Experiences of unlicenced Soho...

[spunkie]

Most of what is portrayed above is acccurate, but if you knew where to go the experiences werent all bad. I remember after a few rip off hits I actually discovered an outlet that sold me the video as displayed on the box.!! And once i had been identifed as a regular customer I found that pretty much without exception i would be sold the video that i taken to the counter. Of course you had only a limited choice, but for three or fours years of my adolescent life this place was an Aladins cave.
For the most part you knew what the deal was and just hoped that even if you didnt receive the right video it would still be something that you could fumble too!
Only once was I shocked by visit to a seedy Soho video store, when I was perusing some teen themed porn box covers and the propietor approached me and said "we got some younger than that if you're interested". needless to say i declined, made my excuses and left!
It was what it was. It was illegal and unregulated so you had to take your chances, but in many ways that was part of the thrill. Its so hard to think that now hard core porn is on tap for free online whereas in those days you thought you had pulled of the crime of the century by puchasing a 60 minute VHS tape!!

[eroticartist]

Max Tranmere,
In the Sixties we had it all running smoothly and honestly, the customer would see the box cover, buy his 8mm film,book or photos, then come back for more. No-one was rippped off because it was bad for business and customers would go to one of the other illegal twenty four shops in Soho.

Also there was no censorship, except for child porn, and this regime was enforced by the Porn Squad who made sure that everything was genuine and so they got paid!

Mike Freeman.

[max_tranmere]

Lots of interesting comments there. Most people had the same experiences of these lying, cheating oddballs who saw it as oridinary to con people and that you yourself should see it as ordinary. The one thing I mentioned that has stuck in my mind the most is how taking back the wrong film to the shop was apparently a cheeky thing to do and then 'being given the real one' (which you discovered was also the wrong film too when you got it home) should be regarded by you as a normal 'exchange' because you are swapping the goods for something else. Even though it is their fault you have come back. No apology, just a serious stare, and a "I'll tell you what, I'm not going to charge you ?10.00 to exchange it, other shops around here may have insisted on the ?10.00 to exchange it!!". He would hold this stare. If you went to HMV to buy an Arctic Monkeys CD and you got it home and realised they had intentionally given you the wrong CD, a CD by Max Bygraves instead, do you think the HMV staff would tell you upon your return that you are lucky they are not going to hit you for another tenner to actually get the Artic Monkeys CD you should have got in the first place? I think not. This was routine for the weirdo's in these dark piss-stinking caverns, with dirty walls, and smelly floors.

These social outcasts in Soho really did think that was reasonable. Imagine one of them being in the pub, his mate buys a round, then it's time for the next round. This guy would say: "you bought the first one so now it is your round again". The other guy would say "I bought one, now it's your turn". The first guy: "What? No your bought the first round so now it's your turn to buy the second, then we are square - can't you see that?" (None of these people would have friends anyway as they are from such a subhuman culture and so warped in the head - I doubt any publican would let one in as everyone would stare at them!). This inverted, warped logic was how these pale faced, blood-shot eyed, flared trousered social lepers ACTUALLY thought! And they were baffled when you didn't think so too. The lingering stare would confirm that. Something I need to make clear - the weird way these people looked, with their 'Kevin Keegan circa 1977' perms, their stone-washed flared demins and smelly t-shirts with holes in, werent looking like that as it was some kind of retro look. They were looking like that as they were so out of touch. This was the late-1990s an early-2000s. People stopped looking like that 15-20 years earlier. These social phariah's looked so weird, were so fucked up, and operated so much in the margins of human society, that it has left a lasting imprint on my mind!

[number 6]

Have a lye down on the sofa Max take it easy son.

[max_tranmere]

It doesn't bother me, it has just stuck in my mind. I am not making any class judgments here either. The people these oddbals worked for were very rich, the oddballs themselves were probably paid ?60.00 a day cash to 'work' there (obviously tax free), and with the fact they would have likely got Benefits too and the rent paid on their flat, their weekly income, if you add it all together, probably exceeded many people on this forum - including possibly you and I. If 'class' is defined by how much someone has coming in each week, then I could hardly be making class judgements here.

[max_tranmere]

I look down on them because they regard lying, deceiving, tricking, and taking advantage of people as being totally ok and have no conscience about doing it. People like that deserve to be condemned.