London record shops 3
RIP Stern’s Record Shop
This site has shed tears in the passing of some of London's best-loved erstwhile record shops. Recently, I experienced the same sense of loss when I passed Stern's record shop in Warren Street to discover that it had closed down.
Stern's was the epicentre of the African music scene in London, where helpful staff guided you through the byways of recent African releases. There was always a real spirit of enthusiasm for the music. They started off in smaller premises in Whitfield Street, later moving to former bank premises at 74/5 Warren Street.
They opened a cafe and expanded the range of records sold. If I was being honest, I always felt it was a missed opportunity with too much wasted space and the cafe being consitently mediocre with dull food and unpleasant coffee. But it was still the best place to hear the latest West African music that I have always loved and to mingle with devotees.
A combination of rising property costs, online business and falling cafe trade eventually killed off the shop. I believe they still trade on the net, but a shop has a heartbeat and is a meeting place for different cultures. Now Stern's has gone to be replaced by a bookie's. Instead of the glorious tones of Baaba Maal and Salif Keita, you can hear the 3.15 from Haydock Park. Such is progress.
RIP Mole Jazz
Trevor Barre mourns a lost jazz emporim
1983, the year I moved to London, one of the first things I did being a (relatively) neophyte jazz listener, was to track down the 'pure' jazz emporiums that sold both new and second-hand LPs.
Probably the outlet I miss, for reasons geographical as much as anything, is Mole Jazz, situated over several years at first one, then another, shop in central Kings Cross. From my very first weeks in London, it provided a bolthole to the unadulterated world of all periods and styles of jazz.
Overweight blokes of indeterminate age
Indeed briefly, its distinctive logo (of the mammal concerned, wearing braces and check trousers and blowing an alto saxophone) not only graced the shop frontage, but also a series of records produced (briefly) on the Mole Jazz label. This released useful LPs by Art Pepper and Tubby Hayes before going under.
Compared to other jazz shops, the staff at Mole were initially less friendly. However, having run a record shop in the 1970s, this didn't phase me. It might have been a bit off-putting for some though, as perhaps was the general essence de muso atmosphere. The staff seemed mostly overwieght blokes of indeterminate age, with long hair, who were joined in version two by a woman who tended to work in the upstairs of the shop with the surviving vinyl.
Moles grow on you
Mole would grow on you though. It offered a self-contained, hands-on, unhurried experience of expanding your jazz horizons, with like-minded people (mostly men, I'm afraid), many with the equivalent of supermarket shopping lists to help them along.
At some point, Mole closed (completely, as far as I can ascertain)
- was it the rates?
- Is it one more victim of online shopping (effective, but lacking a certain je ne sais quoi)?
- Is it a sign that classic jazz (say, arbitrarily, Armstrong to Braxton, 1925 to 1990) has lost its popularity? It wouldn't be the first time.
Answers on an inner sleeve, please...
We want to hear what you've got to say..
Leave a message for us here.Messages
| Message: | 1/1 |
| Date and time: | 09/06/2009 at 20:50:42 |
| Sender: | Simon Brooks |
| Manzi's (not the fish restaurant) one of the last record shops with listening booths. Used to pop down from UCS in Frognal to listen to latest releases. The guy that used to run it often turned up announcing acts onstage at assorted concerts. Other great record store: One Stop in South Molten St and Virgin Imports in Sloane Square. | |
