Old school downloading.
The second Le Cool Dublin cover by Dublin native, Waterford-based illustrator and designer Colm O’Connor.
He sez:
“I moved out of Dublin when I was 18 so I have quite a nostalgic view of the city whenever I go visit. This is a throwback to the weekends myself and Pat, with a couple of weeks’ pocket money on us, would get the 78A in to town, go see a film in the Savoy, drop in to Peats, HMV, Champion Sports, Marathon Sports and anywhere else we couldn’t afford at the time. We were only 11/12 and it was well before iTunes, Spotify, even Napster, but after graduating from taping songs off the radio this was the guy to get your bootleg tapes off. Standing outside McDonalds on O’Connell Street with a box full of dodgy tapes you could get all the latest hits. The days would end with missing our bus on the Quays, spending an hour in Virgin waiting for the ‘next one’, and chatting about the film, video games, and what we were going to spend all our millions on when we made it. Good times.”
This week’s Le Cool Dublin issue
A chat with Colm
More of Colm’s work here.
Thanks Kate Le Cool
Ah…bootlegs! This is a great image of a memory. Fair play Colm.
I would add a visit to Freebird on Eden Quay to my Saturday in town as a youngster; selling and buying.
ah freebird, i remember my gaf got broken into and all my CDs were stolen when i was in college. went into freebird to buy a few new ones and swear i found them all… recognised them by the smell of my house :-( dude behind counter didnt seem bothered at all
That is hilarious.
Hi Alfred E. Neumann, sorry to bother you. I came across a few comment threads recently featuring yourself, Pasolini and Frillies. Just wanted to say
I’ve gotten caught up in a few threads myself. I didn’t think the people you were talking to were very nice. I hope you’re alright.
Haha. Did the smelling of the products trigger the suspicion jimmy? I mean, I normally just smell bread or fruit when I’m out shopping.
Many a live bootleg did I buy around that area. I still have Pearl Jams Bridge Benefit gig from the very early 90s on CD. I was disgusted when I found that 2 of the songs skipped.
I bought Dark Side of the Moon off yer man when I was about 13, thought I was so cool.
I used to pick up bootlegs of gigs downstairs in some place on Wicklow St that I can’t remember the name of. Spacemen 3 live at the Milkyway, Pixies live somewhere or other. Good stuff.
Record Collector…was that the basement place on Wicklow St?
I had Smiths bootleg addiction/problem
Rhythm Records on the south quays was brilliant for live recordings. You could go to a gig in the Olympia on a Saturday and pop in during the week and buy the sound desk recording of the show on tape for a couple of quid.
I remember seeing Therapy? in there one Saturday morning and they were having great fun buying tapes of their own gigs.
Ah yes… I wasted a fair bit of pocket money on virtually inaudible bootleg cassettes of New Order concerts back in them days…………
I had an REM tape from the US which for about 10 minutes featured two Yanks talking about how much they hated Axl Rose.
Once walked straight into the Diceman on the stairs on my first visit to Freebird (when it was upstairs on Grafton street (?). it scared the shit out of me. Great shop… Bought 100s of their 2.99/3.99 second hand LPs…not so cheap now!
Ha. Young folk being nostalgic.
Not so young now – balding fatties is my guess.
Nostalgia…..a thing of the past.
Great stuff.
A visit to the ‘Big Smoke’ wouldn’t be complete unless a few dodgy tapes were purchased!
I remember thinking yer man was onto a winner selling bootlegs of “Use Your Illusions”.
He’ll close down HMV, and in the end, he did.