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In praise of… Burning Shed

July 3rd, 2020 · Posted by Skuds in Life · No Comments · Life

Time for another quick unsolicited testimonial, this time for the wonderful Burning Shed online shop. Here are a few reasons to love the website:

  • Specialising in stuff a bit outside the mainstream – like prog, Canterbury scene and electronica
  • Carries a lot of special box sets, vinyl and collectibles
  • Is the official store for some acts and is the only place where some of the goodies are available
  • It boasts of being ‘run by artists for artists’, with more of the proceeds going to the artists than they would get from other outlets.
  • Deliveries from them always come well-packaged with little freebies like coaster or postcard slipped in

I came across the site last year when Oliver Wakeman put together the From A Page album, and this was the only place it could be bought, or even heard. I was very impressed and the only thing stopping me from going on a mad spree was that I have mostly stopped buying records for reasons of space and trying to be less of a hoarder. Had I discovered this ten years ago I would probably be bankrupt by now! If I still had a turntable I would also be hitting this site heavily now.

I have bought a lot of stuff online over the years. I have been doing it since Amazon was just an online bookshop and only sold books, and in all that time I have never had parcels or packets as well packed as the few things I have got from Burning Shed. Proper thick card, exactly the right size for the goods inside. There is no free postage and packing, but this is a case where you do get what you pay for and don’t begrudge p&p because you can see it is covering the cost and not just an extra slice of profit.

It is a music shop, but a lot of the CDs and records (and cassettes!) are beautiful artefacts too. It is not the place to go for bargain basement prices. Having said that, I did just buy a cheap box set of 5 of Risk Wakeman’s early albums for just over a tenner. I got it so I can hear White Rock, which normally costs that much on its own – if you can find it. I remember when it came out and was heavily advertised but I never heard it because I bought other things with my pocket money, and back then the only way to hear anything like this was to buy it. I am looking forward to hearing it a mere 43 years later.

The reason I was on the site anyway was to buy the Toyah & the Humans box set. I listened to the studio albums on Spotify and liked them so getting all of them with a live CD and live DVD (filmed in Sussex at Trading Boundaries) plus a little book seemed like a good idea.

These days I don’t buy ‘normal’ music. I just stream what I want and only buy a few things if they have something that just can’t be streamed, like 5.1 surround blu-ray, video content, unavailability on Spotify or just fabulous packaging which is almost a perfect description of a large proportion what Burning Shed stocks!

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