But it's funny how things can sound so different in shops then you get them home and it's all a bit of a let down. I don't know why that is.

In my time I've bought Portishead's first album, Happiness In Magazines by Graham Coxon and something by The Wallflowers.

I suppose it's like hearing something on the radio and waiting to find out what it is so you can go and buy it. But more often than not there are no announcements in shops so if you don't ask you'll probably never know.

Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night, the last time I was in Rough Trade during a visit to London.

Senor Coconut.
Literally, 'What's this? I'll have it,'

Brilliant.

The single, "I Tried". It was great, I still listen to it. (One of Glasgow's lost heroes of jock & roll)

*EDIT* - as noted below, yes, I can picture exactly where this was : Primitive Records, Candleriggs Market, Glasgow.

OST for The Last Emperor in, ooh, 1984? Had me on the verge of blubbing in HMV Union St, Glasgow. Still gets me everytime I hear it.

More recently the very wonderful Anniemal by Annie.

The first Marillion LP, playing in HMV when first released, because it sounded like you-know-who. The G word.

This too, a CD by Deanta, bought beacause it is rather lovely. Thanks for spurring me to dig out.

Only the once, I think, when I caught Dub Side Of The Moon being played over the PA in Jumbo Records in Leeds.

There was another time when I heard a Velvet Crush album playing in a small indie store when I popped in to purchase something else, and I asked what was playing. I didn't have enough cash on me to purchase both, but I did grab the Velvet Crush album a week or two later.

by Spiritualised was playing in a toy shop. I asked the slacker stude (twas his CD) behind the counter what it was and that was that. Not actually that great (see FC comment above).

Sound of Silver sounded fantastic in HMV, and equally so (though much quieter)at home.

It may or may not be noteworthy that several of us at least can remember the shop where we heard the music, the moment being fixed in the memory perhaps. Or other people might just be better at remembering where they've bought each of their albums than I am.

Heard "Twenty Years" in the shop and it stuck in my head. It was pretty obvious that it was them, so once I'd worked out that it was the new track on the best-of album, I got it. Best thing on it IMHO.

Last summer I was in Sounds of the Universe on Broadwick Street, Soho and they were playing a reggae album that sounded pretty good.
I walked briskly up to the counter:

Me: "What is that album that you're playing?"
Bloke behind counter: "It's 'Tribute to the Emperor' by Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus"
Me: "Oh. It sounds great. I'd like to buy it please."
Bloke behind counter: "Tough luck, mate. It's been deleted for years. This is my personal copy".

A disappointed duco01 exits the shop.

...as my experience was a bit of a reversal. As I was browsing in a local record store, a great big beast of a rock number was raging through the PA. I was curious and asked the dude behind the counter what it was. He said, "Wolfmother." I went, "Oh..." and sheepishly walked out the store.

I heard that song playing in Bruce's Record shop in Glasgow many, many moons ago. Bought the 'Armed Forces' album immediately.

when I heard Ali and Toumani playing in HMV and bought it immediately. I suppose it wasn't quite what you're talking about as I said to the guy behind the counter "Is this Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté?" and he simply said "Yes".

First heard in Penny Lane Records

Some "Best of" cd was playing as I entered the basement of a shop on Wardour Street many years ago. The bloke behind the counter was slightly miffed, as it was the last copy he had, but he still let me have it.

Also discovered The Sonics by hearing them played on a market stall in Camden.

(from the album "Thunder Lightning Strike") in the Covent Garden Fopp - notable mostly because 2 other people did exactly the same thing immediately after me, it's just one of those gotta-have-it tracks.

Actually Fopp have form in this - I also bought a Trojan DJ Spooky reggae comp and the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve album after hearing them in-store, too, but I always find it's music in restaurants that usually lets me down when I buy it and get it home...

And I can't YouTube at work, but I'm sure someone must have uploaded that great excerpt from "High Fidelity" where John Cusack tells his staff to "watch while I sell five copies of 'The 3 EPs' by The Beta Band" and proceeding to play the lovely "Dry The Rain"...

On the Beach wasn't available on CD at the time. Selectadisc were selling a ripped copy which also featured Neil's '71 BBC concert - the one where he previewed the Harvest album. I walked into the shop to hear the chorus of Old Man ringing through the shop's stereo system and had to have it. Saw someone pick up the last copy from the rack and followed him around the store for the next twenty minutes in the forlorn hope he'd change his mind and put it down. Eventually I gave up and asked behind the counter and they had plenty.

Even though On the Beach is now easily available in the shops and you can call up a Youtube vid of that concert in a nanosecond, it's still my most treasured CD.

2000, in London for a very long and alcoholic lunch. Got a cab to HMV Oxford St. and headed downstairs to the Folk/Country/World Music bit. The track that was playing as I came down the escalator seemed so familiar, but wasn't. The voice was wonderful, plaintive yet upbeat. I fell in love with the whole thing, asked the guy what it was and bought 'Home' by Josh Rouse. He's in my Top 5 favourite artists now yet I wonder if I'd have heard much of him if I hadn't gone downstairs instead of my normal route on the ground floor. By the way, his new album is a wonderful return to form following a couple of disappointments. Anyway, this is the track that was playing.
Good day to you.

I was visiting a button shop (don't ask) in Covent Garden, when this came on the stereo. I Shazzamed the track and ordered a compilation CD when I got home.

During my 'jazz Funk and Soul' years.

Would hang out at Soul Sense in Luton or other specilaist shops for what seemed like the whole of saturday afternoon and spend nearly all my hard earned on obsure and import 12", a lot of which the guy would play in the shop as he knew exactly what I liked and that it would result in me adding it to the pile!

the first time I went into Sound Knowledge in Marlborough. Nada Surf second album (not that I realised it at the time). No regrets, great pop album

at one point it would happen on a more-than-weekly basis... Now it's not just record shops it happens in, thanks to the magic of Shazam on the mobile phone. I bought that Scarlett Johannson Tom Waits covers album on that basis, and a Lal & Mike Waterson album too!

Frequently, esp for classical stuff e.g. this guy

and his family

When I was a typical adolescent desperate to impress and hooked on what we then called either underground or progressive rock, I remember going to Musicland in Lewisham to buy Pink Floyd's "Meddle". While I was there mooching through the likes of Blodwyn Pig and Dr Strangely Strange, I inadvertently enjoyed Rod Stewart's "Never a Dull Moment". And it joined Meddle in my carrier bag. And, over the years, I've certainly played it more often than "Meddle".

Carbon Glacier by Laura Veirs heard in Piccadilly Records, Manchester. Still sounds good.
The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski - modern experimental classical (?) heard in a now defunct obscure records shop which shared space with the excellent Cafe And and Oklahoma gift shop in Manchester (Back Turner Street, best latte in Manchester, local celeb's wife works there). Reminds me of Angelo Badalamenti a little - nice on a Sunday morning when I'm making breakfast.
and
A double cd of trance music called Whirlywaves heard with two colleagues blasting out of a sound system in Cyberdog, Camden Market - all three of us immediately bought a copy. Not a genre I know much about, but it's good fun stuff for the most part.

First exposure to Half Man Half Biscuit was in a record shop. It was so amusing, I wanted to grin broadly at people but I didn't know anyone. Nothing worse than a complete stranger grinning broadly at you. I didn't get where I am today by grinning broadly at people.

Slow Turning after hearig it played in HMV! Can't imagine that happening nowadays.

that you don't even know if you like it but you have to have it. I bought this on a single hearing and I've never regretted it:

from Our Price in St. Albans. They put it on while I was browsing and I was blown away - I thought someone had just put on my perfect record. I asked what it was and then hung around while they played side 2. I'd already bought a copy by then but I couldn't wait to get home to hear it and this was the obvious solution! This clip takes off 40 seconds in...

In the early 80s in Steve's Sounds behind Leicester Square tube I bought Laurie Anderson's Mister Heartbreak. It was a a strange record. Quite a few people liked it at first but then found its charms wore off quite quickly.
Some 12 years or so later I was in Terrapin in Crouch End and found John Hiatt's Walk On positively irresistible. It still gets played from time to time.

by JJ Cale, playing in an efnic shop in Oxford in 1977, shot straight round to Our Price to buy it. Interestingly Mark Ellen bought it last week, according to the podcast. Not my copy tho, nosir, mine is on the stereo right now!

About once a year for the last decade or more I have visited Hay on Wye and spent a happy hour browsing in Tom's Record Shop. Almost every time he has played something I've never heard before which I've been compelled to buy...from Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill to Donny Hathaway to jazz. The fact this only happens 90% of the time means I still claim some discretion...

A particularly expensive example being when I heard Tear-stained Letter by Richard Thompson being played in The Other Record Shop in Aberdeen. I was spellbound listening to this song that, for the second half, sounds like it could go 'da da daaaah' at any moment and finish - yet, somehow keeps on building momentum. I walked out of the shop with the 'Hand of Kindness' LP and many albums and gigs later RT is just about the only artist whose new material I am certain to buy.

Anyways, here's the track in question:

Sour Times - Portishead (Cloakes, Croydon)

Takk - Sigur Rus (Rise, Cheltenham)

Ziggy Stardust - Bowie - (Rise, Cheltenham)

when I first heard "Miss America" by Mary Margaret O'Hara. I had managed to delouse myself of any music press influence for a while at this time, and my love of all things acidhouseular had even stopped me listening to Peely. I had no idea, consequently, that I was falling into line with the cognoscenti by loving it from the off.

I had enough money from my allowance that day for Guinness and oysters at The Bailey, but I happily went lunchless just so that I could get my mits on MMO'H.

Was I right? I was RIGHT-ITY right, and it still has pride of place (alongside "Endtroducing...", "Grace", "Dubnobasswithmyheadman", "Freewheelin'", "The Beatles" and "Heaven Or Las Vegas") on my cherished "once a year only" list.

Remember hearing opening few bars of Love Vigilantes by New Order in Sheffield HMV. Hairs stood up on the back of my neck as it sounded so exciting. Asked guy at counter and bought album Low Life instantly-a beautiful sleeve in its own right too!

Michael Franti. In a clothes shop in Covent Garden. Went to HMV subsequently. Only available on expensive import. Don't really care for anything else on the album- and haven't played the track itself in a while. But it's good though

The first Carmel album. An indoor market stall in Blackpool was playing it and i thought go on i'll have that.
And this from Virgin in Birmingham in about 1979. Two years before Southern Comfort

Endtroducing by DJ Shadow in the record shop next to The Hotspur(?) on the Haymarket in Newcastle - Had moved there for work reasons around '94. Can't remember the name of the shop but remember the 'Who and what is that' vibe I felt at the time and that it was my first weekend up there. Sounds a bit dated now but loved it at the time.

.... but not straight away.

A few years ago I was perusing the racks in the Virgin store (remember them, kids?) and a song started on the in-store 'radio'. It was around the time when Franz and Kaisers and others were popularising the angular post-punk-ish guitar style and as the track went on I was trying to decide if it was modern or older. I knew I liked it though and it went on... and on.... I knew I couldn't leave the store until I found out who and what it was.

Eventually the announcer came on and I found I had been listening to 'Marquee Moon' by Television. A quick check of the rack and I realised I couldn't afford the full-price CD but it was filed for reference and purchased on special offer not very long after.

That any of us "Hung around in a record shop"?

Just sort of browsing..

I haven't done it for several years. More is the shame. Times have changed.

from a record shop on Dean Street after hearing this track:

Rather incongruously I also bought "Close To The Edge - The Story Of Yes" by Chris Welch at the same time...

... sometime in 1991. They were playing Rickie Lee Jones's new LP 'Pop Pop.' Loved the first one, never heard the second one ('Pirates'). Liked 'Girl At Her Volcano.' Wasn't aware at the time there was new a one out, but I liked it and I bought it.

I remember doing it was many many years ago when I heard Jethro Tulls 'Skating away' from the War Child album. More recently I recall doing it with Vampire Weekends first in Virgin Megastore in London (or was it Zavvi by then).
Interestingly like the lead poster I also got Abdullah Ibrahims Echoes from Africa after hearing it being played over the PA before a Jools Holland gig. I walked half the length of the NIA in Birmingham to ask the mixing guy what he was playing. Been a fan ever since. The Jools gig however was complete pants.

Bought the album on the strength of hearing it in Fopp (Sheffield). I actually went to the counter and asked who it was, the only time I can recall doing this. Such behaviour can be seen as weak or betraying a lack of knowledge!

The last one I remember was in Coda Records in Edinburgh; Maggie Adamson - a then fourteen or fifteen year old fiddler from the Shetlands. As soon as I heard it, I was hooked.
In the good old days of Megastores, I used to kill time when I was working in the States by working my my through the dozens of listening posts, rarely leaving without having bought something. It would take me up to three hours to listen to everything that appealed and never once was I asked to purchase something or push off. I always thought that the UK stores were missing out by not having more than one or two places where punters could listen to stuff.
All ancient history now.

1. (Amazingly same as you, Another Iain) - Abdullah Ibrahim (recording as Dollar Brand)- African Marketplace. Had never heard him either.
2. Branford Marsalis - Romances For Saxophone. His 1st classical album & in my top ten (any genre).
3. Most recent - Keb Darge + Paul Weller present Lost & Found Real R'N'B & Soul in Fopp, Union St, Glasgow last month. Brilliant.

both in Borders (remember them?)
Bob Dylan - Modern Times - after hearing Nettie Moore - not much of a fan of his better known stuff, but like that album and love that track.
The other was the self titled album by Nouvelle Vague - heard it, joined a queue of three or four people at the info desk all wanting to know who it was, only to find out they had no copies left. Bought it as soon as I could, after.
Conversely, I was also put off buying Around the Sun by REM - I had all the previous stuff but on hearing it in Borders decided I was done.

In 1993 I was browsing in a record shop just off the Champs Elysees and I heard Soundgarden's Fell on Black Days from the Superunknown album. Bought the CD straight away, flew back to the Middle East where I was living at the time and played the album for months. And thanks to this thread I've hunted out it on again to give it a spin. Chris Cornell, great vocalist.

Virgin Megastore, Oxford Road about three years ago. Three tracks and, though I thought I knew, I did have to humiliate myself by asking the assistant if this was definitely what was playing. Cracking album.

thumping bass was fantastic

dont play em much now

age has wearied him

.....by The Black Keys. I was standing in HMV Hatfield and they were playing the whole album in the shop. It just grabbed me so I went up and asked and bought it. Still think its a great album now.

There was a strange high pitched doo-wop version of the Elvis song Girls, Girls, Girls on a TV commercial and I loved it but thought it was just a 30 second jingle and not a proper track until I was in a record shop and it came over the loudspeaker in its full three minute glory. I asked the bloke behind the counter what it was and he said, "I don't know it's the radio" so we stood staring at the counter listening for it to be back-announced and they went straight to the news so I never found out. That was at least twenty years ago and I haven't heard it since and still don't know who sung it.

and Kevin Tihistas red terror both great albums

I suppose I'm a bit of a sucker for a decent record played loud in a shop. It always sounds great for some reason.

I once spoiled everyone's day in a wee record shop in Edinburgh (the name escapes me, as there was always a few in Edinburgh): the guy behind the counter was playing S.O.U.L's "Burning Spear" at a deafening volume. The bass sounded terrific and everyone in the shop was just grooving along on what was a sunny Edinburgh morning.

Having never heard this tune before, I was transfixed. I went up to the counter and said words to the effect of "I don't know what this is but it's brilliant: I want to buy it right now".

What I didn't realise was that this was the only copy the guy had. So when he took it off the turntable for me the silence in the room was deafening, and I felt the resentment of everyone in the shop for spoiling their day.

It's still a great record though.

was really taken (esp by the words) with this

when out on a shopping trip, just heard on a clothes shop sound system. Had to Google it-still wonder if she has ever told the very personal-sounding story somewhere ?

Indeed, is there more good Dubstar I should hear [I bought the Stars EP]?

but I also remember first hearing the lush strains of Diana Krall's "When I look in your eyes" in a tea shop in the lake district not long after it came out, and having realised that it wasn't Joni Mitchell-who it vaguely sounded like-we eventually asked the owner.

He showed us the CD and expressed the view, based on the sleeve picturs that she seemed "fond of 'erself" ... but this seemed entirely forgivable to me ;-)

Duke Pearson's Cristo Redentor was playing in (I think) the HMV near Oxford Circus, maybe 15 years ago. I marched straight to the desk, asked what it was, was told, and immediately stumped up for the CD, a superb compilation called The Blue Testament - Blue Note Plays The Good Book. I still think this is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.

Not because it was something I hadn't heard but I'd gone in there specifically for that album.

Took the sleeve to the counter and blokey behind said "Sorry, we haven't got it" - I replied "Erm, I'm pretty sure you're playing it now" (Straight To Hell was playing) - much tutting ensued and matey wandered back, removed the stylus, found the inner sleeve and bagged it up. Upon getting the receipt for my £6.99 (yep £6.99 kids, 25 years ago!!! - as a reference point, last week I bought the Bowie at the Beeb album off Amazon's MP3 store for £3.96 - 37 quality tracks), I made a big show of taking the record out and inspecting it for scratches. I was 15.

Stereolab's Dots And Loops, after hearing it one lunchtime in the now long-departed Our Price on Streatham High Road. I'd remained immune to their charms up until that point, despite personally knowing two people who'd featured in an early line-up of the band, but I've been a fan ever since.

Bought Viva! Roxy Music (live album) when it first came out, listening to it in the shop. However, listening to U2's Boy in the shop put me off buying it forever. Great singles, shit albums (except for Achtung Baby perhaps).