It seems rather far away in the mists of time now.
Hopping in the car to the local video store, wandering and no doubt selecting something that my parents wouldn’t approve of and would put back on the shelf, before that yellow and blue piece of plastic was brought out of mum’s purse. (Eventually superseded by DVDs and then Netflix).
But Blockbusters NQ is no longer happy with keeping videos packed away in boxes in the loft never to be seen again. Oh no, they’re now lining the walls of the newest bar to open on Oldham Street. Not so much for watching as for looking at. Picking up and holding, and somehow despite the very delicious cocktail in your hand, being 10 again and desperate to take Aladdin home for the umpteenth time.
I may not have been ten at this time.
Now I’m a proper grown up, I can pick up any of the options on the menu I choose. However in this video store, it’s not the cases on the shelves I’m fussed about, but the glasses of Legally Blonde (a delightful twist on a Cosmo that is very much more than it’s constituent parts), Black Forest Gump, As Seen on TV (wine and beer is also available.
For those of us who never made it into the ‘back room’, you can now simply sit down in it and enjoy a drink or two, rather than look shifty and ogle the contents, whilst downstairs you’ll find a second bar, more seating and a dance floor, in case the title song of Electric Dreams, or Hungry Eyes has you itching to boogie.
Small but well formed, this new venue is dripping in nostalgia, but is also just a whole lot of fun.
Now, does anyone still have a VCR?