advertisement


The records shops that shaped our lives

M

Mongeddavid

pfm Member
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.
 
Bradleys Records at the bottom of Yorkshire Street in Rochdale is where most of my hard earned went back in the early seventies. Course Its not there anymore, demolished as part of the urban renewal
 
St.Martins (within spitting distance of where Cymbiosis now sits) and Revolver in Leicester in the late seventies. Having of course checked that Smiths/Boots/Woolies weren`t cheaper first.
 
Not what the romantics will like to hear I'm sure, but for me it has to be Virgin Megastore in central London. Used to buy pretty much all my records there back in the day. I think it's a clothes shop or something now.
 
GROOVE RECORDS in Greek street, Soho

the legendary epicentre of hip hop culture when it first came to the UK

used to go there every saturday in '81, '82 and get my Tommy Boy imports

then trot off down to Spats nightclub on Oxford st. for the lunchtime jams with a very young, spotty, pimpled-faced Tim Westwood

there was hitman records on old lexington, bluebird on the edgeware road and various others but Groove was the first and the best
 
in no order -- some still here some passed over to the other side

Small Wonder records Walthamstow
Rough Trade (Portobello Road then Covent Garden/Neily Yard -- always a second best though)
Record and Tape Exchange Notting Hill (when it was just one shop)
Rough Trade (Haight Street, San Francisco)
Anubus Warpus (High Street, Santa Cruz) - batshit weird selection as it was also a tattoo and piercing parlour
Amoeba records (Haight Street, San Francisco)
Amoeba records (Berkeley, California) -- Jazz section worth raiding every few months
Soul Jazz Records at the end of the road from me in Putney
Honest Jons in Notting Hill for Dub and Basic Channel-y like goondess
Worm Interface - Wardour Street (I used to walk in once a month with £100 and just take what was given to me, return the duffers the next month and over time they nailed my tastes so the hit rate was 100% by the time they closed)
 
Andys Records in Kings Lynn.....
There was another record shop but can't remember the name!!

The good old days.....
 
Record House - Amersham and Scorpion Records High Wycombe. Many lunctimes spent flicking through the racks.
Sad to say its all online these days
 
Mattdcb said:
Andys Records in Kings Lynn.....
There was another record shop but can't remember the name!!

The good old days.....
Click to expand...

i used to work in the andy's records shop in cambridge. also in peterborough, haverhill, bury st edmunds and bedford. happy daze :)
 
Who can be more famous than "Mr Sifter" in Oasis's Shakermaker?

Sifters is still going along the road from Burnage railway station, Madchester, and has been since 1976.
 
Selecta Disc, Nottingham , the soul cellar back in the early seventies situated on the now obliterated part of Arkwright street near Trent Bridge.

Happy Days !
 
As a kid in the 70s the place for me was Reaction Records in New Brighton. I saved up my school dinner money and got the train there every Saturday to buy a second hand LP or two. The guys who worked there were really cool and always had ideas as to what I should listen to, this was pre-punk, so Hawkwind, Gong, Groundhogs, Man etc. Other favourites over the years: Skeleton when it was still near Hamilton Sq Birkenhead, Probe when it was on Button St and Pink Moon in the Acorn Gallery (I used to work there now and again). Record shops are fine things, everyone should have one.
 
There were many and a large gap in the middle:
  • The first was WH Smith in Cowley shopping center - my pay from my Saturday job (anyone remember Shergolds hardware?) usually went straight there in the early/mid 70s
  • Taphouse in Magdalen Street Oxford...long gone I suspect
  • Blackwells Music dept of course...
  • The Oldies Museum (?) in Edinburgh - my sister -in-law worked there for many years.
  • Amoeba - both branches in Berkeley and San Francisco
  • Village Records in Mill Valley - one of Elvis Costello's favorite stops until it closed a couple of years back
  • Red Devil Records in San Rafael - great selection of new and used vinyl.
 
Driftin' Records in Cheltenham, opened up about 1977, the owner Roger then moved onto Revolver Records in Bristol in 1985 - he was real character, don't know what happened to him ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top