Last Shop Standing (Whatever happened to record shops?)

[sidewinder]

Sounds like my pattern. In the late 90s I used to visit students on work placements in Central London. A quick getaway would find me in the large jazz room of Tower Records in Piccadilly!

The old Virgin Records on Oxford St and Mole Jazz used to be good for a slope off for me between engineering lectures..

Edited September 22, 2009 by sidewinder

[JohnS]

Like jazzjet I'm old enought to remember the record counter, some with listening booths, at the back of electrical stores. Thing was that as a young buyer they had great stocks, Vogue (for Contemporary and PJ and others), HMV, Columbia, CBS, London etc. If it wasn't in stock it was there in a day or two. Even Woolies was worth a look for cut outs and overstocks.

Edited September 22, 2009 by JohnS

[sidewinder]

even a small town like Newquay that three places to buy records - that one, the place I pictured earlier and Woolworths (which had a broad selection in those days...I bought King Crimson's 'Lizard' there).

Yeovil, Somerset had 3 places back then too - if you include the Woolies (definitely no King Crimson in that one). One of these - 'Acorn Records' - is still there and under the same management as back in '75 !

Taunton was even better. It had a place with the whole series of Blue Note Cuscuna/Lourie 2LP sets on import (long since closed). And the UK Impulse reissues.

Heck, this is turning into the 'West Country Jazz LP Shop' thread. Any offerings for Shepton Mallet and Bodmin anyone?

Edited September 22, 2009 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Even Woolies was worth a look for cut outs and overstocks.

My mother picked up Buddy Rich's 'Mercy Mercy' on Liberty in the Woolies cheap rack for 10 old shillings. My uncle (a Rich big band fanatic who had paid well over £3 for an advance order copy back in the early 70s) was understandably pig sick ! We still laugh about that one.

Edited September 22, 2009 by sidewinder

[rdavenport]

The late Michael Brecker visited Decoy Records in Manchester a few years ago. The proprietor, local DJ Mike Chadwick, probably has some photos!

Actually, Decoy, which was a jazz and folk specialist, was badly battered by the notorious IRA Manchester bomb. Can it claim to be the only jazz record store to be bombed? Is this a record?

Decoy was a great shop. I used to go to teaching conferences at UMIST in the city - they used to let us out as 3.00 and I'd always sprint to Decoy to make a quick set of purchases.

I agree; Decoy was a great shop. Friendly staff on the whole, especially Mike Chadwick and a ponytailed chap who worked upstairs. I always remember him being quite excited when I ordered the Oscar Brown Junior album "Sin and Soul".

A good vinyl section also, with a special section for ECMs as I remember.

[A Lark Ascending]

Yeovil, Somerset had 3 places back then too - if you include the Woolies (definitely no King Crimson in that one). One of these - 'Acorn Records' - is still there and under the same management as back in '75 !

Acorn gets a good write up in the Graham Jones book.

There was an excellent shop in one of the lanes in Norwich when I briefly lived there in 1977. Bought things like Coltranes's 'My Favourite Things', Dexter Gordon's 'Homecoming' and several of the then contemporary Oguns there as my jazz interest began to pick up. I don't think it was 'Andys', a store I noticed there on irregular visits in the early 80s which expanded as a chain across the east of England before disappearing like so many similar ones (Our Price, MVC, Fopp etc).

There was also a good independent in Exeter around '76-77, not far from the bus station. It got a fair chunk of my student grant in the year I did teacher training there.

Gosh, even the cultural desert of Mansfield had a shop called Sid Booth's that stocked a wide range of music including jazz. I lived there when I started teaching in 1978 so my first pay packet was spent there - 'Happy Daze' by Elton Dean's Ninesense as I recall. I remember ordering 'A Love Supreme' and 'Africa Brass' there and having to wait six weeks or so as they scoured the world - neither were in print in the UK at the time. They did stock ECMs as they came out and those Blue Note twofers - I picked up the Gerry Mulligan/Lee Konitz and Gil Evans ones.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[sidewinder]

Yeovil, Somerset had 3 places back then too - if you include the Woolies (definitely no King Crimson in that one). One of these - 'Acorn Records' - is still there and under the same management as back in '75 !

Acorn gets a good write up in the Graham Jones book.

Awesome - I'll have to get the book.

Bought my 'Bitches Brew' and 'Big Fun' LP sets there.

[Jazzjet]

[Big Beat Steve]

Sounds very much like some of you were among those business-dressed, deep blue-suited tie wearers in the 50+ age bracket that I'd occasionally bump into upstairs in the vinyl department of Mole Jazz while patiently working my way through ALL racks from A to Z on those Monday afternoon intermissions spent there on my way back to the ferry at Ramsgate or Dover. :D

Edited September 23, 2009 by Big Beat Steve

[BillF]

Absolutely! That describes the late nineties/early noughties late-afternoon Piccadilly Tower Records jazz clientele exactly ... intent middle-aged men in business suits with briefcases soon to be filled with CDs nestling among the office papers. At that time Tower seemed THE place: many of the jazz specialists had folded and the Piccadilly branch carried a huge CD stock. Most of my OJCs came from there. Anyone else frequented Tower in those days?

[sidewinder]

Sounds very much like some of you were among those business-dressed, deep blue-suited tie wearers in the 50+ age bracket that I'd occasionally bump into upstairs in the vinyl department of Mole Jazz while patiently working my way through ALL racks from A to Z on those Monday afternoon intermissions spent there on my way back to the ferry at Ramsgate or Dover. :D

Ha !

I can relate to that totally.

[Steve Gray]

Absolutely! That describes the late nineties/early noughties late-afternoon Piccadilly Tower Records jazz clientele exactly ... intent middle-aged men in business suits with briefcases soon to be filled with CDs nestling among the office papers. At that time Tower seemed THE place: many of the jazz specialists had folded and the Piccadilly branch carried a huge CD stock. Most of my OJCs came from there. Anyone else frequented Tower in those days?

Yes, I did, maybe 3 or 4 times a week but my time of day was different.

I used to catch the bus from Fleet Street after work to get to Picadilly Circus, looked around for an hour or so before going home with my purchases.

Tower did have a wonderful selection but, on reflection, it was very expensive. (I bought a large number of Japanese Blue Notes there over the years)

I always liked Mole but it never came to grips with CDs (IMO) and I stopped going there soon after I bought a CD player in 1984.

[mjazzg]

Absolutely! That describes the late nineties/early noughties late-afternoon Piccadilly Tower Records jazz clientele exactly ... intent middle-aged men in business suits with briefcases soon to be filled with CDs nestling among the office papers. At that time Tower seemed THE place: many of the jazz specialists had folded and the Piccadilly branch carried a huge CD stock. Most of my OJCs came from there. Anyone else frequented Tower in those days?

It was a tad pricey but had a selection that seemed a lot wider than other possibilities especially for US releases.

What I also liked about the Piccadilly Tower was it's late opening hours - something like 11pm I seem to remember.

Many a purchase made eased by some alcohol earlier in the evening and a slight detour on the way home. I remember walking from the QEH/Southbank on several occasions having enjoyed a gig (Henry Threadgill being one) and being able to purchase a disc by the artists I'd just seen live - fabulous, beats coming home and ordering on-line.

[A Lark Ascending]

It was always a Saturday or holiday time for me so it would have been tea-shirt and jeans. I loath suits!

[sidewinder]

What I also liked about the Piccadilly Tower was it's late opening hours - something like 11pm I seem to remember.

And the occasional mis-priced gem. Like Horace Tapscott 'The Dark Tree' 2CD for £10.

The ground floor 2nd hand CD selection in Mole was always worth a look. A good place to find nice Toshiba Blue Notes for around £7-8.

Edited September 23, 2009 by sidewinder

[Jazzjet]

Absolutely! That describes the late nineties/early noughties late-afternoon Piccadilly Tower Records jazz clientele exactly ... intent middle-aged men in business suits with briefcases soon to be filled with CDs nestling among the office papers. At that time Tower seemed THE place: many of the jazz specialists had folded and the Piccadilly branch carried a huge CD stock. Most of my OJCs came from there. Anyone else frequented Tower in those days?

Too many times to mention. I keep coming across CDs with the Tower sticker on. Once bumped into Jeremy Paxman - literally - as he was heading for the classical section.

I also spent quite a bit of time - and money - in the Towers in San Diego and San Francisco. Of course you needed to ditch the jewel cases before flying home!

[sidewinder]

I remember one Saturday when the Tower Picadilly Circus had the full set of those UK CBS Brit Jazz reissues (Frank Ricotti, Howard Riley, Ray Russell etc) on 'special' at £5 and on demo in the the listening stations. I pontificated and in the end decided to buy them next visit. Big mistake !

[crisp]

Like HMV and Virgin, Tower used to have regular 3 for £20 sales on Blue Note, Verve, etc. The regular sale bins were rotten, though: usually a load of CDs nobody wanted (eg Japanese pressings of albums by obscure contemporary singers) with just £1 taken off. One advantage the Piccadilly store had in the Nineties was it was the only place that marked down Verve Elites; got most of mine from there for around £12 each, sometimes in a 2 for £22 promotion.

When CDs came in they would take the booklet out of the jewel case and reseal both in a strange long plastic container, so they would stand up tall in an LP rack, like the cardboard longboxes CDs were packaged in in the US. Later, CDs were all put out in little transparent plastic bags, as were the LPs.

My best memory of Tower Piccadilly is the sale on everything they ran each New Year's Day. I waited until one 1 January to get the Reprise Sinatra boxed set: normally about £550, I got it for the less unreasonable £350. When I brought it back to work (I'd shot out there at lunchtime), my boss was so inspired by my profligacy he went out and bought himself a new pair of designer glasses.

My worst memory was passing on the RCA complete Ellington for £197 because I had just bought my first flat. That was dumb.

Oh, and very rude/arrogant staff at Tower Piccadilly for some reason (the complete opposite of the charming staff at Virgin and HMV).

[BillF]

the Reprise Sinatra boxed set: normally about £550, I got it for the less unreasonable £350. When I brought it back to work (I'd shot out there at lunchtime), my boss was so inspired by my profligacy he went out and bought himself a new pair of designer glasses.

[sidewinder]

marked down Verve Elites; got most of mine from there for around £12 each, sometimes in a 2 for £22 promotion.

I remember that - got a couple of Verve Elites on that deal. They were still cheaper at most places over in the US though.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Absolutely! That describes the late nineties/early noughties late-afternoon Piccadilly Tower Records jazz clientele exactly ... intent middle-aged men in business suits with briefcases soon to be filled with CDs nestling among the office papers. At that time Tower seemed THE place: many of the jazz specialists had folded and the Piccadilly branch carried a huge CD stock. Most of my OJCs came from there. Anyone else frequented Tower in those days?

Yes, I did, maybe 3 or 4 times a week but my time of day was different.

I used to catch the bus from Fleet Street after work to get to Picadilly Circus, looked around for an hour or so before going home with my purchases.

Tower did have a wonderful selection but, on reflection, it was very expensive. (I bought a large number of Japanese Blue Notes there over the years)

I always liked Mole but it never came to grips with CDs (IMO) and I stopped going there soon after I bought a CD player in 1984.

I expect it was me in the business suit. In the nineties I frequently had to go up to London for meetings and usually managed to wangle time to visit a number of shops either before or afterwards. Tower was an invariable venue because, even if the meeting finished well into the evening, you could still go to Tower before you headed for your hotel. The other ones I used to hit on these occasions were Miracle Music in Brixton (Gospel only shop), Mole, Soul Jazz, Reckless and Sterns. Tower was a bit expensive - well, for jazz. But for Gospel music it had a completely different selection from Miracle Music Miracle was very good on the Atlanta International, Benson, Onyx International and Word labels; Tower had loads of Savoy/Malaco stuff. And it wasn't too expensive, as I recall.

I visited Tower in Dublin once when I was over there for a few meetings and in one evening I got a huge load of Toshiba Blue Notes, including a couple of the 1600 series I'd never heard of, for some astoundingly small money.

No one's mentioned Birmingham. I went there a few times on computer courses in the eighties and one time found a shop in a residential part of town, but not far from the place where our course was. It was somewhat expensive but I picked up the Stan Turrentine dots BN twofer, Groove Holmes' "The groover", Pharoah Sanders "live at the East" and a Tiny Bradshaw CD. The guy in the shop didn't know what to recommend for me It had a HUGE stock. Practically a whole wall of jazz lps all filed upright with just their spines showing, so you had to walk along the wall with your neck twisted sideways to see what they had. It was called The Diskery and was in Bromsgrove St.

The big problem was, I could never find the place again! Every visit, I'd scour the neighbourhood and fail to find it.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Back in the day - I mean really back in the day - when I was fifteen and starting to buy records, I lived in the West End and my local record shop was HMV's original shop in Oxford Street - the one with the Bauhaus type staircases. Later, when I moved to Ealing, there was a nice shop called Squires there.

Once I'd started working, I was buying stuff at Harrods, then three places on Bond Street, when I moved office to that area: one was a little electrical shop with a little record department called Boyd's. A nice young girl ran that counter and I fancied her quite a bit. Anyway, she used to get a one sheet Cashbox top hundred every week and I'd order stuff from the lower half of that chart from her. The other shops I used a lot in Bond Street were Keith Prowse and Chappell & Co, the music publishers. Both of them had good jazz selections: I got Nat Adderley's "Work song" in Prowse pretty well as soon as it started to be imported over here.

When I moved to West Hampstead, there was a tiny little record shop on a corner in West End Lane, with a very nice, fat lady running it, with a great selection of old Vogue EPs. The place was nearly opposite the record shop owned by Shirley Bassey and one heard all sorts of unrepeatable gossip about SB in the other shop

Later on, after I'd moved to Brighton, Dobells became the Mecca on my trips to London. I met Ben Webster there one day. What a thing! Ben Fucking Webster!!!!

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

Hey, MG!

Good to see you back here!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I always liked patronising a record shop on a regular basis. You get to know the people behind the counter; they get to know you and to appreciate that you're a serious buyer; and I was a serious buyer from the very beginning

The first shop I patronised regularly was when I was in school around the corner from Buckingham Palace. I used to go home to Ealing by tube from Victoria Station. Opposite the railway station, behind the bus station, there's a very seedy little row of shops - an all night cafe for prossies, a dirty bookshop, a deli - and at the end, there was a little record shop, just through a doorway onto the street and up the stairs. I was there two or three times a week and the lady who ran that was very, very helpful. It was there I bought my first real jazz LPs - to by the MJQ.

Another interesting shop I recall from those days was in Goodge Street. I had a holiday job at Christmas 1959 with a silk merchant in Luton Street and found this place a short way up the road. It was a second hand shop with LOTS of interesting stuff. Can't remember what a lot of these places were called. Anyone remember this one?

Sterns original shop was near there, but I didn't find it until a lot later. Then they moved to Camden.

MG

[crisp]

marked down Verve Elites; got most of mine from there for around £12 each, sometimes in a 2 for £22 promotion.

I remember that - got a couple of Verve Elites on that deal. They were still cheaper at most places over in the US though.

Ah, but in those days you had to GO to the US. No internet, you see (God, I feel old).