old, extinct Liverpool Hifi Emporiums
- Thread starter walriley
- Start date
walriley
Drum nut. Music nut. pix nut
Think there was a second hand camera shop on Brunswick st, another somewhere around Stanley st too and a third by the demolished flyover at the top of Dale st.
There was a camera place in the same building that had Circle Records on Victoria St, same block as the Lisbon pub.
walriley
Drum nut. Music nut. pix nut
Yeah, that’s the one!
Tony L
Administrator
Circle Records was great! Back in the ‘80s I regularly used to trade in a nice stack of classical I’d hoovered out of 50p bins on car boots, market stalls etc and swap them for jazz or minimalism. I got some great records there; Blue Notes, Glass, Reich etc.
Mike Hughes
pfm Member
Excellent thread. Browsed Beaver for vinyl on many trips to Liverpool but my spiritual home for music was Penny Lane in Chester. Tried to buy a Pioneer A400 from there but they had none in stock. Literally ended up queuing down the street at the old Pioneer shop on Northgate Street in Chester. The only experience I will have in my lifetime of queuing for hifi.
Bought my first speakers from Better HiFi. A pair of Epos ES11s I had until last year. Brilliantly trolled into Liverpool thinking I could carry them home on the Bidston line. Probably the heaviest box I’ve ever tried to move. Got back to my parents too exhausted to do anything other than look at them. Female friend kindly collected the stands the following week. My recall was that BHF was not in a posh building but was in a very attractive old building. Odd steps which the carpet struggled with etc.
Bought my first speakers from Better HiFi. A pair of Epos ES11s I had until last year. Brilliantly trolled into Liverpool thinking I could carry them home on the Bidston line. Probably the heaviest box I’ve ever tried to move. Got back to my parents too exhausted to do anything other than look at them. Female friend kindly collected the stands the following week. My recall was that BHF was not in a posh building but was in a very attractive old building. Odd steps which the carpet struggled with etc.
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walriley
Drum nut. Music nut. pix nut
It was a good shop, Better Hifi. I acquired a Cambridge Audio P70 from there and it was a bloody great amp for the money. Also purchased my first CD player from there, too. A Marantz CD50SE.
pocketkitchen
Registered User
I don’t recall Penny Lane ever selling Hifi. A great shop though, sadly missed. I have very fond memories of them relieving me of lots of cash back in the 80s though. Not as much as Grey and Pink have, mind. Btw, I think Paul McMichael from Better Hifi is still in the industry somewhere. Pretty certain O saw him at last year’s Cranage. Not sure of his role though.
Mike Hughes
pfm Member
Badly phrased by me. Have now inserted “for music” into my post.
Penny Lane took much of my disposable income from when they opened to when they closed. Grey and Pink was great for original Stax but didn’t have the atmosphere for me. Rarely packed. Populated by middle age white blokes (me nowadays of course) and more dedicated to the format than the music.
I famously vomited in Penny Lane one Saturday morning. Weirdly one of them now lives in a Scottish castle.
My overall recall of Better was that absolutely no-one offered to give me a hand with that Epos box.
bigjonny
pfm Member
I’d forgotten about that place , I bought a twin-cassette boom box from there.
Tony L
Administrator
Grey & Pink were way out in Chester weren’t they, or am I thinking of something else? I certainly remember a shop of that name out there. I landed my Ohr copy of Paradieswarts Düül there for £10, which even back then was a total bargain. Got Reich’s Drumming 3xLP on DGG there for peanuts too.
I hardly ever went to the Penny Lane on Penny Lane, but there was one in town for a while. I can’t remember where exactly, but it certainly existed. I remember getting my copy of Shag Times by the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu there, plus some Japanese import jazz when it closed down and had a big sale. Most of my Liverpool record buying was Probe when it was on Button St, Pink Moon (where I worked a day a week at one point), plus Duke Box out on Breck Road, which was amazing for good second hand stuff *way* under value. It still amazes me what I found there!
Mike Hughes
pfm Member
Grey and Pink is still there. A massive seven minute walk from the railway station but, yes, a little out from the city centre. The other Penny Lane was on something like Lord Nelson. Not far from Lime Street either way. I was never a fan. The compactness of the Chester one was great. A really focused stock and wonderfully engaged staff. Not like the miserable gits you get now in the likes of Piccadilly Records. I still have a VHS one of them loaned me of the very first TV appearances of that first wave of Americana/Paisley Underground etc.
Dirkster
pfm Member
Penny Lane Records was at the bottom of Bold Street (LHS when looking up the hill), just after the old post office/Lyceum building.
In their last few years of business (1992?/1993?) they seemed to sell a lot of clearance/NOS stuff at cracking prices which made a huge impact on my collection. I can still remember the albums I turned down and really should have bought.
Circle Records on Victoria Street was a different kettle of fish altogether. Not knowing any better, I popped in once to ask if they had anything by Kraftwerk on vinyl. By the look on the bloke's face, you would think that I has pissed in his coffee!
I left, disappointed.
In their last few years of business (1992?/1993?) they seemed to sell a lot of clearance/NOS stuff at cracking prices which made a huge impact on my collection. I can still remember the albums I turned down and really should have bought.
Circle Records on Victoria Street was a different kettle of fish altogether. Not knowing any better, I popped in once to ask if they had anything by Kraftwerk on vinyl. By the look on the bloke's face, you would think that I has pissed in his coffee!
I left, disappointed.
Mike Hughes
pfm Member
Yes Bold Street feels right now I look at a map.
Tony L
Administrator
Yes, that’s it. I think it later became an Our Price or something similar for a short while after Penny Lane went under.
I loved it as it was the only place that would give a decent trade-in price for classical (which I could find real cheap) and it always had a nice selection of jazz and minimalist stuff. I got some great stuff there, e.g. my RVG-stamped Adderley Somethin’ Else (Liberty Blue Note pressing), Glass Einstein On The Beach, Reich Octet etc. I think I got my first copy of Black Saint And The Sinner Lady there too (since replaced with a US original). It was a great shop at exactly the time I was getting into that kind of leftfield stuff which just didn’t exist in other indie shops.
bigjonny
pfm Member
There was a branch of Penny Lane in Birkenhead for a bit , 1994 in fact, I looked at the release date of the Jah Wobble album I bought there. The bloke behind the counter was the same miserable sod that worked in the shop in Penny lane when I was at school and I left in 1978. He nearly cracked a smile when I told him he used to serve me there.