**Booty Review
July 8th, 2009
**For my international readers a Boot Sale / Car Boot / Booter or Booty is a mainly British form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. The term refers to the selling of items from a car’s boot (U.K.) (or trunk in the U.S.).
Upon approach to Studley Car Boot sale one is greeted with the familiar silhouette of the female booter. She casually sports a pair of white polyester Capri pants and a brace of navy blue Reebok classics. In her arms she carries a Tupperware container of mobile phone components. Her companion is a young man wearing a T-shirt inscribed ‘drink triple, see double, act single’. Surrounding them are their 5 children. An older gentleman fires an air rifle into the sky. “You better watch what you’re doing with that, there’s f%cking kids here,” the young man suggests.
The patrons of Studley Car Boot arrive earnestly at 6 o’clock in the morning. Their intentions are as all of us, to find a bargain, in amongst the cut glass animals and counterfeit Armani T shirts.
This particular visit to Studley Car Boot yielded countless treasures; a scalectrix (sans cars), a bright orange wind up 60s alarm clock and a rather elderly framed map of Africa. It was especially fruitful for Soul LPs and 45s. Perhaps most importantly was Ike and Tina Turner’s The Hunter LP, which is a mainly bluesy RnB album with the singular surprise addition of the super heavy weight funk-soul track Bold Soul Sister.
Another elusive plunder was the 45rpm micro vinyl disk, by the recording artist Lionel Ritchie, a song named “All night Long”. I had been after this for a number of months and was momentarily pleased to have obtained it for my collection of shit vinyl singles, that I always imagine would be a fun addition at the time but then regret later.
For the hungry shoppers there is a delightful array of animal-combination burgers, doughnuts and nutritious hot dogs, all reasonably priced and served in a complimentary plastic coated serviette. A polystyrene cup overflowing with sturdy tea can also be procured for a measly 80 pence – Good for keeping up the strength when hunting for bargain vinyl.
My compardre is a keen cyclist and avid collector of sneakers, 80s Tomy toys, records and other gorgeous but meaningless tat. On this occasion he was trying to unearth photographic cameras and slide projectors, for the sole purpose of fettling with and then leaving to rest in the cupboard under the stairs. Unfortunately on this occasion he was unlucky but we did manage to pick up 12 toilet rolls for £1 and a suspicious copy of Top Gun on VHS.
Studley Car Boot is on all throughout the summer on Sundays from 6 am, you can find out more here.
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