Intro from Retrohen
1988 was a memorable year for me: I was attending Cassio College in Watford, my weekly British Rail train pass from Harlesden to Watford Junction was £13.50, I turned 18 years old, started learning to drive (£7 per driving lesson), had a part-time job at Asda, Park Royal (Friday evenings and all day Saturday) and earned £22 per week. The supermarkets didn’t open on Sundays so a typical Sunday for me was waking up at 7am to watch TransWorld Sport on my 14-inch black and white bedroom TV. After watching TransWorld Sport, I’d go back to bed for a few hours. Breakfast was about 10am and the most strenuous thing was having a few games of table tennis with my older brother at Vale Farm Sports Centre. Sundays really were days of rest.
In 1988, modern technology looked like this: the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum were popular home computers, cars with electric windows was seen as cool and was not a standard feature in all cars, microwave ovens provoked scepticism, front loading video recorders with wireless remote controls had replaced top loading wired remote control models, the Sony Walkman and numerous copies of them by different brands (I had a Sanyo ‘Walkman’) was the cool way to listen to music on the go. As for music formats, the options were records (vinyl) or cassettes.
Most homes had both a record player and a cassette player. These were the times when you’d find an independent music shop on the high street as well as the usual big players: Woolworths, Our Price and WHSmith.
Britannia Music Club was not on the high street and their business model used the postal service. Just looking at their advert, the three things that set them apart from the music shops on the high street were price, their extensive selection and convenience. The offer of 3 LPs or cassettes for £1.49 each was pretty good value at £6.24 including postage. To put this price into context, in 1988 I bought Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down on cassette from Woolworths… it cost me £7.99!
So, here’s the deal with Britannia Music Club: an introductory offer of 1.49 each for three records or cassettes. After that the following membership rules came into play:
1. Buy six LPs or cassettes at full price over the next two years
2. You’ll get a half-price selection for every full-price LP or cassette you buy
3. After buying six at full-price, with every two additional full-price purchases you get one free, plus two at half price.
4. You’ll get a free monthly Club Magazine.
5. You don’t have to make a purchase every month, but Britannia will make one top recommendation for your collection each month.
All clear? I think I’ve understood, but I keep re-reading rule #3…
Music lovers not wanting to be tied into the music club for two years, cheaper CDs, the popularity of downloads and the mighty Amazon probably contributed to bringing Britannia Music Club to an end, but it did run for 38 years (1969 – 2007). Britannia Music Club was also a sponsor of the Brit Awards. All in all, a not too shabby history.
Today, it’s good to see that vinyl has really come back strong and competing with downloads and CDs. It’s now quite cool to say “I’ve got that album on vinyl.” I can’t really see a way back for cassettes… but, thinking about it… there could there be a way back if the small problem of wear and tear can be resolved to prevent cassette players chewing them up! And yes, I still have memories of the scrunching sound from my Decca cassette player chewing up another one of my BASF cassettes!
The advert below appeared in the February 1988 edition of Sky magazine with a young looking Mickey Rourke on the front cover
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May’s essential retro read: we head back to 1988 for the Music & Politics remix featuring Maggie Thatcher. Click on the Maggie below to read and reminisce
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