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The records shops that shaped our lives

Music man and records unlimited in Trowbridge... Picked up the only ones 12 inch and Crass, flexi disks.
Bath and Bristol had some great record shops that I would visit most weeks. The names have faded unfortunately. :confused:
 
Didn't 23rd Precinct have Classical at the back? If it was, it used to have its own entrance on Bath lane. I think it was called Symphony 1.

Spent most Saturdays in Listen, a great shop. The Virgin mega-store down Union Street pretty much put an end to Listen. The HMV just up from Virgin had a Great Classical section upstairs.

In Greenock on West Blackhall Street we had Dexters (I think), predominantly rock and chart stuff. At the other end of the street, there was a shop for your easy listening brigade. Sky and James Last posters up on the walls.

Ally
 
Woolworths in Pontypridd was where I bought my first 7" singles.

When Tesco came to Talbot Green, near where I grew up, I started buying vinyl from there. Hard to believe now that one of the only remaining LPs I have left from that era (U2's Joshua Tree) was bought from Tesco.

Then, one fateful day - January 13th 1989 to be exact, everything changed. I remember the date because all of the records I bought on that day I put a little sticker with the date in inside each LP cardboard sleeve, such was the gravity of that day that I knew it would be one I'd always remember.

Up until this day, my tastes had been pretty much pop, pop and pop, with occasional rock that got into the charts, but on the recommendations of a school friend I had recently started listening to John Peel on Radio 1 and this whole new and previously unheard of world of music had opened up to me.

That day in January was my 16th birthday and having asked for nothing other than 'money for music' from anyone buying me presents, I went with my wadge of cash to Spiller's Record in Cardiff.

About an hour later, I emerged triumphant from the shop with a full carrier bag that contained a selection of the music I had heard and liked during the past couple of weeks.
Pixies - Surfer Rosa and Come on Pilgrim
The Fall - I am Kurious Oranj
Front 242 - Front by Front, Official Version and Never Stop EP
The Smiths - The world won't listen
Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff

Excited with my new purchases, I couldn't wait to get home to listen to them and I still remember that evening and the following evenings spent playing them on my 'tower hi-fi system'. It doesn't seem like a huge purchase now, but such was the content that it changed my taste in music forever and Spillers, to this day remains my most visited music shop. Even living in Swindon as I do now, if I need a new vinyl fix, I'll save it for the weekend and hop on a train to Cardiff and as long as the shop remains open, this is the way it'll stay.
 
Gibbs in central Manchester.

I used to visit almost every Saturday looking through their racks of second hand classical LPs. I must have spent thousands there over the years.

I bought some dross, but I was always tempted by early Decca or EMI recordings. Some of those are fantastic musically and sonically.
 
Nice article in the Guardian today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/15/record-shops-shaped-lives

I used to knock round plenty of places in my youth but Oven Ready Records in Aylesbury was always good for some second hand bargains. Cant recall the name of the places in St Albans. In Watford Past Present Records the guy there was ace he had a couple of turntables set up so you could listen to what whatever you wanted before you shelled out your hard earned cash. I spent many hours and many pounds in those places.
Sorry, only just seen this thread so this must be the latest answer to a query yet.

Sooo, St Albans. The Record Room in chequer street was the oldest shop - opened in the early 50s, I believe. Then circa 1971 came Cloud 7 (with their swish purple bags) who had a unit in the then new Heritage Close precinct. Not long after that Harlequin moved into St Peter's Street, so by the 1970s there were three. Our Price bought out Harlequin in the 80s and Cloud 7 disappeared overnight. So when Our Price closed it only left the Record Room (rather fitting, I always thought). Sadly they also closed when the proprietor died in 2012. Probably spent most of my teenage years in these shops. So much better than the likes of Virgin, HMV etc that followed.
 
Discovery Records in Leamington was a great little shop in the early 80s. I bought the vast majority of mine in HMV in Coventry though as a teenager.

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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.
 
Swordfish*
Second City Sounds
The Plastic Factory
Tempest
Reddingtons
Virgin

in Birmingham, and any and every one I could find in the A38 corridor down to Hereford (nice one on Widemarsh Street IIRC), where I was supposed to be out flogging my company's pension products to independent advisers.

*The only one remaining (well, plus Rich in Ignite Records in The Oasis market, who used to run Tempest's vinyl section).
 
Armadillo Records in Bournemouth, when I lived there in the 70’s, probably the best of all.
Listen, Fopp, John Smith’s books records section in the West end of Glasgow and 23rd Precinct in Bath Street , when I returned to the West Coast.
 
I wasn't one of the cool kids unfortunately, most of mine came from HMV in town.

Whilst I used to frequent a lot of record ships in my teens and twenties, a lot of my musical discoveries came from taking a punt in the the 'cheapo rack' of the local Woolies. If I hadn't picked up a copy of 'Thieves Like Us' 12" for 29p, I doubt I would have got into New Order so early.
 
On the bus station :) I got a few there as a student - spent 10 years in Manchester all in.

Yep, that's the one. :D There was a very knowledgeable chap there who had lots of info on indie releases so spent many an hour in there chatting and buying and ordering. Glad you remember it, it was a proper old fashioned shop where the staff were enthusiasts. Vinyl Exchange on Oldham St was another of my haunts and there was another one on the plaza near Deansgate/Victoria, but don't remember the name. Good memories of better times.
 
I wasn't one of the cool kids unfortunately, most of mine came from HMV in town.

I think we all used HMV and Virgin or even Tower depending on location. If you knew what you were looking for HMV in Manchester usually had some good stuff. The independent shops were more about finding out about new music and chatting to enthusiastic staff. There was room for all of them in those days.
 
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.
 
The record shops for me:
Andys, Cambridge (Mill Rd, Market and Beat Goes On)
Parrot Records, Cambridge
Our Price, Cambridge on Bridge Street

Loved Andy's on the Market, spent all my paper round money there. Also for some reason I spent ages leafing through the second hand singles in the Beat goes on!
Then Parrot Records on King Street. Always some bargains in there.
All now sadly gone.
 


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