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Power cuts (Yanks) records, Manchester

Who remembers the awful tall American cardboard CD packaging (with jewel case inside)?

Had loads of those from Powercuts in 1990ish. Must have been soon before it closed I'd think can you confirm that needy1961?

I always chucked the cardboard away. I've often wondered if the CDs would have been worth more to a collector these days with the long cardboard sleeve. I've literally never seen one before or since the days of shopping in Powercuts/Yanks.
 
They are referred to as 'long boxes' and some titles can be worth a lot in good condition. The reason for the packaging design was so CDs could (with partial success) be stored in shop racking designed for vinyl.
 
They are referred to as 'long boxes' and some titles can be worth a lot in good condition. The reason for the packaging design was so CDs could (with partial success) be stored in shop racking designed for vinyl.

I had one for 'Bummed' by the Happy Mondays that showed the extended cover picture. It's only when you see the whole thing that you realise it's a painting of Shaun Ryder. Many people probably don't realise that's who it is to this day. Also if I remember correctly the version of the CD had extra tracks compared to the UK release.

Sadly the long box got binned and the CD was stolen in an inevitable student house break-in in Fallowfield in 1992.
 
Was trawling the internet for info on Yanks and stumbled upon this thread. V interesting. I have some more to add.

I lived in Hulme 81 - 83 and used to go to Yanks all the time. It was like a wonderland of cheap vinyl.... as already noted on this thread.

The cheapest section was 29p each - or 5 for 99p. Quite often that section was bereft of good stuff though. You had to step up to the 49p or 79p sections to get the better end.

I got a whole collection of Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins and James Brown vinyl for 49p or 79p each - which I still possess and play to this day.

The other thing I remember buying was an RCA David Bowie promo album called Lifetimes. Numbered/ limited edition. Yanks had multiple copies in the racks - but they were £4.99 each - an absolute fortune in those days - well, for Yanks anyway.

I didn't buy one the first time I saw them - I had to go home and think about the deal. I was on the dole at the time and money was tight.

A bit later that day I went back to the shop - the Lifetimes section was depleted but they had a few left. I took one up to the counter and asked if the price was correct - while I was there I asked for the promo stuff - glossy brochure, window sticker, mobile etc .... and the guy behind the counter gave them for free. He was a be-quiffed fellow who, many years later, I took to be Morrissey - but I think Moz worked there a few years before that - and only briefly anyway.

A week later someone was advertising a copy of 'Lifetimes' in the back pages of the NME for £200. I wished I'd bought the lot then. Eventually I sold it at a record fair, in the 90s I think, for £50.

I remember the Arndale Centre branch of Yanks too. It didn't have as good a selection as the Chepstow Street one so I rarely bought anything there.

I got a ton of good stuff in Yanks, as well as a load of junk. Stuff like Annette Peacock's I'm the One album with the green/red metallic sleeve. Hard to find now and a great record.

cheers!
 
I used to work there, was shop manager from 1988-90. It was actually called Yanks because it was originally owned by an American (Ed I think his name was). He was married to a Scottish woman, Anne. Anne got the business from their divorce. I think Ed? went back the States after the divorce.

The main business was the wholesale side, really the shop was just an added bonus for them. After the divorce, or maybe before/during?, Anne had got together with the general manager Dave.

They renamed the shop Power Cuts after doing a poll of customers. I started working there after the 1988 sale. I sorta managed to change their narrow idea of what sold as I was into much more contemporary stuff.

Everything was so cheap because of the US deletions (cut-outs). They used to go over to the US twice a year and buy container loads of vinyl for next to nothing. Albums sold for 49p were bought for 1p etc. Because these were deletions then it was quite common to find rare stuff. Cos the profit margins were so high on the US stuff, it allowed the UK releases to be sold at cost price basically, undercutting everyone else.

Also the UK label reps would sell them lots of promo stuff for cash.

Their downfall was their inability to move with the times and the volatility of the relationship between Anne and Dave. I had to really push them to move into CD's, which they were very reluctant to do.

After I left I know they did another pole of customers regarding whether to stay with vinyl. The overwhelming response was to stick with vinyl but increasingly people were buying CD's. They made the mistake of listening to what people said rather than paying attention to what people were actually spending their money on.

I think they eventually ceased trading mid-90's sometime and Anne went back to Scotland.
 
Holy thread revival Batman !
I had a record store in Sheffield from 89 to 96.
I used to go over to Powercuts once a month on average to see Dave or Anne.
They used to sell me wholesale boxes of stuff which I could resell at my place for 25 to 35% mark up.
I particularly liked it when the new shipments would come in, hundreds of unopened boxes and you could plow through looking for rarities.
I'd spend hours there and come home with a car full, and it would take hours to sort them out and price up etc.
In 1996, I found business hard. I approached Dave to see if he wanted to take over my place as a second store for him. I would manage it.
He declined but offered me much more stock at sale or return, which was very kind of him, but I couldn't afford the outlay.
When I folded in Summer 1996, Dave took all my stock off me for cash.
I always wondered what happened to him.
He was a really decent guy.
I thoroughly enjoyed my trips to Power Cuts and was sad to see it had disappeared when I visited Manchester again in 2000 ?
Hope you're still alive and keeping well Dave......
And to Anne to of course
 
Crikey this is an old thread, but another Yanks/Power Cuts customer here. Still have a good few records with the deletion cut outs from the US. Loved spending an afternoon in there leafing through the stock and coming away with a handful of complete bargains at the end of it.
 
I know I've written on this thread before, but this did bring back great memories of taking the train from Bolton to Manchester for a day's trawl through the record shops - always starting at Yanks, and ending with Robinsons. In the many years of carrying out these treks, I was either an impoverished student or underpaid lackey. I always seemed to come away with loads of records though, most of which I still have.

Of course, with far better back-knowledge now of rarer US jazz releases, I hate to think of bargains I will have missed...
 
I’ve been in GM for three decades. Hated Powercuts (just to add a different perspective :)). I was more of a Goldmine and Decoy boy. However, I have in the back of my mind that Anne was the same person who used to work at Penny Lane Records in Chester. Maybe someone can confirm/deny? I saw her many years later at a Townes Van Zandt gig so under populated that it turned out most of the audience knew each other.

Thank you also for the mention of Lost In Music by Giles Smith. What a lovely little book that was.
 
Grief - Robinsons Records; that sends me back

IIRC a yellow place with a cafe at the front of it somewhere near Lasky's

that place would be an absolute gold mine now (if we could travel back and find the same stock at the same prices)

Dave
 
Aw! Good old Yanks, must have spent so much time in there during my adolescence and well beyond - and still have plenty of old albums in my collection - most of the albums by rock band Black n Blue I picked up there and each still has the cellophane and sticker on. I once bought Kiss Alive II there once with the corner cut off, turns out it was one of the "holy grails" for Kiss collectors as it had the incorrect track list on the back, I knew the album well and already had it (see below) and thought it was just a different version from the UK one so grabbed it again. But no just the same album - turns out these misprints are worth a bit now - I foolishly sold mine pre internet days long before realising it's worth, but there was at least another 3 or 4 of the misprinted copies there.

Theo - looks like we did a similar trawl through the various record shops - always started at Yanks too and ended up at Robinsons. Which again has a little in the Kiss Alive II history for me as I went to the till clutching a copy (just the regular UK version :) ) and it turned out to be £5.50 but I only had £5 but some lovely super kind woman behind me paid the extra 50p.
 
Robinsons! Combined with a hardware store, and a ginger(?) cat who slept on the record browsers. :D
We used to buy at least one LP a week at Yanks or Robinsons, more if we could afford it. As we lived in Withington, Sifters was another haunt, but for second hand records. I discovered The Bevis Frond there in the late '80s. Just went to see them in Bristol last weekend.
 


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