Posted on 10/07/2006 1:08:21 AM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican
WILMINGTON, Del. — After a lengthy auction stretching over two days, a federal bankruptcy judge on Friday approved the sale of California-based Tower Records to Great American Group, which plans to liquidate the music retailer.
After almost 30 hours of what attorneys described as "robust" and "vigorous" bidding, Great American won with an offer of $134.3 million, beating Trans World Entertainment, which had hoped to continue operating at least some Tower stores.
Peter Gurfein, an attorney representing Tower Records, said the company will be sold for an aggregate of $150 million, including the sale of various leases and properties.
Gurfein said Great American plans to begin the liquidation process and going out of business sales today, which eventually will result in the elimination of the jobs of some 3,000 Tower employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
It's by The Sweet. Album "Desolation Boulevard."
I think it's one of the few I saw on 8 track more than album form.
Trivia: There is also a Tower Video store on Sunset where Axl Rose once worked as a night manager in the early 80's. He challenged Vince Neil to a fight in the parking lot in 1990.
I used to buy my laser disks at that store.
The main store on Sunset used to be the place for artists to premier a new release. It's definitely part of music history.
The Gin Blossoms were one of my favorite groups while I was in college, and I really thought they were going to have long careers after releasing a great first album. The follow-up had a considerable drop in quality, and then they faded away. I wonder what the members of the group are doing now.
Sorry Tower records...I can pick up all the tunes I want on the internet...Bye Bye...
The original store on Sunset in LA devolved to that level years ago. I moved to Dallas over a decade ago, and when Tower came here, I decided to visit it to see what it was like.
It was exactly like the Sunset store; the same surly "I'm cooler than you and I'm only doing this until my band makes it big and I don't know anything about any other kinds of music than what I like" clerks, same unwashed liberal "managers", same insanely high prices.
During the 80s, Tower was the place to go to get what you heard on KROW. It was cool. The staff was friendly and knew their stuff. Sometime around 1991, that all went to hell.
Erm, not KROW - should be KROQ. Which has since been ruined by Viacom.
Um, I'm buying entire albums from eBay - as in on CD (to play) and occasionally on vinyl (to display).
Um, one of the founding members (chief songwriter) had an alcohol problem. He was fired (because of it) from the band after 'New Miserable Experience' was recorded and committed suicide shortly thereafter. Turns out that the remaining members started having a lot of disagreements after that and called it quits in 97. That pretty much ended the band; though everyone in GB moved on to other bands.
20 years - Jeez, maybe I shouldn't be surprised when I see that gray in the mirror. Yikes...
My son right now is the age I was when I used to spend so much time listening to "The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour" album.
I actually turned my kids on to the Beatles to introduce them to rock music. Now they believe that is the standard. They won't listen to my other stuff like "Van Halen" or "Led Zeppelin".
Gives me a smile to think that they love the same music I used to love so much.
And it's still miles above what the labels want to shove down one's throat.
Interesting.
Vinyl to "display", bet there's an interesting tale behind that.
...amazing what people are up to. ;^)
There sure is that effect. As an old teenage radio hobbyist, I was hit with nostalgia and for the first time in decades, was looking up vacuum tubes.
I could not believe what I was reading, regarding audiophile reviews of the "tones" of different makes of audio amp tubes.
A perfect amplifier does nothing to the original waveform. It sounded like reviews of Yuppie bottled water.
Likewise, the physics of a needle-and-transducer on a mechanical record groove is one explanation of what happened to vinyl records.
Established technologies are not discarded for no reason.
Oh...and the PRICE!
You can play vinyl X times before you do damage to that $1000 needle...
Sad to see them go. I worked in a record store in downtown Buffalo to earn my way through school. Met a lot of famous people who were passing time in the store. Also learned that I knew nothing about music compared to some of our customers. Amazing command of facts, they had.
Mall stores are an expensive venue for any retailer. It's no surprise Tower had difficulty staying alive.
What would album art be without Roger Dean?
Silly me, of course they would.
Been seeing more & more cafe's, bars & coffee houses displaying the old albums *for* their art value.
My all-time favorite stuff was done by an underground outfit from the late 60s who called themselves, Globe Propaganda.
A great example of GP's work is the album cover for "It's A Beautiful Day".
Looking at the cover art on old Quicksilver Messenger Service & Marshall Tucker Band albums one sees a similar style leading me to suspect GP did those, also.
Beautiful stuff & "Classic" art in every sense of the word.
...& quite all-American. ;^)
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