Born in the 80s and growing up in
the 90s I like so many of us was
accustomed to the coolness and
expansiveness of a video rental store
floor, you remember?
The radar noise at the front door
as you opened it, the racks of tapes
with questionably suitable content,
and glossy magazine like quality.
The smell of sticker pack sweets,
hairspray and bubblegum on
Friday night. The nostalgia goes on.
I don’t need to tell you how romantic
all that stuff was for a 10 year old kid.
I’m quite sure you understand?
Growing up in a big UK city we took our
film watching fairy seriously.
It became vitally important to watch
as many films as physically possible
and get up to date. Thankfully I’d made
friends with a tape head at 12yrs old
who luckily had an older brother
who had recorded and catalogued
most of the greatest films of
the 80s and (now) 90s previously.
With 6 hours after school each night,
we transformed the winter months
into marathon like cinematic efforts,
turning watching films into an Artform.
Extremely happy catching up quick on a
previously prohibited catalogue of
visual wonders, forcing the
concentration to stretch hour by hour
over the greats, from Casino to Heat,
Leon to Thelma & Louise, Total Recall,
The Fugitive, squeezing out every last
delightful droplet of effort,
my teenage eyeballs could muster.
Suffice to say it was a good winter,
and we must of cleared 500 or so of
the most Golden Classics ever to be
caught on film and hit our screens.
Typically, silence was preferred
while we enjoyed these potent movies,
letting us not only pay closer
attention, but also to absorb much
more of the essence of each picture.
Silent Movie watching, A personal
technique of preferred practice to
this day. Yet basic, considerable
to the very highest level.
This avid film watching went on for
some years, then spilled into real
life as I had my own adventures.
Of course all good things must come
to an end and at 35 years young it
was suddenly time to be a Dad.
Holy Moly, whatever shall I do?
I'll admit it, I was ill prepared,
no money, no house, no car,
very little bread on the table.
The only thing I had in abundance
was freedom. With a baby on the way
of course that was all about to change.
How was this going to look?
I had to make some money and value
something not really deemed important
to that point, security and day
to day consistency, oh boy.
I looked into selling everything, from
jewellery to personal alarm systems,
from huge industrial printers to
online courses, whatever I looked at
though it just seems I was drawn to
collectables, old things collectable
vintage things, always seemed to have
this allure over me.
Anyway after scrolling for what seemed
to be a decade on Ebay auctions one
night close to Christmas time, I just
gave up. My concentration just gave way
and at 2:30 or so decided to go to bed.
My thumb though kept scrolling,
and a moment later an image of a
big brown cardboard box popped up.
It was just a box on a table with
some videos sticking out of the top.
My interest for films fired up and
led me to a selfish Christmas purchase.
A load of VHS tapes, laden with
martial arts flicks on the top.
I bid and thought at some point
I’d have time to watch a movie again
and they would be waiting when I did.
Little did I know that this large and
mysterious box of 80 or so films would
be the very beginning of what is now
cherished and loved, known by so many
as Golden Class Movies :)
After trying to buy and sell various
items online, from vintage pens to
bakelite phones. I’d decided to settle
on the reality of building a
film library and floating it online,
wrapping/posting twice per week.
This enabled me to spend so much
quality time with my little one,
something that so many new Dads
miss out on due to working away.
I’m very grateful too for this...
Also we have an incredible resource
of 1000’s of Vintage Educational
Children’s programmes, so at home
VHS greatly aid with learning and play.
There are some truly brilliant videos
made for Children in the past decades.
I realised it wasn’t just me who
could see the value in VHS, and
looking into it, realised there were
a whole host of reasons why people
still want and need these
little analogue treasures.
So now what you see here is a sort of
online museum for these great movies &
programmes, for buyers to be able to
easily find and select what they want
from the library with ease. It’s more
than just a shop, the website serves to
inspire avid film watchers and give
ideas for what to watch next.
Like the video shops of old, you can
get a feel for the films by reading the
original synopsis from the paper inlay
cover of the movie and appreciate the
intended artwork of the time for the
rental store or home video stand
for which it was created.
It's not only movies we have either,
it's just about every T.V.Programme,
Children’s Programme, Documentary,
Sport or Music Show you can think of.
You will find those in our
T.V. Page or our Kids Page.
I’ve really been pulling out the stops
on this one, to include every possible
VHS Tape one might want in this
Golden Class Movies collection.
Really do hope you enjoy browsing and
any questions don’t hesitate to reach
out through Email, Facebook or Live Chat (what’s app) on the home page.
