There was a time in the early days of the new millennium when the fastest internet connection in Newcastle was running out of a music shop in the Hunter Street mall.
Soundworld, owned by Spero Davias, was one of the first Hunter franchises to be able to link its shopfronts around the city on a network of computers and the result, Mr Davias remembers, was like something out of a science fiction film.
"People would come in and say 'have you got David Bowie's album?' and the staff could look it up on the computer and say 'we're sold out, but Maitland's got two'," he said.
