Joy
Sitting on a blue couch in Coventry, thinking about a tattoo parlour in Exeter. Funny how the more time I spend on music, the more it makes me want to do other things. Except that I suppose it isn’t. Music is meant to have that effect on people. So it makes sense that it has that effect on me, my own captive audience. The last time we visited said tattoo parlour was in December 2001, around 23½ years ago. It wasn’t a tattoo parlour then - it was a retro games shop. By the ages of 16 and 14, my brother and I had spent £345.00 at this shop, with only 11 Saturn games and a memory cartridge to show for it. Now, of course, that collection is worth considerably more. More importantly, though, my brother and I got hundreds of hours of enjoyment from those games. It would be a little sad to think that today, people would seemingly rather spend their money on beautifying themselves, rather than indulge in the creative act of retro gaming. But thinking about it, that isn’t true - it’s just that...