But in this small store I found a place to fit in, put down roots and grow. They would play me rare Mala, Coki, EZ or dubstep from a local producer. The lists are organized alphabetically, by genre, by company and by location. Source(s): record store ideas: https://tinyurl.im/Bbtq0. In 1980, high streets would have a dedicated record shop that served the needs of housewives, rockers, soul boys and skins. They were tiny, tatty – and terrific. Tim Jonze and The only certain thing was my love of music. 0 0. peter a. As we all know, a lot can change in 6 months. That's what kept me going back, week after week. Nor would I look at my fellow music-buyers, but I did eavesdrop on their conversations: tantalising mentions of Shellac, Hüsker Dü, DJ Shadow, Felt, Orange Juice, Super Furry Animals. I'm trying to think of some fun names for a record store. Spillers Records.co.uk. 26 of 49 The new Virgin Megastore in Birmingham High Street. Old man names have been fashionable for baby boys for so long now that many of them have morphed into popular baby names: Henry and Samuel rank among the top names in the US, while in the UK, Harry, Leo, and Oscar are all among their most popular baby names. Sometimes a bargain bin appeared with 7in singles 10p a go. It felt huge at the time and it's all the more astonishing now. It was the place where I first heard Bob Dylan, in the late summer of 1963, listening to Freewheelin' in one of those booths where the walls were covered with sound-deadening board, and there was just enough room for me and the girl. I would hold my breath and keep my eyes on the floor as I walked through. I wish I could remember what the shop was called. My friends and I used to leave school and head over to paw the vinyl in awe. old gramophone record player in a retro shop Derby England uk LP records and a pair of pink shoes, part of a Cancer Research Charity Shop window display. Aside from being an independent record shop that counts a who’s who of international DJs as regulars (Four Tet, Floating Points, Caribou, Dixon to name a few), Phonica has been instrumental in bringing a new type of record shop to the fore. Not forgetting the Monmouth Coffee bar at the front of the store and the stage that's hosted the likes of Blur and Queens Of The Stone Age. I never hung out with the popular crowd. We would sell everything, but the store would have a vintage motif, and we would actually have vinyls and such. My short-lived experiences are locked in that shop. I remember resting against the counter listening to Elliott Smith, Tortoise, the For Carnation. Founded in 1998, the best record emporium on the good ol' web. Reps from major labels would pull up outside and carry boxes of 12in singles from their Astra hatchbacks and stuff them into the 99p rack. It was in this shop that I first picked up a record by a band called the Smiths. We even have a list for comedy and soundtracks. The size is nowhere near as vast, but trawling the vintage vinyl basement for rarities and classic gems is always an enjoyable way to while away a rainy. 02392 753914. Record shops were an integral part of the social fabric in local areas. If you lived in the Birmingham suburb of Acocks Green in the early 80s, Easy Listening was yours. One weekend in the mid-1990s, the Woolworths in Gainsborough suddenly became inadequate. These are the very best record shops in the UK. Because sometimes digital downloads just won't do. The frisky, bell-like guitar-playing was a world away from the poodle rock bands on MTV had prepared us for. Alphabetical. Tower Records is back and online! An army of sleeves: Record Store Day limited editions – in pictures, The world's oldest record shop: on the vinyl frontier since 1894. A few weeks ago, a Guardian reader reminded me of those times: specifically, the occasion when I refused to let him hear Can't You Hear My Heartbeat by Herman's Hermits because it was so bad. Yet, without this escape route from a world in which none of my friends cared much about music, my life would have been, basically, a bit rubbish. Rebecca Nicholson. Record store name ideas? The store was invariably filled with equally intense looking young guys – and it did seem to be mostly men – methodically sifting through the albums. Peter Robinson, That said, its historical provenance is the main reason that this Welsh institution is a must-visit. 020 7392 7788. Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL. “A long time ago, there were these places that were filled with albums. Read on to find out who made our list of the UK’s best record shops. ), Then, a few years ago, I went to a car boot sale and the Sonic Sounds man was there, behind a table creaking with records I had flicked through 10 years ago. Alans Records. About Record Store. 53 Oldham Street, M1 1JR. 020 8549 5871. Focused on championing Scottish music, the store carries both new and used vinyl, some posters and a selection of local band CDs. You don’t have to shop around to get the best of both worlds. Pairing food and music for a record store venture that also offers a range of pies served with mash, mushy peas and liquor or gravy, available to enjoy onsite while browsing some of the store's specialist new music vinyl releases. First published on Sun 15 Apr 2012 18.15 BST. After all, it's the job of the record shop to open you up to new music and new forms. 1. To reach it, you had to navigate the sweat and clutter of a dozen teenage boys ogling skateboards and trying on Vans. This is especially the case with Be Here Now, the act of queuing outside a shop on a Thursday morning being more memorable than the record itself. It specialises in rock, pop, indie and alternative music on vinyl and CD, as well as the odd disco, funk and Balearic cut. 020 7229 8541. Life got really exciting. Vinyl's finding yet more fans despite the meteoric rise in streaming services. Very decently, Keith allowed me to order expensive imported Blue Note albums, even though he and I knew there would be no takers for Grachan Moncur III's Some Other Stuff. Kieran Yates, Ten readers tell us about their most loved music shops, Your support powers our independent journalism, Available for everyone, funded by readers. Located on the opposite side of the street from Reckless Records, Sister Ray emerged in Soho’s thriving record store domain after a humble beginning as a Camden Market stall. The store also doubles up as a regular live music venue. This legendary record shop’s owner had the good foresight to lend former hired hand James Lavelle £1,000 to set up Mo’ Wax records in the early 1990s. One of my friends and I are playing with the idea of opening our own record store, but we need a name!! The largest record store in all of the Nordic countries, 30-year-old shop Bengans boasts 700 square meters of records and regular in-stores with huge names … Recordstore.co.uk emerged as an oasis for music fans unable to find their latest fix on the highstreet. Sonic Sounds, with its piles of records and CDs and T-shirts crammed into a tiny upstairs room, had a kind man behind the counter who would recommend things to accommodate my widening tastes. What Records has been a major UK record retailer since 1981. We’d congregate in these monuments to music, and spend hours going through albums, and talking about bands. yelp.co.uk. Scotland may have invented indie pop, but they've certainly perfected the sale of it. On Saturday 3 May, Old Spitalfields Market is set to host an Easter edition of the Independent Label Market. I built up a collection for next to nothing. Connect your domain with best-in-class tools like G Suite, Name.com Email, and powerful shared hosting. Tim Jonze. Here are the very best places to do so in Britain. 63 Cockburn Street, EH1 1BS. We have great lists of UK Punk, Metal, Reggae & Soul, Indie, 50s & 60s and Dance, as well as a specialist list for Beatles, Stones and Queen collectors. It’s been tough to stick to just 10 weird record store names given the incredible amount we’ve received and the outstanding creativity of record store owners to name their babies. What did Pavement, Mogwai, Jurassic 5 and Mercury Rev actually sound like? 12-13 Conduit Street, W1S 2XQ. The aim of this site is to record the history of the record shop in an accessible archive, to hold intrinsic details that could get lost in the mix, and to celebrate the role that the record shop played. Last year we took a closer look at the geographical data of record stores on VinylHub; the volume of record stores in countries and cities, distribution per capita, the biggest concentration of record stores, furthest distance between two record stores, and the world’s most remote record store. But I challenge anyone to love their teenage music more than I loved those singles I bought in Woolworths. Monorail, Glasgow. Rise Music. A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music.In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were developed, such as eight track tapes, compact cassettes and compact discs (CDs). What's not to love? I was preposterously shy. Old Spitalfields Market, EC1 6EW. Having opened in 1894, Spillers is the world's oldest record shop. Those journeys home with a pink paper bag stuffed with CDs – and I had little idea about how they would sound – were almost as important as the music itself. They launched pop stars, record labels, and were focal points for emerging music genres. The John Varvatos London store doubles up as a record store as well as selling the brand's innovative menswear. I was never invited to those raucous parties everyone gossiped about on Mondays at school. The Pet Sounds window display has triggered many a discovery within the world of pop and rock. But don't worry, there are plenty more Old Man Names where those came from! Independent Label Market. I'd go in, head for the chart wall, and see if they had what I'd heard on Radio 1. 27 of 49 With Record Store Day coming round once again, it’s time to look at some of our the best record stores from around the world. Rough Trade. 0207 734 3297. Retail Unit 1, The Bluecoat, School Lane, L1 3BX. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. All products are independently selected by our editors. Focusing on new music from a range of genres including indie, punk, electro, house and drum 'n' bass, as well as running the shop's own successful record label, Banquet Records. Vinyl: These are the best record shops in the UK | British GQ Piccadilly Records. The tools you need. Sarfraz Manzoor, On a trip to Bristol, I stumbled into a shop called Idle Hands: a cramped, shoebox of a store you could hear from a mile away. On 21 August 1997, I switched off my alarm, rose, and headed out to What Records in Hinckley, Leicestershire, to queue to be among the first to buy Oasis's third album, Be Here Now. 61 Castle Road, PO5 3AY. Maybe half-a-dozen doors down from the Odeon cinema, where the Beatles played, it was in the city centre and had the best stock for anyone who fancied himself as a hipster. Then a miracle happened. Independent stores are unlikely to reach levels seen in the 1980s, when there were more than 2,200 in the UK, but some record shop lovers, like Jones, are cautiously optimistic about the future. The shop no longer exists, but these days Hinckley's teenagers can get a far richer musical education online. The Music Exchange. Kieran Yates, Sun 15 Apr 2012 18.15 BST Rough Trade. We're here for you . Nor did I "lose entire Saturdays browsing the racks", as old stuff was of no interest. Opening just in time to catch the Eighties' post-punk scene spawning local artists like Joy Division and The Fall, Piccadilly Records remains one of Manchester's finest independent record store. Pie & Vinyl. He hated the way I waited for my favourite single to drop out of the charts before snapping it up from the 50p rack and the time I would spend deliberating over which of two 7in singles was more deserving of my pocket money. Music fans didn't so much visit it as make a pilgrimage. Laura Barton. I was there to buy music I would invariably listen to in my bedroom by myself. 020 8883 0234. Banquet Records. I never went to a youth club. I was too shy to have a girlfriend and had no idea what I was going to do with my life. It's the area's coolest record store and it works with homeless charity Framework, acting as a platform for vulnerable individuals to gain independence and social skills through volunteering in the shop. Few UK cities have a popular music history that's as rich as Liverpool's. I usually went with my friend Mark on Saturdays: we would walk in and agree to reconvene after an hour of intense browsing. What made Vinyl Exchange so addictive was that there was no way I was ever going to work through every shelf. The East Grinstead branch of Boots didn't stock enough singles, WH Smith seemed too expensive, and the town's independent record store Jingles (now a computer shop, irony fans) wouldn't open for another five years. Named after a Velvet Underground song and perhaps most famous for its inclusion on the album cover of Oasis' classic (What's The Story?) Alan's Records was a small shop with a tatty front that faced the new market building in Wigan. Around the corner stood one of those "everything" shops that sold, alongside perfume and cheap watches, bootleg cassettes. #vinyl #music Some of the best UK record shops are seeing an increase in vinyl sales. Triumph Records (UK) Trepan Records; Trend Records; Tru Thoughts; Truck Records; Trunk Records; Tumi Music; V. V2 Records; Valentine Records; The Village Thing; Vinyl Solution; The Viper Label; VIP Records; Virgin Records (until 1992; sold to EMI, now under UMG) Visible Noise; W. Wall of Sound; Warp Records; Whirlwind Recordings; Wichita Recordings; Willkommen Records; Wiiija