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:	12/12
Date and time:	07/01/2012 at 09:12:35
Sender:	lesley Hollywood(was Gylanders)

I spent 13 years working for Harlequin Records,mostly in the West End and City,but ended up in Bromley,Kent,at which point the dreaded take over by Our Price happened and it ruined everything!Those were the best years of my life,wonderful workmates,especially all those in Great Poultney St(remember The Glasshouse pub)?Sadly Mossy and Mr Krieger have now passed on,but what wonderful times we had,and what a magnificent chain of record shops they were,full of knowledgeable people,who knew what they were talking about and were only too eager to pass on info to customers.I wouldn�t change that part of my life for anyhting.

Message:	11/12
Date and time:	02/08/2011 at 20:16:42
Sender:	Adrian Perkins

I remember spending many hours at OPUS RECORDS in Palmers Green. they had small booths at the back of the shop with large cupped headphones, I first heard Pink Floyds Dark side of the moon there and was blown away. You could also buy quadrophonic albums there, my mates dad owned a very flash sony set up and would send us there to buy a few at a time and those albums were about 3 times the price of an ordinary L.P. The guys there were pretty helpful and genned up on the latest sounds.

Message:	10/12
Date and time:	08/07/2011 at 23:28:04
Sender:	Alan Somerset

I used to visit Terrapin Trucking in Crouch End. Run by a big fella, Simon there was always lots of interesting stuff on offer including a few "innocent" bootleg CD's from time to time. I remember lots of Caravan albums and a great second hand section, The T-Shirts were good too.

Message:	9/12
Date and time:	28/06/2011 at 22:07:36
Sender:	Alan Somerset

I remember Opus Records in Palmers Green. Very laid back, could spend hours in there browsing and listening to stuff like Yes, King Crimson, Argent, ELP. When you finally bought something it came in a very thin flimsy olive green bag.

Message:	8/12
Date and time:	19/06/2011 at 21:09:07
Sender:	Will Shewring

Anyone remember Opus records in Palmers Green and Southgate ?

Message:	7/12
Date and time:	17/06/2011 at 00:10:01
Sender:	John Devon

I worked in Harum Records in Enfield in 1983. It was badly run & went bust. No loss.

Message:	6/12
Date and time:	13/05/2011 at 14:26:38
Sender:	gary

1974/5/6 there was a tiny little record place in the basement of a sort of clothes emporium in Newport Court. You came out of Leicester Sq station and turned left (going towards Cambridge Circus) and on the left was Newport Court and a few doors along on the left was this shop. You went down some rickety stairs into a tiny basement. They used to have a 'Review Records' rack which consisted of records which I assumed NME/MM journalists had brought in to make a bit of extra money to fund their....whatever. They used to have a good selection of Import albums as well. If you came back out of the shop and continued up Newport Court, at one time on the right was Soho Open Market which was basically an open air area selling tat - jeans mostly from what I remember. But there was a record stall there called Rock On (which later moved to a proper shop in Camden Town) which sold singles and fanzines and stuff. This was just prior to punk (1974/5)so there was a definite feeling in the air of music getting tougher and more exciting: Eddie & The Hot Rods and Count Bishops and Kilburn & The High Roads...the whole 'pub rock' thing. Apparently The Jam played an early gig at Soho Open Market.

Message:	5/12
Date and time:	13/05/2011 at 14:10:20
Sender:	gary

Harum in Crouch End was a great shop. Me and my friend used to go down every saturday morning to peruse the second hand stuff. Can't remember what the going rate was for a s/h album was then - they weren't cheap but they were certainly cheaper than buying 'em new and you obviously had a good look at them for scratches before parting with the cash. I remember another record shop opening close by called Spanish Moon (after the Little Feat song I assumed). Don't know how long this shop was around for because this was towards the end of my Harum-going days (late 70s I guess).

Message:	4/12
Date and time:	08/10/2010 at 13:22:49
Sender:	Spencer Baldwin

I used to work in Harum Records in the mid-eighties.....In fact, my first proper job in 1983 (I think) was 2 weeks in the Muswell Hill branch (they had 4 others, Archway, Barnet, Crouch End and Enfield). After my initiation in Muswell Hill I was moved more permanently to the tiny Crouch End shop at the bottom of Crouch Hill. There was just enough space behind the counter for me and the manager, Eric. My musical education was there was incredible, if it wasn't learning from Eric or the plethora of record company reps that visited daily (nothing to do with it being a chart return shop, oh no!) it was the amazing locals. We bought and sold secondhand records which I was allowed to buy at cost so my collection grew very rapidly indeed. Two unforgettable regular customers would have to be Chris and Keith. 'The boys' as we referred to them were 6'2, 25 stone identical twins and they were both blind, I assume from birth. These guys walked together along Crouch End Broadway to the shop every Saturday morning without fail. The took up the entire counter for a couple of hours, other customers had to work around them! They had the most incredible musical knowledge too, what one didn't know the other was sure to so we saved up various inquiries to ask of them each week. They asked for a copy of every album or single before it was added to their considerable pile (they spent about �70 each per week on average, in 1983!), they took it out of the sleeve and inner sleeve and would be able to tell what label it was on just from feeling the pressing with their fingers!! I swear on my life that is the truth. We had a fair number of 'celebs' come through the door too. Madonna, Bob Dylan would probably be the most famous but Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart's studio was 20 yards across the street so they were around a lot obviously. The directors were three mates who clearly loved the business and knew what they were doing in it. One of them, Colin Carter was in a comedy/covers band called Snacks at the Bar. At least once a year we'd all head down to Kentish Town to see them play. I eventually moved on to the biggest branch in Enfield and from there into the music business which I have worked in ever since. It was fun going back to those times for a while, if anyone remembers me from those days drop me a line - Spencerbaldwin@me.com Cheers, Spencer.

Message:	3/12
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

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