Monday 26 October 2009

Record staff with offer to sign AC/DC record 'Scruffy geezer' stuns Keswick


So co-owner David Lomas thought nothing of it when he saw a “scruffy geezer in a flat cap” browsing through the vinyl albums at the St John’s Street shop currently.
The man brought one record to the counter.
The rock band AC/DC was Back In Back.
Released in 1980, this is one of the best selling albums of all time, having shifted something in the region of 40m copies.
“Would you like me to sign it?” asked the customer.
“Er... who are you?” replied David.
“I’m the singer.”
Yes, the scruffy geezer was AC/DC front man Brian Johnson, whose gravelly voice is one of the most familiar in rock music.
David was glad to let Brian sign the album and the signature quickly made the record a very lucrative item.
So lucrative that another customer offered to buy it there and then.
The price was raised from £8 to £25 and the deal was done.
Mark Stainton, another of the shop’s three co-owners, tells Reiver: “David didn’t recognise him. He does the books, not the records.
“He wouldn’t recognise Madonna if she came in wearing a pointy bra.
“I got a phone call from David just afterwards. He’d looked on the internet and seen pictures of Brian. He said he looked just the same as he does on stage, in his flat cap.”
Johnson, now 62, is from Gateshead. His main home is in Florida but he has been seen in the Lakes before.
Although its members are nearing retirement age, AC/DC are still going strong.
The band’s most recent album, Black Ice, reached number one last year.
Johnson joins Paul McCartney on the short list of famous musicians who shop in Cumbria; McCartney having said that he enjoys shopping in Carlisle because he can apparently do so without being recognised.
As for AC/DC, Reiver wonders if their singer’s love of Cumbria might inspire them to re-record some of their best-known songs?
Perhaps we can look forward to Back in Blackford, Highway to Helvellyn and Whole Lotta Rosley.

1 comment:

protein powder said...

AC/DC is a great rock band. Their music has an innovative flair to it that is not matched, even though it is sometimes followed.

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