment. See Methodology:Scritti Fan Club page for picture of the cover plus details about contents.

Now for those to whom only the original in full glorious color is good enough: Well, stumped really; I don't really know any place outside London which carries many back issues that old. Rebel Rebel and Record Runner mentioned above do carry some, but not too many. Try writing to the publishers; although, again they may not have back issues going back that far and some publishers have went under. The following British magazines -- the band is British after all -- are still being published, so you may want to write to them:

New Musical Express
website at http://www.nme.com/

Melody Maker

Record Mirror
website at http://www.dotmusic.com/

Smash Hits