Last Shop Standing (Whatever happened to record shops?)

[sidewinder]

Their main business seems to have been mail order.

It would have had to have been. The only passing trade in Looe is in mackeral.

I remember going on holiday there as a very small kid. The thing that was impressed on my mind is rolling into town in the car and seeing an absolutely huge (thresher) shark hung up on a gibbet at the sea-front, just landed that day !

I'm in no doubt that if there are big thresher sharks off of Cornwall there must be the occasional great white too !

[BillF]

Their main business seems to have been mail order.

It would have had to have been. The only passing trade in Looe is in mackeral.

I remember going on holiday there as a very small kid. The thing that was impressed on my mind is rolling into town in the car and seeing an absolutely huge (thresher) shark hung up on a gibbet at the sea-front, just landed that day !

I'm in no doubt that if there are big thresher sharks off of Cornwall there must be the occasional great white too !

Not a patch on the other Jaws!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Their main business seems to have been mail order.

It would have had to have been. The only passing trade in Looe is in mackeral.

I remember going on holiday there as a very small kid. The thing that was impressed on my mind is rolling into town in the car and seeing an absolutely huge (thresher) shark hung up on a gibbet at the sea-front, just landed that day !

I'm in no doubt that if there are big thresher sharks off of Cornwall there must be the occasional great white too !

Not a patch on the other Jaws!

MG

[sidewinder]

Photo of the original Kings Cross Mole Jazz Shop (before they moved across the road) - I wonder when re-development will finally see the end to it?

Edited January 9, 2010 by sidewinder

[jeffcrom]

Photo of the original Kings Cross Mole Jazz Shop (before they moved across the road) - I wonder when re-development will finally see the end to it?

I was only there once, but this photo makes me sad.

[Jazzjet]

Photo of the original Kings Cross Mole Jazz Shop (before they moved across the road) - I wonder when re-development will finally see the end to it?

God, thats nostalgic. You can almost feel the occasional vibrations from the underground trains!

[sidewinder]

Yeah, of course, the vibrations - who can forget that. I see also that someone has sort of 'repaired' the Mole sign - got the feeling that there was some poster for a discount fashion emporium or something equally irrelavant stuck on the sign for many years which some sympathetic soul seems to have repaired out. Shame that they didn't use a uniform logo size though..

Of course to get the full nostalgia effect this time of year would see the launch of the Mole sale, with progressively bigger discounts as the end deadline neared. Stampede of middle aged overweight bearded guys on the sidewalk fighting to get through the door at 9am on day 1.

Edited January 10, 2010 by sidewinder

[Jazzjet]

Yeah, of course, the vibrations - who can forget that. I see also that someone has sort of 'repaired' the Mole sign - got the feeling that there was some poster for a discount fashion emporium or something equally irrelavant stuck on the sign for many years which some sympathetic soul seems to have repaired out. Shame that they didn't use a uniform logo size though..

Of course to get the full nostalgia effect this time of year would see the launch of the Mole sale, with progressively bigger discounts as the end deadline neared. Stampede of middle aged overweight bearded guys on the sidewalk fighting to get through the door at 9am on day 1.

You must have seen me! About the only time that middle aged overweight bearded guys could ever be described as focussed.

[sidewinder]

Apologies - And if you saw a young oik donned in a UCL scarf squeezing to get in, that would be me !

One you got through the door of course there was the even more onerous task of actually squeezing through to the front of one of the sales racks. Worse than Harrods' sale !

Edited January 10, 2010 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

When in Bath I always pop in here:

It's actually Duck, Son and Pinker (who sound like renegades from Beatrix Potter) and still looks like record/music shops used to look in 1970 (and probably in 1940!) - wooden floorboards, record/cd racks that have never seen the inside of IKEA etc. The jazz selection is a bit random - a lot of Gambit and Lonehill type things but you can hit on some goodies. Good folk and classical section.

I recall a branch in Swindon when I lived there in 1972-3 (confirmed by the Last Shop Standing Book) - you could also get a good selection of LPs in Menzies, Bon Marche (where Andy Partridge of XTC worked around the time I was there) and another big department store (and I recall a new chromey type shop opening next to the Wyvern Theatre in the Autumn of '72).

When I moved to Reading in late '73 there was a big store like the one pictured above...might have been Hickies...that had pianos downstairs and records upstairs. Ainsley's in Leicester was like this well into the late 80s and there was a place in Sheffield that was mainly a piano shop that had the same sort of layout until the mid 90s.

Shocking news just in from Bath - 'Duck, Son & Pinker' have abruptly closed the business after over 160 years of operations.

This place withstood The Corn Law riots, 2 World Wars, the Boer War, the Great Depression etc.

Bath won't be the same again without the chance to amble in here and peruse. I feel very sorry for the staff caught up in this.

Duck, Son & Pinker Closes

Edited April 2, 2011 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Very sad. Though not surprising.

Last time I was there two years back it still looked like a record/musical instrument shop from the 70s. With CDs instead of records.

[Jazzjet]

Very sad. Though not surprising.

Last time I was there two years back it still looked like a record/musical instrument shop from the 70s. With CDs instead of records.

For all those with fond memories of ( mostly ) London record shops, this thread ( via Word magazine ) should provide a nostalgic rush :

Charismatic record shops

[BillF]

Very much today's theme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/14/strangest-record-shops-in-britain?INTCMP=SRCH

[Tom in RI]

Very much today's theme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/14/strangest-record-shops-in-britain?INTCMP=SRCH

Great link, particularly enjoyed the mention of Girls On Heroin, yeah.

[ejp626]

Very much today's theme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/14/strangest-record-shops-in-britain?INTCMP=SRCH

Great link, particularly enjoyed the mention of Girls On Heroin, yeah.

Yeah, very nice. And record store day is fast approaching. I'm not sure I'll really be able to get out, since I am cleaning up from a recent move, but if things go well, I'll try to hit Dusty Groove and then there is a pop-up store (one day only) on Milwaukee Ave. run by Numero Uno.

[Jazzjet]

[sidewinder]

Very much today's theme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/14/strangest-record-shops-in-britain?INTCMP=SRCH

Thanks for that. Task for this weekend is to check out LSD Records in Wilton. Never even heard of that place !

[ejp626]

Yeah, very nice. And record store day is fast approaching. I'm not sure I'll really be able to get out, since I am cleaning up from a recent move, but if things go well, I'll try to hit Dusty Groove and then there is a pop-up store (one day only) on Milwaukee Ave. run by Numero Uno.

Is that the same Numero Uno that releases those great blues and soul compilations? That 'Light On The South Side' comp was fabulous.

Yes. They have some great compilations. I really hope I can make it. It sounds pretty cool.

Numero Group plans to release two albums for Record Store Day. “Local Customs: Pressed at Bodie” is a sixteen-track collection of soul, funk, rock and folk drawn from the tapes of a defunct Cleveland vinyl-pressing plant. The compilation will be available in super-deluxe vinyl, CD and on cassette at most participating shops. Numero Group’s storefront tables will also feature 100 pressings of an exclusive Eccentric Soul 45 about whose contents Shipley says only, “that’s a surprise.”

Finally, Numero Group plans to make the airwaves jump to the beat of seventies soul with its one-day live radio show consisting of “all manner of weirdness,” from old commercials and air checks by Chicago DJs to a whole hour dedicated to unreleased tunes from the Numero Group vault. The only thing Shipley worries about is that the store will be too much of a good thing. “The big worry for us is to make sure the fire marshal doesn’t come in and shut us down because we’re anticipating some pretty insane crowds.” (Benjamin Rossi)

Numero Group’s pop-up record store will be open at 1371 North Milwaukee on April 16 from 9am to 9pm. You can tune in to the radio show at 89.9 FM.

More details here about record day in Chicago: http://music.newcity.com/2011/04/13/record-store-day-2011-in-chicago-events-and-releases-guide/

[ejp626]

Numero Group’s pop-up record store will be open at 1371 North Milwaukee on April 16 from 9am to 9pm. You can tune in to the radio show at 89.9 FM.

So I did manage to get to the pop-up store. It was a crate-diggers dream, and obviously the word had already gotten out, since it was packed by 9:30. I really didn't have much time, since I had bought something at a nearby Walgreens and only had about 30 minutes grace for using their lot (yes, I had planned on taking the bus to avoid such issues, but was running really late). I ended up not going through the crates at all and just got the Numero Uno special record-store day only CD plus the mystery 45. Fortunately, they had a cash only line, which helped.

Then on to Dusty Groove. Even though the numbers of people there were much fewer, it felt so much harder to navigate. I picked up one African compilation I had my eye on and a Buddy Collette's Jazz Loves Paris. Then I took some of the free popcorn and a free Daptones sampler. Not a bad day, but one where I just couldn't browse at all.

[A Lark Ascending]

Can Record Shops Avoid Extinction?

From the BBC News website

Edited April 16, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

Good local interest link in there, which will interest fellow Mancunian Richard Davenport when he logs on:

http://www.recordshopcity.co.uk/

Interesting to read that used discs may be the way forward. If a used disc is cheaper, then I'll buy it. I've never received anything in a condition I'd consider unacceptable and sometimes used discs can have extra character; e.g. a sticker from Cheapo Cheapo Records or a stamp reading "Withdrawn from free use in city cultural and welfare instutions. May be sold for the benefit of the Brooklyn Public Library"(!) I've found some great things used recently on Amazon marketplace - and at appropriate prices, too. Particularly good has been an outfit called Zoverstocks, which I think is one of those controversial Guernsey-based firms. They're probably riding the tide of the recession, catering for broke punters like me!

Edited April 16, 2011 by BillF

[A Lark Ascending]

HMV on the skids:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20708295

[sidewinder]

HMV on the skids:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-20708295

Other than the London Oxford Street store, their brick-and-mortar stores stopped stocking anything interesting for me from about 2008. They did a big de-stocking of serious music and switched to games, mobile phones, headphones and other superfluous stuff. Serious deterioration in stores like bath, which used to be full of interesting stuff. These days I prefer to buy from them on-line, if ever (Vocalions and the like). Sad.

Interesting that their near-equivalent in France - FNAC - seems to be doing OK.

Meanwhile - the Film is out..

http://www.youtube.c...astshopstanding

Edited December 15, 2012 by sidewinder

[ejp626]

Interesting that their near-equivalent in France - FNAC - seems to be doing OK.

I think there was some discussion (in the Guardian?) that the limits that other EU countries place on the discounting allowed by on-line retailers may help prop up brick and mortar stores. Or I may just be imagining/mis-remembering that.

[ornette]

Interesting that their near-equivalent in France - FNAC - seems to be doing OK…

A trip to FNAC in Lille at the end of a holiday in France used to be a treat but in recent years I've stopped going. All the branches that I've been in carry very little jazz and far less than they used to.