Record shops
London record shops: Our Price Records and others
Bookshops and record shops come and go in London - and that includes chains as well as independents. Let London-RIP tell you one such story. Once upon a time there was a chain of record shops called Harlequin Records. They were not very exciting, but they were what we had in them days. Then, in 1971, a man called Gary Nesbitt opened a shop called Tape Revolution in Swiss Cottage. This was devoted to selling that miracle of sound recording, the eight track, as well as cassettes. When it became clear that these were not the future of rock 'n' roll, Tape Revolution opted to sell the tried and trusted vinyl record, and changed the name of the by then shops to Our Price Records. Our Price did rather well and its owners were emboldened to buy the Harlequin chain. The new Our Price chain did jolly well and expanded.
Eventually, Our Price owned literally hundreds of stores. Every high street had one and they won a kind of affection, despite the uninspired name. Thirty or so years on, the chain was bought by Virgin. It was a high street fixture by then, as immutable as Boots or WH Smith (which it was actually owned by when Virgin purchased it). Virgin promptly turned a lot of the Our Price shops into V Shops, which seemed to operate on the peculiar assumption that when you went out to buy a CD, what you actually wanted to do was go on the Internet or buy a mobile phone. Most of the shops were soon bought by the bizarrely-named Sanity (big in Australia) which sold them in 2003. And it came to pass that they did close down. And today... the stores are no more and the record shop is no longer a fixture of every high street. Now, what was all that about?
London record shops: RIP Terrapin Trucking
We liked Terrapin Trucking in Crouch End. This was a specialist record shop, in this case stocking an eclectic collection of psychedelia and prog rockish stuff. Sounds grim, but it actually offered the chance to get to know some interesting music. They had a particularly good Grateful Dead CD and T shirt selection. The Dead aren't just for hippies, y'know.
London record shops: RIP Harum Records
Going somewhat futher back, we really loved Harum Records in Muswell Hill. In the late 70s this had the best punk selection imaginable. It was just a great shop, very friendly and unsnotty. Going there and then for something to eat at the St James cafe was a favourite London-RIP jaunt.
London record shops: RIP Rhythm Records
Rhythm Records was a mainstay of Camden Town for 20 years and used to be Honest Jon's before that moved to Portobello Road. This was where you went to get all your indie stuff and where musicians hung out, particularly during the Britpop era. RR's basement was a feature. It was dank and, well, basement-like with a spiral staircase going down. A good selection of second hand stuff too. Why not tell us about your favourite departed record shop? Contact London R.I.P
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| Message: | 3/3 |
| Date and time: | 13/10/2009 at 21:59:15 |
| Sender: | Karl-Heinz Koch |
| Harlequin Records... - As a frequent visitor to your capital I can tell you that the shop in the Haymarket was some kind of myth to us young folks from the continent - I made my first journey (I'm from Germany) to London in 1969, and all of my friends who had been there before advised me to go there - the best record-shop in the world! And I do still vividly recall my first visit: The ancient wooden door with a plate on it - it read "London's original 24-hour record-store" (Remember, that was 3 decades prior to Tower, on the opposite side of the circus!) , though 24 hours it wasn't, but they opened before normal office time and stayed open to allow a buy after the last pint, if I remember that right. I loved the singles-counter in the basement, where you could order by number, like, no. 8, no. 13 and no. 21, from the charts on display - I remember having bought some 30-plus items on my first visit there... - aaah, and you got a nice paper-bag with the company-ensigns nicely printed on - too much a treasure to be thrown into the bin - those were the days. In the years to come, Harlequin was always my first port of call, later on, musical tastes changing, I myself changed to Dean Street - they specialised in hard to get country-rock and US-westcoast (for me, the order of the day) - a collector's heaven. AND they played the music loudly instore - they had a beast of a self-built amplifier named "Vindicator" behind the desk, does anyone remember THAT ONE??? Our Price could never make up for the loss of Harlequin, so... - Many more shops, as we all know, are gone, perhaps I'll come back with some thoughts about that after some brainstorming (by the way, do any of you local people know what went to that beautiful icecream-parlour in Churchfield Road in Acton? Opposite this chinese takeaway, next to the defunkt chairs to the old Tesco, now demolished - Of course, quite another story - RIP) - See you, Karl-Heinz | |
| Message: | 2/3 |
| Date and time: | 09/06/2009 at 21:02:56 |
| Sender: | Sue Howling |
| I worked at Harlequin Records Head Office, 32 Great Pulteney Street,from around 1975 until about 1978 I was then made redundant when the boss, Mr. Krieger, or could be Kreiger, I never could get it right and the son ( Paul ) of Mr.K always moaned at me for getting it wrong. I remember Mossy, Executive Director, Lovely guy, Joyce, the secretary. Thomas Mordecai, the accountant. Gerry, who did the wages, and later married Fred. Celia who worked in the office and whose husband Clive did deliveries. I remember at Christmas time we worked around the clock to get orders out, 12 hrs+ shifts with friends and relatives also working alongside. One guy, Kevin had been working for around 18 hours and I came across him, standing upright against a record rack....fast asleep....clipboard in hand. There was I think a kind of juke box business at the back of the office. Records were 'dinked' by hand on a dinking machine. Basicially, it just knocked the centre out of the vinyl, but 'dinking' was all the rage in 1975. You were very important to be in charge of such technology. Everything was done by hand and pen and ink, cheques, one of my jobs, were written and signed by hand. Paperwork was carbon copied and filed. Even the telephone had a dial. I remember the day we had a brand new Olivetti Accounting Machine. Probably the equivalent of the hubble nowadays!!!! It was like 6 feet wide, 4 feet in depth and made a noise like a chinook. I was the operator on that, Tom the accountant had so much faith in it, he had one of the office staff add up all the invoices to see if the machine matched the total. OMG there are so many memories flooding back, Peter from the Dean Street branch, So Gay, he arrived at work one morning, we are talking 1975/6, in a white lace shirt, teeny tiny denim shorts and knee high white socks, on his way to Greece for his holidays, followed by his mum, the office cleaner, in a full length white fur coat he had bought her, followed by Mr. K laughing is head off about, "Do the Greeks know what is coming" I think I will sign off now because this is now becoming...NEXT WEEK AT HARLEQUIN. But all in all, HARLEQUIN was a great time for me..R.I.P Floris in Brewer Street, the BEST EVER cake shop in the world. R.I.P Anything LeftHanded in Beak Street, I used to buy for my sister and later my son. R.I.P The Sandwich Shop in Beak Street, They would make you any sandwich you wanted, and the R.I.P The Paper Shop at the top of Gt Pulteney St. One of the first shops in London I ever heard of giving credit. I have so many fond memories of HARLEQUIN RECORDS and the time I worked there. I actually blagged my way into that job. I lied to Tom the accountant, I told him I had worked in an office, but I was straight from the factories in the Midlands. haha everytime he asked what I did, I said..Well! I opened letters, and I erm made tea, and opened letters etc. Good old Tom. Thank You for taking the time to read this prolonged email. | |
| Message: | 1/3 |
| Date and time: | 19/09/2006 at 00:00:22 |
| Sender: | London-RIP |
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