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The records shops that shaped our lives

tiggers said:
Piccadilly Records in Manchester, was near Market St and then moved to ... Piccadilly.
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It started at Piccadilly Arcade 78, hence the name, then moved to Brown St off Market St (where Fopp is now) in 1990, when ownership changed and Phillipa, Daryl and co took over and then, after the 96 bomb, Oldham St.
https://ilovemanchester.com/piccadi...nchester-institution-adapted-over-the-decades
https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/artefact/1584/PICCADILLY_RECORDS_PRESS_1990
Bought a lot of records from Piccadilly.
Always very welcoming and not obviously judgemental...unlike Eastern Bloc who were Record Shop Boys from central casting.
 
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deebster said:
Swordfish*
Second City Sounds
The Plastic Factory
Tempest
Reddingtons
Virgin

in Birmingham...
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Don’t forget the Diskery (still there.) I also remember Threshold and several others whose names I can’t - in Digbeth, a little kiosk in the Bull Ring, and the one run by Mr Grouchy in Burlington Arcade (I took him as a role model for my general countenance and attitude when I was a teenager and have never looked back.)
 
Selectadisc - Nottingham

like most decent record shops in their heyday, more than just a shop, somewhere to hangout, meet folk etc

A massive part of my Saturday daytime and of course Mondays for them all important Ltd editions on the day of release

Happy times
 
For me it was 1980s Brighton. I can recall Vinyl Demand. It was tiny, and run by huge TRex fans, and was the shop I convinced myself Nick Hornby had based Hi-Fidelity on!

I also recall Brighton Bookshop (now trading as Wax Factor), Brighton Rock, all in the North Laines. In town we had HMV (where I queued up once to meet Steve Strange and Boy George and Kid Jensen, laugh), Subway and the dingiest Virgin Records ever on West St, where I bought Never Understand and A Pair of Brown Eyes on the same day in Jan 1985.

Heading west to Hove (actually) we had Fine Records (still going??). My fave however, more due to its mythical status than anything else, was a shop up in Horley (think Gatwick) which sold records but went by the wonderful name of 'the washing machine shop'.

And of course the mandatory first steps in Woolies, which for me was Boundary Rd Portslade, do recall getting Open Your Heart and Party Fears Two in there, happy times indeed.

How many years ago?????
 
Weekender said:
It started at Piccadilly Arcade 78, hence the name, then moved to Brown St off Market St (where Fopp is now) in 1990, when ownership changed and Phillipa, Daryl and co took over and then, after the 96 bomb, Oldham St.
https://ilovemanchester.com/piccadi...nchester-institution-adapted-over-the-decades
https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/artefact/1584/PICCADILLY_RECORDS_PRESS_1990
Bought a lot of records from Piccadilly.
Always very welcoming and not obviously judgemental...unlike Eastern Bloc who were Record Shop Boys from central casting.
Click to expand...

Ah, so it was the other way round, moved to Brown St in 1990, not from.... I'm getting old. You're so right about Eastern Bloc too :D
 
Weekender said:
Sounds like Decoy - Jazz and Blues specialists. On the pedestrian ramp.
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Yep, that's the one, well remembered. They got a lot of US soul and funk fringe stuff in at one point (1980s I think but who knows given my memory right now). Still have some 12" singles I bought from them that you couldn't get in the UK. Bought quite a bit of blues off them too over the years although less fond of it a a genre these days.
 
tobermory said:
And of course the mandatory first steps in Woolies, which for me was Boundary Rd Portslade, do recall getting Open Your Heart and Party Fears Two in there, happy times indeed.

How many years ago?????
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1981... was just listening to The League Unlimited Orchestra last night.
 
Late seventies: Andy's Records - Mill road, Cambridge. Used to browse the second hand racks during breaks from Cambridge college of arts and technology (CCAT). Then off to the Salisbury Arms (CAMRA pub), lovely part of Cambridge at the time.

1960's, first record "Wild thing" 7", only about ten years old and never listened to it as I didn't get a record player for another six years by which time I had lost the single :(:
David's bookshop - Letchworth Garden City - second hand browsing again. David's is still in existence (lots of second hand last time I went back to visit), just not the same shop, and seems more expensive.
 
fegs said:
Selectadisc - Nottingham

like most decent record shops in their heyday, more than just a shop, somewhere to hangout, meet folk etc

A massive part of my Saturday daytime and of course Mondays for them all important Ltd editions on the day of release

Happy times
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I spent 5 years in Nottingham and used to enjoy rooting around in Rob's Records, a bit chaotic but plenty of good stuff and if you asked him Rob always knew what he had and where it was.

In Stroud in the 80's and early 90's it was always Trading Post.

Both shops still going, amazingly, though Trading Post has moved location.
 
MichaelC said:
For me it was very much Beanos in Croydon. For me, a young teenager in the days of Surrey Street, it was a veritable treasure trove.
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I used to love Beanos even though it required a long bus trip to far-flung Croydon.

I spent a lot of time when I should have been in school hanging around Chick-A-Boom Records in Sutton smoking Benson & Hedges and chatting to the Alan Moore lookalike that ran it.

Serious shopping was a trip to Soho and Camden every couple of months when I'd saved up enough from stacking shelves in the evening to blow £50 in one outing :)
 
calorgas said:
I spent 5 years in Nottingham and used to enjoy rooting around in Rob's Records, a bit chaotic but plenty of good stuff and if you asked him Rob always knew what he had and where it was.
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I remember it well, located in Hurts Yard, still open to this day!

Rob Smith was/is also a well respected Northern Soul DJ
 
Marchbanks said:
Don’t forget the Diskery (still there.) I also remember Threshold and several others whose names I can’t - in Digbeth, a little kiosk in the Bull Ring, and the one run by Mr Grouchy in Burlington Arcade (I took him as a role model for my general countenance and attitude when I was a teenager and have never looked back.)
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Indeed, the Diskery, though I never bought a lot from there as it didn't have much I was ever interested in.

There was Summit records in the Bull Ring, next door to the Marital Aids shop (which for years I read as Martial Aids), but that was more reggae-ish type stuff so again not my bag.

Mr Grumpy in his little glass box in the arcade. Yeah, but the name escapes me too. Also Highway 61 in Fletcher's Walk under Paradise Circus, which I bought a fair bit from.

And more recently I picked up a lot of cheap stuff in the bargain bin at Record & Tape Exchange, a couple of doors down from Richer Sounds. Everything else seemed vastly overpriced though. Also now gone west.

Ah, also Andy's records in Erdington was pretty good for a while, and another in Erdington that was an electrical shop that had a few racks of stuff that looked like it had been there donkey's years.
 
deebster said:
Indeed, the Diskery, though I never bought a lot from there as it didn't have much I was ever interested in.

There was Summit records in the Bull Ring, next door to the Marital Aids shop (which for years I read as Martial Aids), but that was more reggae-ish type stuff so again not my bag.

Mr Grumpy in his little glass box in the arcade. Yeah, but the name escapes me too. Also Highway 61 in Fletcher's Walk under Paradise Circus, which I bought a fair bit from.

And more recently I picked up a lot of cheap stuff in the bargain bin at Record & Tape Exchange, a couple of doors down from Richer Sounds. Everything else seemed vastly overpriced though. Also now gone west.

Ah, also Andy's records in Erdington was pretty good for a while, and another in Erdington that was an electrical shop that had a few racks of stuff that looked like it had been there donkey's years.
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The record shop in Piccadilly Arcade was Cyclops, which I used to go to quite a bit. My favourite was Inferno in Dale End during the punk / post-punk days. Andy who worked there went on to open Andy's shop in Erdington!

I was in Birmingham from 1973 to 1983 and others I remember were the original Virgin up past the Law Courts, which had old aircraft seats with headphones for listening, Don Christie's reggae shop in the old Rag Market in Digbeth, The Record Centre in Loveday Street and Reddingtons of course.
 
alanbeeb said:
The Other Record Shop and Phoenix Records in Edinburgh High Street. Where I got my Heavy Metal when I was a teen. Then I absorbed the classical department in Tower Records, Glasgow Argyle Street when I worked there for nearly a year before deciding I needed to get a real job.
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My Other Record shop was in Union Street Aberdeen- it was a great space with friendly staff who were into music big time. They were undone by HMV opening a huge store immediately opposite and undercutting their pricing....
 
yentone said:
The record shop in Piccadilly Arcade was Cyclops, which I used to go to quite a bit. My favourite was Inferno in Dale End during the punk / post-punk days. Andy who worked there went on to open Andy's shop in Erdington!.
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Yes, Cyclops it was. Two things I remember vividly about that shop was that the records in the middle of what was a really tiny space had board over them. if anyone tried to lift it off he would say, Sorry that section's closed off. No logic to it al all. The other was if you asked him to play a record he would say, yes if you buy it first. Those were the days....
 
Robin's Records, Norwich
Backs Records, Norwich
All the various second-hand record shops in Norwich including Sneakers
Andy's Records Norwich

This would have been in the mid-1970s to early 1980s.
 
Bruce's in Rose Street Edinburgh in the 1970's. I seem to remember you had to get there early on Saturdays as they closed at lunchtime!
 
yentone said:
The record shop in Piccadilly Arcade was Cyclops, which I used to go to quite a bit. My favourite was Inferno in Dale End during the punk / post-punk days. Andy who worked there went on to open Andy's shop in Erdington!

I was in Birmingham from 1973 to 1983 and others I remember were the original Virgin up past the Law Courts, which had old aircraft seats with headphones for listening, Don Christie's reggae shop in the old Rag Market in Digbeth, The Record Centre in Loveday Street and Reddingtons of course.
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Cyclops. Thassit. I once stood outside there fawning over something in the window and said to a mate 'that's the one I'd get', then this big ugly green thing came and hit me. :D

I remember Virgin on Bull St, all dark walls I seem to remember, but as a pre-teen downstairs it felt like I was in some special musical place reserved only for the initiated.

And was the place on Corporation Street opposite Harry Parkes Virgin? I distinctly remember going in there as a youngster desperate to buy something but not knowing what, so looked at the wall behind the counter and paid what at the time was an expensive 95p for this.

R-773048-1332339477.jpeg.jpg
 
Rival Records, Plymouth. Downstairs was somewhere that young uns, pop fans, generally the weak feared to tread!
 
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