In the 1970s in Newport Court, off London's Charing Cross Road, were 4 second hand record emporiums virtually all next to each other. Shabby, chaotic and grasping they occupied shack like dwellings and dim lit basements, dusty musky and smelling faintly of the thin polythene covers each album was masked by. If, upon purchase, you wanted to keep this murky sheath it would be an extra 5p.

You could browse for hours through LP's singles and EP's and rarely did their stock ask more than £1.50 - for records that today go for thousands. I bought Bowie's Man Who Sold The World dress cover for £1.30 and a James Taylor double bootleg for an outrageous £2. Still have them both. They always had jazz burbling away but sold almost only rock. Man, Ten Years After, Stray, Gentle Giant, stuff on Vertigo, Pye, Transatlantic and Deram. I would give anything to be able to mooch around the old circuit one more time.

They always sort of looked like this

When I lived in London in 1973-74 you could go to street markets and get current albums that had been presumably disposed of by lucky journalists for several p less than than even Virgin who were the cheapest.

I remember buying Ralph McTell's "Easy" in this fashion.

Maybe some music journalists from the time can shed further light?

Eighteen records all due for release by CBS next week sir? I'll offer you £15.

For any hack working the music press 1970-90 THIS was their private bank of choice. Fantastically surly staff.

Cumbernauld only had a blooming Our Price when I were a lad.

*fires up Hovis advert music*

As I shuffled disconsolately around one central aisle packed solely with U2 cds and blooming heavy metal I knew the day would come when I would have access to London and its Berwick Street of delights I had heard tell of. Specialist shops! With obscure funk records! And soul music! And reggae by people other than Bob Marley! I would follow those self same pathways that led to the musical discoveries made by Joe Strummer, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and every other artist I loved so well...

Except I didn't manage to move here till they had all closed. Apart from Sister Ray.

Snooty record shop assistants? Musical education on the racks? Rampaging snobbery? I dreamt of such wonders and now they are gone...

When I first started working in Camden a mere eight years ago, there were tons of specialist record shops. Now there are about two. I never go in them except occasionally to the Record and Tape Exchange but it's not what it was.

I'm too young to remember a proliferation of record shops in the purest sense - where I lived they were always part of gift shops though there was a small shop in the nearby town where I went to sixth form that we'd go to on Tuesday lunchtimes to hear the Top 40 being revealed. I don't remember buying much there though. Usually I went to Boots, Woolies, Carrefour or WHSmith. Virgin Records & Tapes was a bit scary.

When I was a student in Southampton there was a great one called Weasels on St Mary's Street, that I used browse in for hours. I think it's gone now. Otherwise it was just chainstores. On that score, I always liked the big Tower at Piccadilly Circus.

We had Casa Disco and Scene and Heard. There was also Woolies, WH Smith and if I remember rightly Boots used to sell records as well.

on greek street. Yellow bags of quality.

"There was a little old lady with grey hair who looked a bit like Ann Widdecombe. She would sit in the corner, and when you asked her for records she would suggest other records you might like. She knew everything, which tells you why independent record shops are so special; they aren't staffed by part-time students who stand around looking slightly bored. They are run by people who care. If you asked her for the new Scott La Rock, she would know it had just come in, and shuffle off into the back to get it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/16/independent-music-stores-mus...

that was Auntie Jean

-----------------------------------
Tips tifter for cheapo cheapo

I went here once. It smelt of wood, patchouli oil and coffee. It was the kind of place where Dan Hicks would shop. Closed in 2007.

2 surly and superior blokes behind the counter. When I walked up with my newly released copy of Darkness On The Edge of Town one of them cleared his throat, held the album above his head and announced to the Saturday morning shopfull, "See, someone in this shit town has some musical taste. If any of the rest of you come up here with anything less than this you can fuck off." Happy days. Oddly enough, I remember leaving the shop feeling 10 feet tall.

Late 1970's and the charismatic but slightly intimidating Terri Hooley behind the counter.

At the time the shop was situated above a vegetarian/health food shop on Great Victoria Street and I was a frequent visitor after school.

The first place I knowingly had a conversation with a Catholic of similar age. We could tell each other apart by school uniform. Prejudices were left at the door along with our school bags.

An oasis of sanity amongst the madness that was Northern Ireland at the time.

...every Saturday from 1972-1976 in there it would have to be the late lamented 'Ear-'Ere Records (see what they did there?)in Lancaster. It started off as a stall in the market before moving to what seemed like the height of luxury - an actual shop! - round the corner in Penny Street.

Clogging up the racks next to me at various times - John Waite, Johnny Green of Clash road manager fame, record company top bloke Malcolm Hill & Richard Allinson. In the actual racks: the MC5, Bowie, Dolls, Springsteen bootlegs, Nils Lofgren, Sparks, Emmylou. Oh how we laughed when we first heard "Bohemian Rhapsody"...

The staff were surprisingly tolerant of a music-obsessed teenager & even now, nearly 40 years later, it still brings a smile to my face to think of it. Take a bow Barry Lucas, Nigel Waller, Roger Moorhouse, Malcolm Redpath & Eric who's surname I have shamefully forgotten!

The "oldest record shop in the world"

http://spillersrecords.co.uk/

Still around, but they recently moved a few feet away from the original location after a long fight against closure.

Also the superb (but now pricey) Kellys Records on the balcony in Cardiff Market. Bought many great condition records there for a pound of two.

http://www.kellysrecords.com/

How many time have I walked into the above pictured Cheapos and with a squared jaw thought, "Right, I'll not accept a penny under thirty quid for what I have under my arm..."

Then Grim Phil would take the discs from me with a sigh, start flicking through the cache and seperating them into three different piles that I could never fathom would, after a pause, mutter...

"Eight quid on those"

To which I would say,

"Righto!"

long before it was ever a Megastore. Bottom of Corporation street in Birmingham - it had aircraft seats with headphones and there was lots of cigarette smoke mixed with incense.Great staff too.

There's a shop as you head out of East Finchley in London called Alan's Record Shop. I have no idea how he remains profitable, if indeed he even is. It is a roll of the dice as to wheter he's open or not. When he does open it's sometime around midday. The place is in a little bit of a state, but it has personality.

This blog post about a typical interaction with the store is quite amusing...
http://32rpm.blogspot.com/2009/06/last-christmas-i-took-time-out-to-visi...

Oh look, here are his opening hours...
http://www.alansrecords.com/page3.html

Skeleton Records, Birkenhead. 1972-1976 vintage.

No shop front, just a door that opened off the main street in between two other dingy shops.

A long, dark, narrow corridor that opened up into a single room, divided by a counter which was to the right as you entered. The counter housed a few small boxes of singles - generally imports with the centre hole punched out.

Ahead were the racks containing second hand albums (covers only). Loads of samplers (some in circular covers) and, for some reason, numerous copies of 'Dark Side of the Moon' (by Medicine Head, not Pink Floyd).

To the left were the racks of 'Imports' - in fact, bootlegs all on the 'TMQ' label.

To effect your purchase, you would take your selected cover to the counter and pass it to the 'head' on the other side. He would place his rollup in the overflowing ashtray, then find the vinyl that corresponded to your cover from one of the racks behind the counter. Price handwritten on the inner sleeve having been matched with that on the album cover, he would then ceremoniously unveil the disc itself and pass it to you for the ritual checking for scratches. If you were happy that the disc was scratch-free (or at least not so scratched that it wasn't even worth £1.10) then a brief nod and the exchange of coin would conclude the transaction.

Bags were, I believe, brown paper rather than plastic although my memory is a bit hazy on the subject.

The shop did have an upstairs - a staircase led up from the right of the store to an upstairs room. Rumour has it that clothes (perhaps cheesecloth) and 'smoking paraphernalia' were sold upstairs, along with certain 'essential oils' which certainly included patchouli. But none of us were ever brave enough to venture up the stairs to confirm this.

Skeleton moved to bigger, airier premises in the late 1970s, but left the magic behind.

And yet - on occasion, I will idly flick through my vinyl collection and select a disc - perhaps Rory's 'Irish Tour', or Traffic's 'Mr Fantasy' - and gently ease open the sleeve.

And the faint smell of patchouli will once again drift past my nostrils...

Utterly baffling. all white with a set of decks and a small rack of 12" singles - maybe 100 in all - in white card sleeves labelled '185BPM/Hardcore/Teancebump#FFi5#/12:57 They had more record bags on sale than they did records.

Situated on the north Watergate Street row, this was the first rock record shop to open in Chester. Previously you could go to Rushworth & Draper, Hilda Catherall or the music shop in Brown's of Chester, but these were all shops that saw themselves as classical music shops, that had to cater for the "popular" music consumed by young people which was profitable, but ever so vulgar.
Then Impact opened in 1970 / 71 and suddenly we found a shop you could spend hours in on a Saturday listening to stuff Peel played and even more that he didn't play. The two guys behind the counter, who's names I can't recall, were very tolerant of teens hanging round, flicking through the racks, only making occasional purchases. I doubt that I could afford more than an album a month in those days.
Was it charismatic? Probably not especially so. However the original two did create a certain atmosphere that changed in some imperceptible way when they moved on (to become photograhphers I think). Their replacements did OK, but it just wasn't the same. But for me and I'm sure many others it was a celestial cavern in an otherwise dull provincial town.

... the one you grew up with, hence The Other Record Shop, Union Street, Aberdeen, in the 1970s, now long gone. Eclectic would be the word; i met both The Valves and Elkie Brooks there ... I googled, not much online about it, but it does seem to have been part of a chain?

Also, from just over two years ago...
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/oh-record-shops-we-used-know

The best branch of Cambridge's mini-chain: Andy's Records. I spent many happy hours browsing the secondhand delights downstairs. LPs were cheap enough to buy based only on the cover. I still love albums selected in this way, e.g Rickie Lee Jones (is that a cigarillo?), Average White Band (saucy logo), etc.

Was my indie Mecca. Whatever I heard on Peelie I'd find it there:

See You in Havana by The Hit Parade? Check.
Born Sandy Devotional by The Triffids? Check.
Good Technology by The Red Guitars? Check.

before I became an indie kid I also loved scouring the mammoth racks of 7"s in HMV in Leeds and was always overjoyed to find Dirk era Adam and the Ants singles and the like.

Them were the days.

In the booklet that comes with Eltom John's Capt. Fantastic LP is a great picture of Musicland - the heads record shop that he used to work in on Berwick Street W1. He used to be given time off to record Woolworth cover versions. Classic early 70s store - none of your chart stuff there - but Bless The Weather always in stock. Alternatively, good luck with getting your Amon Duul II albums here.

In the West End - before they wound up in Foyles. Especially the 'hen's teeth' section. Good to see I'm not the only one who kept all his bags.

Growing up in 60's Liverpool there were branches of NEMS everywhere, and the best of these was the famous one on Whitechapel. I used to love going in the soundproof booths to listen to the latest singles....no obligation to buy. As the seventies dawned and our 6th form tastes veered towards 'progressive' music and albums rather than singles, two exciting and very different new shops arrived. The Virgin store on Bold Street with it's bootlegs, 'interesting' smells in the upstairs listening area and general hippy vibe. Then there was Probe Records in Clarence Street, near the bombed church, up the hill from the city centre. This was run by a guy called Geoff Davies who knew his stuff. The first time I ventured in there he was playing a live Beatles bootleg very loud. Marvellous. That area of Liverpool was fantastic, with the nearby University, Philharmonic Pub, and of course the Everyman Theatre with the likes of Pete Postlethwaite, Trevor Eve, Bernard Hill, Anthony Sher, Julie Walters all appearing.

I was trying to find an image of Downtown records in Romford Market (to no avail). However I came accross this rather splendid picture of a record store in Romford in the 60's. Anyone recognise it? Its possibly Wells Music Store.

in Falkirk was the street where Brian Findlay's Record Shop was. I can't remember the dates but it had to be early 70's. It then became Bruce's Record Shop. Bruce was Brian's brother and later was the manager of Simple Minds. Later on it became Sleeves. I remember one of the blokes behind the the counter wearing a "If it ain't stiff...it ain't worth a f*ck" t-shirt. I also remember going in with a friend and he said to one of the workers "I'm looking for Tom Waits?". Said employee looks at other employee straight faced whilst both shake their heads and replies "Nope, he don't work here!".

I think it was a small chain of stores in Central Scotland that lasted up 'til around 2000.

This is the Kirkcaldy shop.

Was, in the late 70's and early eighties, the coolest record shop in Brisbane. The place to go for those new Go-Betweens releases. Still going strong albeit at a different address and logo as below:

In Oxford St. I found it very intimidating. For a start I seem to remember it didn't have its own entrance but you had to go in through a shoe shop (a bit like some of those "respectable" bookshops in Soho).

When you'd got into the shop you found extremely hip staff and aircraft seats (was Branson already showing signs of how his career would go?) that I was far too intimidated to use. I was young, mind.

I remember Dobell's as well. Shame when it went.

I remember as a student in Manchester back in the 80's there was a second hand record shop on Oxford Road. Was trying to remember it the other week when responding to the "whats left to release on CD" thread as that's where I got my vinyl copy of the Buckingham Nicks album.

I remember it being totally disorganised and the owner being rather unfriendly, but was always interesting.

Still can't remember its name......

Some of the best record shops are to be found where universities dwell. Edinburgh had loads of excellent establishments in my youth: my personal favourites were Greyfriars Market in Forrest Road, and Headquarters, a boutique with a downstairs second-hand record shop featuring liquid projection, comfy chairs and non-stop music. They were happy to play the album you were interested in to help you decide whether to purchase it. Helpful, knowledgeable people.

Delighted to have found this site which brought back memories:
http://www.edinburghgigarchive.com/page28.htm

Enjoy!

Anyone remember Black Sedan in Manchester, they were in that first floor shop on Oxford Road before Pandemonium. We were in town trying to track down some bootlegs, about 1973 I think, and got directions to Black Sedan from the staff in the old Virgin shop in Lever Street. They'd just been busted for selling boots but were happy to tell anyone who was interested where you could find them. Eventually found the place up a rickety old stairway above a veggie cafe. That was a great shop, I got piles of stuff from there. They moved into the university precinct further down Oxford Road around 75 and while still good it didn't have the grotty ambience of the old place and was never quite the same after that, particularly after they got busted for selling boots as well.

are Concerto in Utrechtstraat in Amsterdam and Ben's Collectors Records In Guildford, rather different in character but equally engrossing. And how come no mention of Amoeba so far, probably the best record shop in the world and worth a trip to LA just to go there.

Went there a few times in early 80s to look though and wonder about the great collection of Soul and R&B in the true sense. It was in a very seedy alleyway near Tottenham Court Road and not very big but it had lots of treasure there.

of the fantastic Cob Records in Bangor. Literally the only place for miles that sold anything I might want to buy when I was a teenager. Still open I think.

There was this little shop in York, circa 1990, situated a little out of the city centre on Walmgate, a road not at all troubled by tourists.

They appeared to mainly deal in vinyl, although they had some CDs. Their stock was mainly divided between re-issues of late 1960s material (in particular psychedelia) and pre-war blues compilations on the Document label; in fact I can't recall them actually stocking anything contemporary.

They also ran another shop over the road that sold wind-up gramophones and clocks. When they finally closed (they can't have lasted that long), some of their stock ended up over the road.

The one shop that will forever hold a special place in my heart is Vibes in Bury. Fantastic shop. I've just checked on t'interweb and they're still trading. That's made my day that has.

I don't know if it was ever the most 'charismatic' record store, but it has always been chock full of good stuff that even the megastores didn't stock.

It is still there, thank goodness. If HMV in the city centre ever shuts, it will be the only serious record store left in the whole city.

Now that is a sad statement to make....

Full of afghan coat wearing hippies in the mid 70s selling “progressive” albums, I don’t think they sold singles in those days. When punk took off they opened a separate singles shop, next door, if I remember correctly. Happy days of a 3 hour, round bus trip to buy one album.

Makes a very decent stab at bringing some character to online record shopping. The weekly reviews email is a corker.

Quite happy to slag off the new releases and send out confirmation emails stating "Thanks for you order. Enjoy your crap 2/5 purchase."

In slightly related news - new independent record shop opens shocker

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8772815.Vinyl_countdown_to_record_shop_...

I recall the last week of Dobell’s queuing in a half stocked shop to purchase a record for the last time. I even kept the shop bag from that day.

I am working on a project to archive the History of the British record shop any body interested passing on their stories please p.m. me.

...that the soulless High Street majors are now (almost) all gone and the only survivors of the digital shake-up are the indies - the ones who really love the product?

Just on the Triangle at the top of Park Street. Through a door and up a flight of stairs (natch) into a room where, behind a counter, often stood a pre-Massive Attack Daddy G. Only to be approached if you were convinced that your purchase would meet with approval. Otherwise it was best off heading to Rival down the hill...

This months Record Collector has my feature in Collector in which am trying to get interest in my development of the British Record Shop Archive. Is in the shops now.

Looks pretty charismatic and it's still going!. I think I might be going to Accrington this weekend...

Quite apart from the Bowie dress cover, Vertigo swirls, Island pink labels etc., if someone turned up on the Antiques Roadshow with an array of record shop bags and paper sleeves like the ones shown above, it would grab my attention more than a battered bit of crockery.

Sounds Familiar was a large second-hand shop set in a basement in crappy North Street. In its 1990s prime it had a lot of cheap, offloaded vinyl collections passing through its racks and on a lucky day it could be a treasure trove. I discovered post-punk by buying stacks of Rough Trade/Fast Label 45s for under a fiver and in hindsight regret not forming a band just before that sound went mainstream. No funny business from the staff either. When the market for vinyl dried up the place went, but it's a local legend.

... in Chorley, with the lovely Saturday girl, Jill. Long gone. Used to spend my dinner money on singles. I was a skinny lad.

Which I forget the name of.

Even in the late 70s, Blyth, Northumberland was a strange economic and temporal backwater: (Still is)You got off the bus there and were immiediately taken back a decade in time. Things like punk rock and home ownership simply hadn't happened there, and it was full of longhairs in brushed denim suits. There was a little record shop in the bus station manned by one of those guys, who'd obviously lost interest in about 1970 and kept the store open on the grounds of having nothing better to do and the annual rent being a healthy goat. Most of the vinyl was still priced in pre-decimal currency, as late as 1979. You went in and he's be sat at in the back smoking a funny-smelling rollup and reading the Daily Mirror, and would reluctantly get up and flog you something if you insisted.

What this meant though, was that if you were a young post-punker with an open frame of mind, you could go in with a couple of quid and buy records by The Third Ear Band, Can, and other bands that were completely off the cultural radar at the time. It was my entry point to being an insufferable hipster/wanker.

Nottingham. Can't speak for the London one. It had black walls and smelt of socks. It was ace.

Anyone recall Manzi's in Swiss Cottage? How about the little stereo shop on St. John's Wood High Street in the late '60s that sold records in the back??

And, of course, Musicland (always smelled like patchouli) and One Stop near Tottenham Court Road -- those were favorites.

There was an interview once with Elvis Costello where he talked about One Stop. Somehow those American imports from the West Coast seemed so exotic.

a record shop in Leeds near the railway station back in the early seventies. The walls were painted black and there was a large cut tree in the centre also painted black. Can't remember the name of it (Paint ir black or doom and gloom from the tomb possibly) Mind you you could hardly see anything in there.