UK Record Shop Nostalgia

[Jazzjet]

I believe there was a thread set up for matters of interest to UK forum members but, try as I may, I can't find it so apologies.

Check out some fascinating photos of the interior of the HMV store in the early 1960s ( possibly even late 1950s ). Note particularly the 'Cosmopolitan Corner'!

HMV 1960s

Also, here is a piece about the Imhof's record store in New Oxford Street in 1962 :

Imhof's

[BillF]

I believe there was a thread set up for matters of interest to UK forum members but, try as I may, I can't find it so apologies.

Check out some fascinating photos of the interior of the HMV store in the early 1960s ( possibly even late 1950s ). Note particularly the 'Cosmopolitan Corner'!

HMV 1960s

Also, here is a piece about the Imhof's record store in New Oxford Street in 1962 :

Imhof's

Plenty of nostalgia there! I first went into HMV on Oxford Street in 1957 IIRC. Used to love the listening booths, which I haven't spotted in the photos incidentally. Certainly remember that curving staircase, which was still there when I last visited a few years ago. I remember the name of Imhof's, but never went there. Did it have much for the jazz listener?

[A Lark Ascending]

I'd put the last photo as 1969 or so. 'Magical Mystery Tour' LP - I'm not sure when that came out but it was not an official UK release. Canned Heat, Fresh Cream, The give-away is the 'Sugar, Sugar' LP - the single was a '69 hit.

Why do I remember this stuff yet forget the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia almost instantly!

Great photos. A few years back they'd have looked really old fashioned but you can really see the 'space age' décor in the first few. Very Sputnik!

I remember those stairs too from the mid-70s. Jazz was up there if I remember correctly.

Edited August 24, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[Head Man]

When I were a lad in the 1960s, Imhoff's was THE place to go for imported American LPs. The whole of the window in New Oxford Street used to be covered with the latest imports: Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley et al. You could then ask to hear them in the listening booths before buying (or not!). I remember many a happy Saturday morning spent listening to music there with my friends.

Strangely, I don't recall using the HMV shop in Bond Street. Perhaps they didn't stock American imports. At that time I bought 'standard' releases at my local record shop (remember those?) in east London.

For jazz & folk I used to visit Collet's which was just a short distance from Imhoff's along New Oxford Street. Folk was on the ground floor and jazz was in a tiny basement overseen by the (in)famous Ray Smith.

The final port of call was then Dobell's in Charing Cross Road where you could again listen to the latest jazz & blues releases through tiny speakers in their booths.

Edited August 25, 2011 by Head Man

[brownie]

Nice links, Jazzjet!

I did visit those stores but prefered shopping at Dobell's or Collet back then. Much more interesting jazz selections there (before Mole Jazz opened)!

[sidewinder]

About all I recognise is the University of London scarfe on one of the photos !

[Big Beat Steve]

The HMWV shop as shown here

http://voicesofeastanglia.blogspot.com/2011/05/streets-of-london-1976-1978.html

must have been exactly like I first saw it as my first stays in london (14-day stays at host families organized by our school in cooperation with the YMCA) date to 1975-77.

I dimly remember the staircase too but am pretty sure there were no listening booths anymore by that time.

Otherwise I seem to have been rather underwhelmed by that shop as I cannot remember having bought much there. Probably their selection of 50s rock'n'roll, jazz, blues and R&B that would have been of greatest interest to me was nothing compared to Dobell's, those small shops along Portobello Road, a pretty nice shop (the name of which I forget) at a street corner not far from the Bloomsbury Book shop operated by John Chilton's wife, and several "neighborhood" record stores too, plus several more that I did check out but cannot remember their location anymore. Or else everything was "full price" at the HMV shop and no special offer bins anywhere there (which would have been of greater appeal to my small student's purse ).

Edited August 25, 2011 by Big Beat Steve

[JohnS]

Thanks for the links jazzjet. I remember HMV and Imhofs well. As a teenager back in the late 50s it was always exciting to go to London and tour the record shops, Asman's Dobell's, Collets and the Oxford Street stores. The problem was that I could only afford to buy about one album a month.

[BillF]

Why do I remember this stuff yet forget the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia almost instantly!

Great photos. A few years back they'd have looked really old fashioned but you can really see the 'space age' décor in the first few. Very Sputnik!

I remember those stairs too from the mid-70s. Jazz was up there if I remember correctly.

But where did the Treaty of Westphalia position in the charts?

Sputnik really hits the mark! I went into HMV Oxford Street at the age of 17 during my first parent-free visit to London at half term in October 1957. The papers had giant headlines about the first sputnik launch.

Actually, jazz was down those stairs, not up!

[crisp]

Check out some fascinating photos of the interior of the HMV store in the early 1960s ( possibly even late 1950s ). Note particularly the 'Cosmopolitan Corner'!

HMV 1960s

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs.

[BillF]

Check out some fascinating photos of the interior of the HMV store in the early 1960s ( possibly even late 1950s ). Note particularly the 'Cosmopolitan Corner'!

HMV 1960s

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs.

Thanks for the updating, albeit depressing!

[mjazzg]

Why do I remember this stuff yet forget the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia almost instantly!

Great photos. A few years back they'd have looked really old fashioned but you can really see the 'space age' décor in the first few. Very Sputnik!

I remember those stairs too from the mid-70s. Jazz was up there if I remember correctly.

But where did the Treaty of Westphalia position in the charts?

not very high. #1648 with a bullet and after 30 years of trying

[A Lark Ascending]

Actually, jazz was down those stairs, not up!

Yes, I wondered about that after typing it and started to think maybe I went down. So what was up? I must have bought a few things there but the only one I can remember is Hatfield and the North's 'The Rotter's Club' in 1975.

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs.

I can't believe how many mobile phone shops you find even in very small towns. How many mobile phones do people buy a week?

Why do I remember this stuff yet forget the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia almost instantly!

Great photos. A few years back they'd have looked really old fashioned but you can really see the 'space age' décor in the first few. Very Sputnik!

I remember those stairs too from the mid-70s. Jazz was up there if I remember correctly.

But where did the Treaty of Westphalia position in the charts?

not very high. #1648 with a bullet and after 30 years of trying

But the Lutherans and Calvinists did agree to an amicable split after years of musical differences.

[crisp]

Check out some fascinating photos of the interior of the HMV store in the early 1960s ( possibly even late 1950s ). Note particularly the 'Cosmopolitan Corner'!

HMV 1960s

We need some contemporary photos to compare and contrast: vast deserted aisles filled with electronics nobody wants; the music relegated to cramped, dark corners; the basement ceiling caved in and leaking water; and surly shop assistants prowling around, fearing for their jobs.

Thanks for the updating, albeit depressing!

It is sad. As with others here, one of my earliest memories of visiting London alone, in the mid-1980s, was HMV in Oxford Street. Even with Tower and Virgin, it was still the best and compared to my local record shops in Watford -- Woolworths and Our Price -- it was like Aladdin's cave: multiple copies of everything, boxed sets all over the place, loads of imports, the best sales and promotions.

One upside, however, is that once HMV goes, that will be the last of the interesting shops in the increasingly grotty West End -- I need never go there again!

Edited August 25, 2011 by crisp

[A Lark Ascending]

Until the mid 2000s I used to try and get to London twice a year to tour the record shops for all those albums you never saw in the provinces. I'd probably spend £200 on a visit.

I had a route that started at Bond St. HMV, along to the Oxford Street Borders, then the big HMV, along to Virgin at Tottenham CR and the other Borders, then down to Rays (Shaftesbury Ave when I started, latter day in Foyles), then to Tower at Piccadilly C and then perhaps an amble up Berwick Street (I think...the one with all the record shops and a market) and back to Oxford Street. Having written down a list of discs seen and relative prices I'd go back to the shops with the cheaper copies and purchase.

I last did this seriously around 2005 - I visited London for a concert around 2009 and started the tour but found the shops either gone or much depleted and gave up pretty quickly.

Bad news: the record shops have largely gone.

Good news: I can get anything I want and more via the internet either as physical CD or download.

I loved those trips (and the weekly trip to local record shops) but they are now very much things of the past.

(I did a bit of record shopping in Watford in 1972-6. Used to stay with relatives in Northwood sometimes in my late teens).

Edited August 25, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[crisp]

I used to do routes like that. Thinking back I shudder at the time wasted trawling around the West End (thought life would stretch on for ever back then), but I do have a fine CD collection -- that I very much enjoy -- to make up for it.

The web certainly killed my London shopping habits. First I learnt how much more we were being charged for CDs in the UK compared with the US (as did everyone else, leading to the tabloid phrase "rip-off Britain"), then the Jersey tax loophole made everything cheap on UK sites.

I feel sorry for the high street retailers and their staff; squeezed between the web and high rents they haven't a chance, and I got a lot of good stuff in HMV back in it's heyday, but as you say, it's much better for the consumer these days. Perhaps, as someone wrote in The Times yesterday, they could turn the shops into affordable housing...

[A Lark Ascending]

I spend no more on music than I used to - but I get much more for it!

What is more, I listen to more music (some would say 'hear' rather than 'listen'!!!!). Half of Saturday used to be spent travelling to and from record shops and then browsing. Now I'm at home with the music playing.

And the wonder of the iPod means I can also be listening in dead time - travelling, waiting etc.

Nostalgia's nice; but I'm happy to be here and now!

(Having said all that, back in the good old days I didn't waste hours typing comments onto an internet board!!!!)

Edited August 25, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[crisp]

I have a lot more time to listen to -- or hear -- music, but the backlog never gets smaller.

[sidewinder]

then to Tower at Piccadilly C

In the 1990s and early 2000s that was the best of the lot of the big chains. Huge range and excellent selection of (expensive) Japanese imports. Good deals on Miles Davis box sets too ! That transparent floor used to always freak me out though.

That Oxford Street HMV (Bond St Branch, original road side) - come to think of it, I do remember when the jazz section was 'underground'. Picked up quite a few deletions there 'back in the day' - including Blue Note Reissue Series.

Interesting to see also that the LP racks were using the old lettered 'price code' system. Remember that being used in some places.

Edited August 25, 2011 by sidewinder

[Jazzjet]

I'd put the last photo as 1969 or so. 'Magical Mystery Tour' LP - I'm not sure when that came out but it was not an official UK release. Canned Heat, Fresh Cream, The give-away is the 'Sugar, Sugar' LP - the single was a '69 hit.

Why do I remember this stuff yet forget the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia almost instantly!

Great photos. A few years back they'd have looked really old fashioned but you can really see the 'space age' décor in the first few. Very Sputnik!

I remember those stairs too from the mid-70s. Jazz was up there if I remember correctly.

I'm guessing that those photos are from varying dates. The one with crowds around the cash till has The Beatles 'Help', a Julie Felix LP, the Sound of Music OST. Puts it around 1965.

By the way, I think the Treaty of Westphalia was a prog band from Ashby De La Zouche.

Until the mid 2000s I used to try and get to London twice a year to tour the record shops for all those albums you never saw in the provinces. I'd probably spend £200 on a visit.

I had a route that started at Bond St. HMV, along to the Oxford Street Borders, then the big HMV, along to Virgin at Tottenham CR and the other Borders, then down to Rays (Shaftesbury Ave when I started, latter day in Foyles), then to Tower at Piccadilly C and then perhaps an amble up Berwick Street (I think...the one with all the record shops and a market) and back to Oxford Street. Having written down a list of discs seen and relative prices I'd go back to the shops with the cheaper copies and purchase.

I last did this seriously around 2005 - I visited London for a concert around 2009 and started the tour but found the shops either gone or much depleted and gave up pretty quickly.

Bad news: the record shops have largely gone.

Good news: I can get anything I want and more via the internet either as physical CD or download.

I loved those trips (and the weekly trip to local record shops) but they are now very much things of the past.

(I did a bit of record shopping in Watford in 1972-6. Used to stay with relatives in Northwood sometimes in my late teens).

Bev,

Were you following me or was I following you?

I guess my last London record buying trip was around 2006.

[A Lark Ascending]

Bev, Were you following me or was I following you?

I guess my last London record buying trip was around 2006.

I imagine there were quite a few of us doing this!

I recall getting very excited in the late 90s - around the corner from Bond St. HMV, up one of the side streets going north, was a pastie shop! They're all over the south-west and southern Midlands now but at that time it was amazing. Didn't last long!

[BillF]

I recall getting very excited in the late 90s - around the corner from Bond St. HMV, up one of the side streets going north, was a pastie shop! They're all over the south-west and southern Midlands now but at that time it was amazing. Didn't last long!

Not again!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasties

[A Lark Ascending]

Sorry, Bill.

My cultural heritage!

[Jazzjet]

Thanks for the links jazzjet. I remember HMV and Imhofs well. As a teenager back in the late 50s it was always exciting to go to London and tour the record shops, Asman's Dobell's, Collets and the Oxford Street stores. The problem was that I could only afford to buy about one album a month.

Imhofs was probably the first big record shop I visited, after little local shops and buying the latest Duane Eddy single at the in-store record shop in the Gamages department store. I seem to recall spending a number of birthday and Christmas record vouchers at Imhofs, mainly comedy albums like Songs for Swinging Sellers and Woody Allen or perhaps The Shadows.

[sidewinder]

Article in the inside back page of Jazz Journal this month (Alan Luff) mentioning Imhofs and just about every other long-gone store in London. 'Jazzwise' also has a nice little article by Valerie Wilmer on 'Dave Carey's Swing Shop' in Streatham.