Entertainment For Lively Minds
Inside the Oxford Street HMV Store in the Sixties
Posted by drakeygirl on 24 August 2011 - 12:38pm.
This is currently doing the rounds on Twitter.
It's a series of photos of...well...the Oxford Street HMV store in the sixties. Check out the enticing entrance to 'Cosmopolitan Corner'. I think this was the 'groovy' section.
(Lots more amazing pics here, on the voicesofeastanglia.blogspot.com).
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and again I have to ask...
that's the one that was by Bond St tube, yes?
My first time in London was 1991, and of course by then, the one across from Poland St (ish) was the bigger one and the one which I considered to be the flagship. I was wrong, right?
Don't know about the 60's
I'm a bit too young to remember Oxford Street in the 60's (although I was there) but I remember that in the early 70's (1973?) there was only one HMV in that part of Oxford Street, it was certainly near Bond Street and I'm sure it was on the south side of Oxford Street. I remember going into it with my father, it was like an Aladdin's Cave. At that time, the rock/pop music section was upstairs and very dark.
Mystery shopper
Isn't that Brian Epstein in the pic above - scoping out the opposition?
Fantastic!
The link is worth a look. I love the photos of the "latest" hi-fi equipment.
"Paging Mr. Hepworth...
...customer in aisle 23 requires assistance with a Winifred Atwell box set"
The last picture has to be 1968. We see the US import of Magical Mystery Tour LP alongside Revolver and With The Beatles. Moving along, there's a Cilla Black LP, the first Cream album Fresh Cream and Canned Heat's self-titled 1967 debut. Further along is Jose Feliciano - Feliciano!.
Sugar Sugar by The Archies appears to be misfiled in the "B" section, however
Wouldn't you just love to step into
one of those pictures!
I had a very vivid dream several years ago where I found myself in a newsagents in the 1960s. There were several Beatles booklets on display and lots of scrummy magazines. I was just deciding what I was going to buy when I realised that I only had decimal money on me. That woke me up and I was so disappointed it took me days to get over it!
File under Bubblegum
The Archies placement was obviously an early example of filing under genre.
In the far rack
beyond the "Price Code" divider, I believe I can see the Bee Gees' Idea LP and the debut Byrds album Mr. Tambourine Man.
So the filing system at HMV appears to have been quite convoluted.
If you look closely at that last pic..
you can also see Desmond Dekker's Israelites album, which a quick Google tells me came out in 1969.
Of course
and the Archies Sugar Sugar LP was 1969, too
Possible but doubtful
I worked there later on, but the, er, idiosyncratic filing system had been in place for some time. My money's firmly on The Archies being filed under "Barry, Jeff".
Or...
...a little nipper with birthday money went in, saw The Archies and thought I'll have that, walked past The Beatles and thought...ooh,that's much cooler. Drop the Archies album in the rack and head off to pay clutching his/her first Beatles album. That child is probably somewhere on The Word blogs right now!!
or as its HMV
a little Nipper walked in.......you could take your dog anywhere in those days.
I love the way
we're debating this 41 years after the event ;-)
My theory is that an errant customer has simply put the Archies LP back in the wrong place.
Imhofs
One of the alternatives to HMV in the 60s was Imhofs which was in New Oxford Street, across Tottenham Court Road. I think they used to sell musical instruments and, maybe, record players ( how dated that sounds now ) in quite a modernist building.
Anyone remember Imhof's?
I do remember Imhofs
http://recordshoplifestyle.blogspot.com/2010/10/imhofs-110-new-oxford-st...
The man in the photos down the sides
of that blog looks a bit like Mr Derek from Basil Brush, doesn't he!
Look at that extensive Italian music section...
Nowadays you'd find an Eros Ramazzotti album and Sabrina's Greatest Hits.
Sabrina's greatest hits
My grandad
used to run the big HMV store in the City in the 1930s. Back then, it mainly sold radios and gramophones. Then WW2 came along and the shop shut so he became a policeman. He soon left the force claiming it was completely corrupt and the officers were more bent than the criminals they were pursuing.
Sorry, I digress...
Poptastic
Shouldn't Chamber Music be in it's own room (Ho Ho) and what is the point of selling a Women's mag in such a male orientated haven, even if it is only a corner (I'm here all week, be good to mum blah blah etc etc)