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Rob1742

Favourite Record Shop

By Rob1742, in The Music Forum

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Rob1742

Rob1742

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Posted

St.Martins Records was the one for me. I can still remember going down after school one day to pick up Motörhead - No Sleep Til Hammersmith.

 

Liked Ainleys and Revolver, but for me St.Martins had more at £3.99, whereas you could end up paying £4.49 for the same album at the former two. 

 

Have to to admit though, if it was £3.99 at Revolver they would normally get the business as their bag was better, and so think it was a bit cooler walking around town with a Revolver bag.

 

Did a bit in Cank Street records when I didn't have enough dough to buy a full price album. Bit stinky and dark in there, but got the odd album at £2 or £2.50. But not the same feeling as getting your brand new album from one of the other stores.

 

A.G. Kemble in Wigston and Saffron Lane worth a mention. Picked up loads of singles from the Saffron Lane one at very cheap prices as they were old stock. Took a gamble on many a rock single from there, never heard of many of them, but at 25p, it was worth the risk and got some belters from there. 

 

Think i I have covered off all my favourites in there. Happy memories, happy times, walking around with you LP in town on a Saturday morning. 

 

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Jay

Jay

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Obviously not growing up in Leicester mine are a bit different.

 

The record shop in Grantham, think I kept them in business for a few years! Barry the owner would keep promos etc for me and pre internet I would go in with a list of stuff I wanted, had read in the NME (back when it was relevant) or had heard on john peel the previous week.  Back then they would put the show listings on teletext the following week and I would make notes and then check the listings before going in to order them.

 

selectadisc in Nottingham simply the best record shop ever.

 

the music exchange Nottingham, sadly now closed but a great place where the people would remember you, and you felt valued. One of the guys from the music exchange has now set up forever records in Nottingham 

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SpacedX

SpacedX

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49 minutes ago, Rob1742 said:

St.Martins Records was the one for me. I can still remember going down after school one day to pick up Motörhead - No Sleep Til Hammersmith.

 

Liked Ainleys and Revolver, but for me St.Martins had more at £3.99, whereas you could end up paying £4.49 for the same album at the former two. 

 

Have to to admit though, if it was £3.99 at Revolver they would normally get the business as their bag was better, and so think it was a bit cooler walking around town with a Revolver bag.

 

Did a bit in Cank Street records when I didn't have enough dough to buy a full price album. Bit stinky and dark in there, but got the odd album at £2 or £2.50. But not the same feeling as getting your brand new album from one of the other stores.

 

A.G. Kemble in Wigston and Saffron Lane worth a mention. Picked up loads of singles from the Saffron Lane one at very cheap prices as they were old stock. Took a gamble on many a rock single from there, never heard of many of them, but at 25p, it was worth the risk and got some belters from there. 

 

Think i I have covered off all my favourites in there. Happy memories, happy times, walking around with you LP in town on a Saturday morning. 

 

There was World Records on the London Road - moved to Queens Road as I recall and the guy in the basement below The Very Bazaar. Cank St. was Fitz and a bloke called Richard Smith (not the Leicester Player although his entire family were massive City fans). What about Boogaloo on Granby Street and Archers, which was formerly AT Brown on Highcross Street and later moved to High Street.

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fazzyfox

fazzyfox

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A lot of those shops mentioned complimented each other well, we had a really good blend of 2nd hand and new shops, independants and majors and you got to a point where you could gauge which would be the best destination for a particular release or you'd do them all if you wanted to browse.

 

Archers, World Records and Boogaloo often took my dinner money as I'd visit every couple of days and buy a couple of 7"s or an album. The hours spent in World Records basement you fealt like a pot holer, you'd go down the stairs clean shaven and come up them with a beard and six bags of records for just a tenners outlay.

 

There was an independant trader who was underground near that old Sweet shop in town, before having a shop in Silver Arcade and then re-appeared near Paper Tiger who had some "Where the **** did you get that from" rare items, more indie than pop, by doing the rounds year in year out they all contributed to your collection including good old Woolworths who in days when albums were typically £5.99 would have a boxing day sale of 99p - £3.99 albums, which let you broaden your collection more easily (with s**t you"d only play once!) Rockaboom has always been great for me but I really miss going on a monday morning for the CD singles which were a way in to try out various bands before investing in the albums. Our Price always left me cold, their price indeed, they used to slap "Double CD" stickers on editions with a free bonus disc and charge extra at a time when no-one else would. When their LP's and tapes were on sale at 99p my self imposed boycott was tempoarily suspended though. Records were everywhere, clothes shops would have little sections, basements, market stalls, newsagents etc.WHSmiths did singles too so those Christmas vouchers had a use (and stationery is just for girls anyway).

 

Outside of Leicester, the run of three selectadiscs in Nottingham (singles, 2nd hand, albums) which I'd lose whole afternoons to, Tower in London for U.S. and Japanese imports and WOM (World of Music) in Hamburg for Japanese, U.S. and German releases of UK bands.

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Bellend Sebastian

Bellend Sebastian

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Posted

I was a big fan of MG Discs (was it MG records originally - it was CD only by the time I got involved with it) but it was utterly depressing to see its demise unfold over a couple of years.  Should never have moved from the top of Granby Street - easy to say with hindsight.

 

Bought tons of new release stuff in Castles, but rarely ventured into LLP.  Spent too much time for too little return in the second hand places in Leicester - Backtrack, in particular.

 

14 hours ago, fazzyfox said:

Rockaboom has always been great for me but I really miss going on a monday morning for the CD singles which were a way in to try out various bands before investing in the albums.

That was my life for about 15 years.  The demise of the CD single was as sad as the demise of the shops themselves, for me.  I bought hundreds of them, frequently without even having heard the act, let alone the track - had surprisingly few disasters doing this

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Trav Le Bleu

Trav Le Bleu

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16 hours ago, fazzyfox said:

A lot of those shops mentioned complimented each other well, we had a really good blend of 2nd hand and new shops, independants and majors and you got to a point where you could gauge which would be the best destination for a particular release or you'd do them all if you wanted to browse.

 

Archers, World Records and Boogaloo often took my dinner money as I'd visit every couple of days and buy a couple of 7"s or an album. The hours spent in World Records basement you fealt like a pot holer, you'd go down the stairs clean shaven and come up them with a beard and six bags of records for just a tenners outlay.

 

There was an independant trader who was underground near that old Sweet shop in town, before having a shop in Silver Arcade and then re-appeared near Paper Tiger who had some "Where the **** did you get that from" rare items, more indie than pop, by doing the rounds year in year out they all contributed to your collection including good old Woolworths who in days when albums were typically £5.99 would have a boxing day sale of 99p - £3.99 albums, which let you broaden your collection more easily (with s**t you"d only play once!) Rockaboom has always been great for me but I really miss going on a monday morning for the CD singles which were a way in to try out various bands before investing in the albums. Our Price always left me cold, their price indeed, they used to slap "Double CD" stickers on editions with a free bonus disc and charge extra at a time when no-one else would. When their LP's and tapes were on sale at 99p my self imposed boycott was tempoarily suspended though. Records were everywhere, clothes shops would have little sections, basements, market stalls, newsagents etc.WHSmiths did singles too so those Christmas vouchers had a use (and stationery is just for girls anyway).

 

Outside of Leicester, the run of three selectadiscs in Nottingham (singles, 2nd hand, albums) which I'd lose whole afternoons to, Tower in London for U.S. and Japanese imports and WOM (World of Music) in Hamburg for Japanese, U.S. and German releases of UK bands.

100% what you said about Our Price. Yet it was always busy, probably due to it's location. The general public just want an easy sale of stuff that sounds like stuff they've heard a hundred times on the radio.

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boots60

boots60

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Kembles in Wigston was my first record shop before graduating to Revolver (on the market before they had a shop) Selectadisc ( weren't there for long as they put all their efforts into the Notts shop) & Ainleys  ( the first one, on Charles street)

On visits to the smoke, always gravitated to the record shops on Berwick Street where you could buy hard to find vinyl at reasonable prices. That's all changed now, just a couple of shops selling overpriced CDs to tourists.

Good to see vinyl making a comeback.

 

 

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hairy

hairy

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Revolver mainly in their market shop. Used to spend hours in there 'digging'

St Martins too. BPM was a good one, originally on Granby Street then Loseby Lane

 

Kembles in Wigston was one of the few you could places you could get reggae for many years. If you wanted to have a good reggae spend we often went to Camden (before it was hip)

 

Now its all online. Norman, Juno, Amazon, Boomkat and Bandcamp.

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FLAN

FLAN

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For a short while there was a small one downstairs in what is now the Orange Tree pub building (The Tree). I think it was below a sports/clothes shop at the time. Javan from BPM worked in there I think 

5HQ started out as Sneakers in silver arcade 

buying digital just doesn’t have the same feeling  does it?  Remember when you knew a track was coming out for weeks before you got your hands on it…

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Wolfox

Wolfox

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Steps Ahead in the silver arcade was ace…. Spent way too much money there

 

There was an interesting shop opposite the Grand Hotel too (can’t remember the name) but I brought a Betty Davis album and some Mojo Club compilation albums from there…

 

There was a good second hand shop on Clarendon Park Road…. Love De Luxe, Joy Division and Breeders all picked up for a song…

 

Spent way too much time at Honest John’s records in Portobello…. Another great shop in Camden and a load of interesting bootleg compilation vinyl on the market too

 

The oddest one was was (if I remember correctly?).  A shop that was mainly mail order near the train station…. Specialsed in the avante garde…. Run by two Polish twins…. Was quite amazing and would feature heavily on the freak zone I’m sure!  You could only get in by invite

Edited by Wolfox
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