Record Shops RIP (Slight return)

Dave
Bloody hell is all I can say, remember revolver at the top? I used to by loads from there. I saw the bloke who owned it recently in the Oxfam shop, said it just got to the point where he was only even every month so he had to stop.
Martin
Who used to live near Park Street

Martin,

Yes, I also used to go to Revolver when there. It went a few years ago didn't it?

Remember when Replay used to be in the arcade by the bus station, with a fairly good s/h shop at the other end? And there was another good s/h shop along the pull in by the main road outside (Called A-Z perhaps?).

With only two music shops in the street now I doubt whether I will bother too much again. Perhaps if I have the whole day there, I will circuit round Bang Band and the then Park Street.

DS

Dave
yes i do!
good memories

Was in the week before last on my first ever trip to Bristol. Shame.

It was also the first time I've seen a hifi shop (next door but a few on Park Street) with naim filling the window in a student area! Do students have more cash than we used to?

Jonathan

They may do soon. In Australia, the Federal Government has just put a bill through that bans compulsory student unionism in Universities.
This means that students will theoretically now have an extra $600, in their pockets.
However I think that they will actually need this to replace the services which their union money was providing on campus.
So no flash new Naim gear or at $600 any gear at all.

Another one gone -

Virgin Microstore in Windsor. Useful for CD singles (I got lots of my Kylie ones there) and the occasional CD and DVD, no vinyl of course, so not too much of a loss.

Will probably turn into a mobile phone shop, so sell people thier third or fourth mobile ?

DS

OTT - The Archers

Reckless Records on Upperstreet, Islington is closing down as well, transferring all their stuff to RR Soho.

Peter

Another one - I found some goodies in thier dance basement over the years, and kaut & post punk on the ground level.

Sigh!

DS

The demise of record shops continues,

Rustys Records in Reading has shut up.

They had a large stock of vinyl. lots of Indie stuff (which never changed) and cheap metal CDs.

I guess it is to do with the demolition of the Chatham Street Car Park, and the bulding of yet more and more phone and sports clothes shops for the city.

DS

On a more positive note, the fabulous Sounds of the Universe (The Soul Jazz record shop) has opened it's basement so doubling it's size. More room for their fine selection of Jazz, Funk, Soul, Latin, Reggae, Electronica, Afrobeat... No consolation for non-Londoners but the Berwick Street shops seem as busy as ever.

Mr Critchley,

Yes, I saw they were doing that in my last visit, but didn't have time to go down there. The electronica and post punk sections are still upstairs. Is it the Soul / Afro-jazz in the cellar?

DS

quote:

Originally posted by David Slater:

Rustys Records in Reading has shut up.


DS

Uncomfortable reading(!), but obviously a common tendency. The local shops can´t compete with Amazon et.c. neither as regards costs nor choice.

I think there is a common pattern coming from this.

New Bleeding Edge music of the electronic kind seems to fair reasonably well in the vinyl format on the street.

Everything else? Well the age of browsing seems to have left us but that does not mean music is not available on Vinyl, it just means online ordering and waiting.

Not the same I agree.

quote:

Originally posted by David Slater:
Rustys Records in Reading has shut up.

I don't miss him; his records (vinyl) were invariably overpriced in my experience. Sound Machine is far superior - and there's always the tattier end of the market in Music Man (some of his are good, some aren't). Never had one problem with Sound Machine though

Was Imperial (Bristol) the double-fronted one near the top, with a road down the side? If so, that's gutting - they had some great stuff.

As for FOPP getting rid of their vinyl - that really pisses me off! Reading's one had some good deals. A lot of the FOPP stuff now seems overpriced unless you go for midprice reissues (on CD obviously).

Dom,

Rustys

True the stuff started over the odds, but it was getting cheaper towards the end, so I caved in and bought a load of 7" singles @ 50p a pop.

Sound Machine

Still good for a browse, although the selection is a bit thinner recently. Bought a few albums last Saturday.

Fopp

No vinyl at all, but some quite reasonable re-releases on CD at £5 each, e.g. Suicide - Why Be Blue + live sessions. Bought a few there last Saturday.

Music Man

I always remember being in Music Man when a bit of a fracas set off with a punter came in with a police woman and confronted the owner, claiming a guitar he was selling was nicked from the punter. Shop owner kept repeating "I bought it in good faith, I bought it in good faith". Another time a ner-do-well turned up and tries to sell a cheap disposal camera still in the package, probably freshly lifted, and to his credit the owner was having none of it.
I didn't buy any there on Saturday.

Replay

I think the Bristol shop you are referring to, on Park street left hand side as you go out of the city centre, on a road junction is Replay, which is still there, and helpful. Imperial was on the right side of the road, and used to be the back end of a shoe/clothes shop, then expanded into the whole shop. Not next to a road through, and was very helpful.

I think Gloucester Road will be more favoured in Bristol on my next visit.

DS

David

Sadly the days of good old records shops seems to be long gone. 99% of my vinyl purchases are now of Ebay.

A lament...(brought to you by too many Cobras)...

Many years ago when I was a teenager and prolific buyer of vinyl there was a wonderful vinyl store in (what was) the Arcade in Sutton (Surrey). Many a Saturday am spent browsing and buying at a whim AND then there was Beanos in Croydon (Surrey Street days) which is sadly not the same.

So for me only Ebay can provide for my needs.

quote:

Originally posted by David Slater:
Dom,

Rustys

True the stuff started over the odds, but it was getting cheaper towards the end, so I caved in and bought a load of 7" singles @ 50p a pop.

Sound Machine

Still good for a browse, although the selection is a bit thinner recently. Bought a few albums last Saturday.

Music Man

I always remember being in Music Man when a bit of a fracas set off with a punter came in with a police woman and confronted the owner, claiming a guitar he was selling was nicked from the punter.

Replay

Imperial was on the right side of the road, and used to be the back end of a shoe/clothes shop, then expanded into the whole shop. Not next to a road through, and was very helpful.

Yeah - Sound Machine has been getting less vinyl, but they were shifting a HELL of a lot of 80s vinyl for a quid a pop a few months back - lurvely! I'll check them out next time I'm in Reading - it's been a while! Bev'll probably nag me for not being in sooner!

I heard a few rumours re Music Man as well - but, as you say, he's not a fence, and he always seems to check stuff like electronics with a fine tooth comb.

Rustys were getting cheaper? Thank fudge for that - £8 for a scratched copy of the Primitives' "Pure" wasn't a deal at all (I got mine for £1 in MVE, in fairly good nick).

As for Imperial - I remember them now - got a Hawkwind compilation in there when I saw Love there in 2002

Anyone in the Cobham, Surrey area should try Threshold Records on the High Street. Great for Classical and Jazz, but also have a collection of popular stuff and DVDs. It's run by a couple of very knowleagble guys. They are always happy to order in CDs at no charge. Most of the jazz stuff I have ordered has been competitive with Amazon and you don't have to wait for the postman!

apparently Select-a-disk in Berwick Street is selling up!!

It's not all bad news though, for Sister Ray fans anyway. From the Sister Ray New Release update:

EXITING NEWS !!!
We thought you'd like to know that in around six weeks time (exluding delays) we will be operating from new premises on Berwick Street - our current store will exist until Xmas when we are being evicted so redevelopment of Soho can take place - in the meantime, we will start operating from the current Select-a-Disc premises as well ! They are selling up and we will be continuing where they left off under the Sister Ray name. Nothing will change - we'll be taking over their stock as well and adding to it to hopefully become one of London's best record stores. Our mail order operation will still operate from our current premises until Xmas so the change won't affect current mail order customers for now. Once we are settled in expect to see more products across a more diverse range of artists, lots of instore appearances from bands and generally a bigger and better Sister Ray !

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I ALWAYS get something from Selectadisc when in Berwick St.

I will be there again on Thursday.

They are always busy everytime I go in, I'm surprised they can't find other premises, unless thier business model used too many staff.

I think Sister Ray has gone off the boil a bit in the last few years. It used to be crucial, now just useful. Not much / any Cologne stuff, not much post rock, a lot of slow moving rarities. They didn't even have Merzbox in stock as advertised!

Oh well, more time/expenditure in Rough Trade / Sounds of the Universe / Sister Ray / Smallfish / Eukatech / etc.

DS

Despite the situation in London today, I still went to Berwick Street, and discussed the Situation with Selectadisc / Sister Ray.

Sister Ray and going to take SD over in 3-4 weeks, but keep the same diverse product range and electic mis of sounds, and also kep the smaller Sister Ray shop going.

Good news then.

Most of the other shops were shut, for obvious reasons.

DS

It is a miserable time for record shops indeed. In Derby we had two dance music specialists one closed last year and the other month the long running BPM closed. BPM had been selling dance music for best part of twenty years. What I put the downfall on is two factors 1. internet downloads through P2P networks and 2. the failure of the old shops to adapt to online retailing. BPM were on the dance scene since year zero and they should have adapted to online retailing years ago and pressed to develop their online presence but they didn't and now they go the way of the dodo! look at the 3beat, juno, hard2find all sell truck loads of vinyhl through the net. Whilst going online is a good way to find the cheapest record (after loosing a bidding war for a record on eBay where it went for £35, i found it on an etailer for 8.50) its not quite the same buzz as spending half a day trawling through loads records and finding a treasure. Well all we have left in Derby for vinyl is Reveal and even their selection is a 1/3 of what it was 6 months ago.

My ex-wife and i used to own and run a little independant record shop in the south of england.

When cd first came along it was fantastic. Very one was buying players and wanted to replace all their vinyl with cd.

Then along came the supermarkets. We had a Tesco 2 mins walk from us and it killed us in every way. Sales went down so reps stopped coming in etc etc.

So, in a small way, we are all to blame. (even myself) for picking up the odd cd whilst our wives/girlfriends/mistresses etc perused the shelves for home essentials.

Then the final nail in the coffin- the internet.

Nuff said
Jason.

That's terrible news about Selectadisc. Although Sister Ray is taking it over I'm worried that a lot of the old magic will disappear. I use Sister Ray but it doesn't have the same vibe.

I can remember that Selectadisc was a godsend for vinyl addicts like me in the early/mid 90s. As the major retailers like Virgin and HMV cut back on LPs I was looking for a replacement and then I discovered this shop in Soho, heaving with vinyl. Wow - it was like finding Aladdin's cave!

Many of my most cherished records of the last 10 years or so by which I can chart the course of my life I've bought there - Definitely Maybe (that's the first one I can recall), OK Computer, Protection, Moon Safari, etc

I'll hopefully get down there for one last shop while it's still Selectadisc.

Paul