In Nottingham I shopped at Selectadisc where Phil looked after me very well and Funky Monkey which to be honest I wasn’t too joyed about as found some of the staff a tad annoying. Which was the one where Jonathan worked, was it Arcade (downstairs)? That was very good.
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Yes, was downstairs. Is it Phil S (Ask Yer Dad) from Selectadisc early 90’s?
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Yes indeed. As he sorted me lots of good records I did him the honour of being the first guest at a night I promoted. Lovely bloke, I never kept in touch when I took a hiatus from all things to do with clubs (with anyone in fact) so no idea where he went from there.
I concur, think he went to work for MOS and might still be involved in music.
Quite a random memory but remember Glen Gunner playing Sweet D’s ‘Thank Ya’ at a Sunday night at Venus, he was absolutely delighted to hear it aired.
Ask Yer Dad was a brilliant Thursday night, always rammed and things like ‘Tall n Handsome’ got a play downstairs whilst ‘Al-Naafiysh’ upstairs. Fab, unpretentious fun.
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Glad to hear he is still involved in music.
Ask Yer Dad was indeed fun. Everything was fun around that time ha
I spent far too much time and money in Beat Street in Bolton in the couple of years I lived in the town. Could get hold of anything (and more) that you could get down the road at Eastern Bloc and Mike and Pru were sound.
My favourite on the occasional trip to London was Tag, when they were in the Trocadero. A lovely bunch.!
Beat Street:
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Was Beat Street the one at the bottom of Bradshawgate? You could get all sorts in there, I lived in Bolton from 91-93, being Southern the general difference in regional music tastes meant the bargain rack was something else. Same with X records, the basement was jam packed full of records you just could not find in the south.
It was indeed. It was my regular haunt on Thursday evenings for late opening. Downstairs in X Records was ace as well and they had no idea what they’d got, so everything was reasonably priced!
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That’s right, I dread to think what records got missed at the time. It was a running joke with my mates about the number of “£1 Bolton bargains” i"d come home with
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IS was great. Lovely people! Ian and Steve possibly (hence the name)? I think they very briefly had a small second-hand shop over the road at the same time as the main shop, then lost the main shop and moved operations over to the smaller one for a while.
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Replay in Baff; As a teenager would jib the train on a Saturday AM from West Wilts, Mac D’s, Spliff & hang out there all day. Would always come home with a random Tin Rib “12. Happy days.
Yep - seem to remember the main shop got demolished & turned into a fairly dismal bar
Indeed it was - Chris and Vinnie gave me the heads up on It’s Broken the second they brought the boxes in (plus I live three blocks away and my own shop is on the same street) The Groove Merchant really deserves all the hyperbole, including when it was run by Andrew Jervis & Tom Thump & when the Beasties namechecked it.
Hello All… first post here, thanks for having me.
My first real record shop experience was in Holloway, London. Sounds to Go was the name and it was the first place I could get music other than the charts. It’s was on my way to school and I’d go in there regularly to just look and hear what the shop was playing.
There was a shop in Chapel Market right at the end where I bought my first import Mantronix Needle to the Groove (still got it)
From there I always remembered Music Power in Green Lanes, Harringay.
There’s the usual west end selection. I always loved Groove records. Such a small place.
There’s plenty more worthy of remembering but I’ll save them for another day.
Great forum.
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Used to pop into sounds to go when I lived in north London. Wasn’t it a husband and wife that ran it? They had a real mixed bag of selections
Early days were Oven Ready records and Global records in Aylesbury also Scorpion record and tape exchange and Buzz records in Wycombe. After that X records and beat Street in Bolton, Listen in Crouch End, Record Detective Agency in Palmers Green & Oxfam and Sounds Original in Ealing. Add every car boot sale and charity shop in between and that’s a lot of productive hours
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I brought a very stoned Lil B the Based God to Groove Merchant about a decade ago in what was definitely a high point for Waterfront meets the Sco relations.
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Here’s a little secret place I found whilst on holiday in Cornwall a few years back.
In Camborne, a real cornish town, ex drilling centre for the Tin mining industry, there is a shop called Lost in Music. Kind of a Headshop run by an ex brummie/still hippy called Art. No computer, no internet, back room stacked with records. I’d make the half hour train journey from St Ives and spend the whole afternoon digging in there. Wonderful.
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Yes that’s right. Forgot about that. Great place.
Yes! Picked up so many great bits from there😃
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