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Notes From Ralph[]
"It was a very bizarre place. 444 Grove Street was, um... a very unique place, let's say, when you walk in for the first time, because on the front door there was all this metalwork that Graeme Whifler had done, the halls were all black sheeting, and there was a middle ground, and there was a spiral staircase that went to the second floor, and there were, like some graphic things, an office and things like that. And then there was the "secret Residents studio door", you know... that was in the middle of the room. So... anyway, it was pretty bizarre, but, you know... a fun place."
"Frank Johnson was there, who had an album named after him... he was... actually an Apple I computer, and then an Apple II computer. And then... anyway, we always had the latest computer equipment there. So basically, like, a computer room, uh... Graeme had a room for, like, films where he would... you know, cut "Hello Skinny" and things like that, he had some equipment in his room back there... actually it was in the front of the building. I'm trying to think... we had a house next door, too, at 460 Grove... or 460A Grove, I think... one of the One Minute Movies was filmed behind it, where they had this pig roasting on the thing... in the backyard of that house we did that video. And then a lot of the videos were shot, we had like a little warehouse, where they sort of kept records, and then... there was an upper floor that held like, all the costumes and stuff from Vileness Fats, and all sorts of old crap, you know, test pressings and things like that were up there... you know, there was a whole section of Grove Street that was like a warehouse, so, which a lot of the One Minute Movies... were filmed in the front and back of it. Any space that could be utilized was utilized, all the time, so... but it was basically filled with records... because it was during the heyday of the "new wave", and things were going very well for Ralph at the time."
"Upstairs there were like... about two thousand albums, and it was all... you know, people would say "really, it would be that?"... there would be Blue Öyster Cult or something... but you know, there was a bunch of Sun Ra too, so... there was always, you know... Morricone, a lot of Morricone records..."
"It wasn't like five times a day people knocking at the door, or anything, you know... it was an occasional visitor, and that kind of thing... Actually, one kid, his grandmother said 'I'll give you anything in the world you want, what do you want to do?' He wanted to go to Ralph Records, and... go to Grove Street, and... I think he was 12 or 13, and his grandmother took him... and they came to San Francisco, and... everyone was very nice to him. I think his name was Steven or something, but... they invited him in, and they sat there for a few hours... sat in the middle of some mayhem, you know... Make a Wish kind of thing for boys... I think the kid's grandmother might have had some money though."
- Tom Timony, "Ep 137: Ralph Records with Tom Timony", The Vinyl Guide, September 10th 2018
ImaginaryJacques (Admin) 💀 (talk) 16:28, 23 June 2023 (UTC)