Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PLANET OF THE VIDEOTAPES...
Lockdown boom in nostalgia gives Britain’s last video rental shop a boost
here if you want them otherwise they will go to landfill. So I hired a van and went down. I have a lot of collectors who come in and some of the tapes I rescued were on their wish list.”
Andy also has 30 original arcade games which customers can play on, as well as his own cinema and a stock of vintage TVS and video players he rents out to customers who want the whole 80s movie experience.
“I’ve had visitors from as far way as Singapore and Texas,” he says. “I had one guy who came from Canada. He joined as a member, just so he could have a video shop membership card again. He said it made him feel all warm and fuzzy just holding the old VHS boxes and using the player.
“We also rent vintage tellies and VHS players. A teenage couple come in and rent a different film a week. They want the vintage experience.
‘By watching things on tape it is like you are in a little nostalgic bubble.
“In the 80s you would have to go to the video shop, pick a film and watch it together as a family. If you loved the film it was a rush to watch it as many times as possible before you had to take it back after the weekend. If a new film came out you might have to go on a waiting list. I remember trying to get a copy of Terminator 2 for about four weeks. There was a real feeling of hunting things down.”
And the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has had people craving the security a bit of nostalgia brings.
People have rented VHS machines to re-watch old family movies and wedding videos That is not all.
More over-70s want his films. So now he offers free delivery to them across the region in lockdown.
He adds: “They like the simplicity of a VHS machine. We drop them off and they get their grandkids or nephews and nieces to set up the equipment and away they go.
“In times of distress, it’s good to take solace in what seems like the simpler days of the past. A lot of people tell me how powerful it is, just holding the physical films.
“I’ve had calls from people saying my mum and dad have got this old tape and we don’t know what is on it, so they are hiring the VHS players to watch home movies for the first time.
“If we can bring happy memories back for people feeling isolated, it is the least we can do.”