A Song For The Def

As all most people round here are chatting about burglarys and the like it's refreshing when someone like Kizzy comes into the shop to entertain us with a tune or two!

And the 'def' in the subject is the old school use of the word, as in COOL

Cucking Funts!!!

Just one week after the last burglary we are GUTTED to report that we've been burgled again. This time they took the replacement computer that had only been in the shop for three days, even although it was bolted to the counter with a security device. They also took a fair bit of stock and needless to say caused plenty of damage. So appauled were the local BBC by this they interviewed me on air about it!

Rikki and I are both pretty fed up at the moment so I don't feel inspired to write a great long blog, so I'll leave you with a few images from our security cameras. The main camera was destroyed by the thieves.

Do you recognise this blurry green face?

Sad but true, at midnight on Easter Sunday someone broke into Know Your Product. The cameras triggered but as we had turned off the lights in an attempt to reduce our carbon footprint they just captured black images.

I'm working on them trying to see if I can gleam something. Here are the best ones, if you know your way round photoshop please see if you can do any better!

Needless to say, if you know anything please call the police on 01473 613500 or contact them using the other details on this page - http://www.suffolk.police.uk/Useful+Information/Contact+Us/default.htm

Our computer was stolen and all data was well backed up.

Incidently the flat above is available for a remarkably reasonable rent if you're interested!

It's not that we're lazy...

But to try and *cough* serve you better we'll be shut on Mondays from now on. Ya see me and Rikki are trying to avoid executive burnout!

In the Navy!

Further proving my theory that our shop is in some sort of freaky (but entertaining) vortex I received a personal invitation from the Royal Navy this morning. They have sent me a fancy invite to go and attend a presentation titled 'The Royal Navy Today' at nearby úber posh navy place 'The Royal Hospital School'. I must admit I'm a little tempted by the fact there's free drinks afterwards, although the subsequent question and answer session with Commander Richard Buckland could get a little messy!

But jeez, what's next? A personal invitation from Bernard Manning addressed to Rikki the vegetarian to go and inspect the slaughter houses?

The weirdness continues, and I'll continue to tell you about it!

Nitty Gritty

After playing what can only be described as an apocalyptic show at the steamboat The Grit popped in to have a snout around the shop, they even spent some money! All in all the visit was a success, they even left their drummer in our shitter!

You've seen them naked, now you can have a bit of the action!

Yup, if you've seen this Guildford band down at the Steamboat in Ipswich then the chances are you've seen them in the buff, come to think of it you've probably seen that wherever in the country you've seen them!

Well we've finally got their album and EP in stock!
Click here to buy 'Exercise Your Demons'...

Click here to buy 'Panda-Monium'...

All change!

Just when you think it's all settled down we've decided to move everything around! Here's Rikki's lass Julie helping us with the mess! I'll say no more about the change around now, you'll have to come in and have a look for yourself!

Never a dull moment!

Wow, just a few weeks after the attempted break in we got an even stranger report. It turns out that some tipsy lass managed to clamber over our back wall. Being a bit altered I guess her cat like reflexes weren't on top form, she broke her angle when she landed!

Laying by our back door screaming with agony she was stuck. So she called the police to come and rescue her! Annoyingly the police kicked in our gate to get to her! I bet they had some interesting questions when they got to her though!

So who wasn't paying attention at the back?

We didn't say anything at the time as we weren't sure if we were allowed, but someone tried to break into Know Your Product! After the jacket boy incident we decided to get our security checked out, we were told that our shop is a veritable fortress, turns out it really is! A month or so ago we got a call from our lovely landlords saying there had been an attempted break in. Someone with a crow bar spent a good long time trying to lever open the back door, and more importantly failing to open the back door. The door is now a bit battered but is still absolutely rock bleedin' solid! They had a pop at the window too, but with Rikki's mad chippy skills it's now all back to looking lovely.

Theives everywhere take note, our shop is a fortress and even if you did get in what do you think you're going to nick? We leave no money in the shop (have a look through the window any night and you'll see the till is empty) and you'd have a hard time fencing anything we sell! Not to mention the security cameras, they'll take a lovely photo of your face once a second for the entire time you are in our shop!

Arg, they're here!

Our long and fruitless search for manequins has come to an end. Someone very kindly brought us in these scary bastard things! They are not (as they may appear) blow up dolls, but lets just say I don't look forward to late nights alone in the shop with them! They look like baddies from Dr.Who!

Something worth shouting about!

We've just got some copies of the album we named our shop after in stock, KNOW YOUR PRODUCT by The Saints. That's worth blogging about ain't it?

http://knowyourproduct.net/punk-shop/product_info.php/products_id/792

Now where's my coffee...

We got interviewed!

Tis true! Check it out!

http://www.trakmarx.com/2006_05/24_know-your-product.htm

The curious incident of Andrew and the belts

Well Christmas is now all well and truely over and done with, our headaches have subsided and stomachs are nearly back to normal! We've just got tons of new smart stuff in stock, especially tons of belts. We've got studded belts, printed studded belts, chequer belts, piano key belts, and far too many skate belts. This is what happens when Andrew is left unattended in the shop and suppliers whisper sweet nothings in his ears, we end up with 100 belts! So if you want a skate belt we're flogging them off for just £3 each!

Chuffin' 'eck it's cold!

When we moved into the shop we didn't seem all that arsed that it didn't have any heating. But as a precaution we decided to get the worlds smallest heater. Now don't get me wrong, Rikki and I are hard as nails, but when you can see your own breath when you're using the till it's no fun! So there you go, if anyone out there is going to bring their favourite punk shop owners Christmas presents we want sock! And maybe fine single malts...

The sticker? It's on our toilet door and pretty much sums up my sense of humour!

Christmas Gig and Christmas Bargains

Wa-hoo Christmas time is nearly here and I'm getting fat! Have a butchers at this 'ere flyer for our Christmas gig, and in the spirit of Christmas giving we've decided to have a mad sale on a bunch of our Oi/ Punk stuff, check out the bargains you can get for just a fiver, and we'll even pay the postage for you! http://knowyourproduct.net/punk-shop/index.php/cPath/55 Rikki was a bit dissapointed to see a Red Flag album in there though, tee hee!

Christmas Opening

Christmas Eve CLOSED
Dec 25th-27th CLOSED
Dec 28th-30th OPEN
Dec 31st-2nd Jan CLOSED
Reopening 3rd Jan

And here's a photo of our handsome new zine rack!

Plum?

As you may know by now we had a jacket stolen from the shop. This wasn't just any jacket from a huge wholesaler though; this jacket was one of a kind, the only one in the world. When we opened the wife of the chap who made our shop sign (the fantastically talented Jonny Learjet) offered to hand make some clothing for us. So when this jacket was stolen we were totally gutted, it's not like we're a huge chain and it's not like this jacket was one of thousands churned out by a factory in Thailand. So minus one jacket there I was sat on the door at a show we put on in the Steamboat in Ipswich when a chap and his lass walked up to the door to come in. Not that unusual admittedly, I shuffled on my stool, checked the cash tin and prepared to exchange pleasantries as I relieved them both of three quid in fair exchange for being entertained by four bands. Only this bloke saw me and made a sharp right turn that would have made a rally driver proud, and then proceeded to walk past the pub. Now if you don’t know the Steamboat very well let me explain something; the pub isn’t exactly in town. In fact it’s a fair fifteen minute walk to get there from the town centre, and once you are there there’s nowt else to distract you. It’s right on the river, next to a converted maltings office block, and if you walk past the pub all you have to look forward to is a stumble in the dark for about ten minutes then nothing, wasteland, nada, zilch. So when someone walks up to the door, then apparently decides to explore the local area before settling down for some punk rock, it’s odd to say the least. I turned and frowned at Lee the Steamboat Bar manager who was helping me on the door, I then turned to frown at Graham, my co-promoter. Only Graham wasn’t showing the time honored nonchalant raised eyebrow expression that befits all Steamboat oddities, his expression was more akin to someone who has just seen a ghost, a ghost wearing stolen goods…

About twenty seconds later said punter discovered that there really is nothing past the Steamboat and tried to sneak his way back past the front door. Sneaking isn’t really an option here, there’s nothing for about thirty feet in any direction from the front door of the Steamboat, and it’s on a corner! As the walking lunk walked back past I clocked his jacket, or should I say OUR jacket and turned to Graham to mirror his stunned expression. One thing I’ve always admired about Graham (especially as we’re in a band together) is his sense of timing. This won through yet again as he asked me if I was going to do anything about bringing about closure on the current situation rather than sitting with a similar expression on my face as when I attempt mental maths. Well admittedly those weren’t his actual words, they were far more colourful and Saxon in origin. At this point I was so stunned that I didn’t really know what to do next, so I ran out of the door and camera in hand I darted up behind the line of cars that was the other side of the pavement that jacket man was now making a speedy exit on, and prepared to jump out at him, immortalising the moment in photo form forever. I crouched behind a van, double checked my camera and estimating the loping speed of our perpetrator I leapt out, with an itchy finger on the shutter trigger. But nothing, he’d gone. Fortunately he had only gone from my eye line, when I returned to the pub to announce that I had been outwitted I spotted Lee (the bar manager) chatting with a very sullen faced young chap. I was totally bewildered as to what one should do in a situation like this so I let Lee take the lead, but not before I had taken great care to get the perfect photograph of the situation.

Lee informed the very pouty chap that stood before us that the jacket he was wearing was the only one of its kind in the world, and it had in fact been stolen. The responses were mostly monosyllabic and can’t have been interesting or relevant enough for me to remember. Given a chance to think, the only reply that was spluttered forth was, “man, this is gay, I bought this jacket off a mate, gay”. He seemed to use the gay an awful lot, maybe he was pinching stuff to reassure a fragile grasp of his own sexuality? Lee offered jacket man two choices, he could return the jacket and walk home in the freezing cold, or we could call the police and have him arrested for handing stolen goods. The word gay was mumbled a few more times and the jacket was returned.

I do remember this bloke coming into the shop on the day the jacket went missing. I thought something was a bit odd at the time as he was an avid Splitknot fan and appeared to be older than 12 years old. That just doesn’t add up.

Let Just Get Excited

Huzzah, I've just got some copies of one of my favourite zines (yeah I Know I say that a lot), but you've gotta check this one out - http://knowyourproduct.net/punk-shop/product_info.php/products_id/735

Foolish Bastards

We hoped it would never happen, but some bastard has stolen something from our shop. It was a one of a kind jacket made by our mate Sue when we very first opened the shop. The shocking thing is that is was in plain view of where we sit on the counter, somebody has some balls to take this. This jacket is one of a kind and will be easy to spot, even in a crowd. This is not just another bit of stock, it is a handmade one of a kind jacket.
Please take a moment to have a look here - http://knowyourproduct.net/punk-shop/product_info.php/cPath/30_49/products_id/651