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Record shops in Bham

T

tony sammons

New Member
Where did you buy your records from, pre - HMV, Virgin, etc,etc

Diskery, Reddingtons, WH Smith, Midland Educational.

there were other many record shops locally in and around the Bham suburbs. I recall visiting a shop on Stratford Rd, Sparkbrook, on a Saturday morning, aroudn 9.00am, to buy the release of Led Zep VI, and many others.
Any listening to many "new bands" in Virgin Records, Corporations St, who can forget the black vinyl padded seating, and the "warm headphones"
what are your memories of record shops around Bham
 
The Music Box on the Coventry Road in Sheldon, every Friday after work i
would pop in and choose three newly released singes at 6/8 ea, 3 for £1.

They would have the new releases delivered to them each Friday which
was co-incidentally my pay day.

Never bought any albums from there though for some reason

I believe it is an Italian Restaurant nowadays...


regards Neville..
 
For some reason I was attracted to The Diskery and became friends with the Jimmy the manager and Erskine the D.J. who worked there. Erskine is now no longer with us but Jimmy is still manager and the shop is now on the corner of Bromsgrove St.
 
I used to try and find ex Juke Box singles, particularly old Hollies examples

and found Henry's store, of all places, was very productive for that.


regards
Neville..
 
Hi Nev, the record shop on Stratford Road was George Green, my brother Ray and I used to buy all our records from there in the late 1940s, I remember he bought a radiogram, and he wouldnt let me touch it never
mind put a recond on! Bernard
 
Oddly, i can remember which albums i bought from where, how sad is that?

When i lived in Moseley i used to walk down to the Stratford Rd
and a record store owned by Move/ELO drummer Bev Bevan.

Can't remember what the store was called, but never saw Bev in there.


regards
Neville..
 
Can't remember the name of the record store but it was under Lewis's it may even have belonged to the store but every Saturday I'd get the bus into brum, have a knickerbockerglory in the cafe under Lewis's, nip into the record store, buy the latest hits then bus home to annoy my folks by playing them too loud and too often.
 
yeah ,there was a little place by lewises under ground, and you could go there and listen to the latest on the head phones in the booths there .later on i wet to reddingtons as you could always or near enough buy the elusive oldie from there.in 1967 i would walk up from garrison lane to coventry road and buy my weekly single with pocket money i was eleven yrs old then,
 
The record shop in corporation street, I think it was next to harry parkes sports shop just above the minories, can't remember it's name, please help.
 
The record shop on The Flat - cant remember the name, but there was someone called Martin who worked there in the early 60s. My 2 brothers and I used to put 2s.0d each and whoever's turn to pick the record put the extra 4d.
 
Murdochs was the one I used to go in and I knew the manageress, she would give me all the latest stuff and I would go into one of the little booths and play them on the record player installed in each one.
 
deritendboy said:
The record shop in corporation street, I think it was next to harry parkes sports shop just above the minories, can't remember it's name, please help.
Click to expand...

Hi Deritend Boy,

That was Murdoch's, I used to buy my records there too, -
remember the booths like telephone boxes?

Kind regards

Dave
 
'The Diskery' has filled a gap in my memory thay I have been trying to fill for ages - the name of a record shop (I hope).
In the early to mid fifties me and my friends from school would go to this record shop to hunt out Records by King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Sleepy John Estes, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Lonnie Donnegan, Elvis, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Broonzy, etc., Of course they were 78s. Lps were just coming in; 10 inches and also eps; Rock Around the Clock was on a 10 inch. I bought my first ep from there; a Dizzie Gillespie. I had no radiogram then and so the ep was ruined immediately when I played it on my wind up.
So, I am sure it was the Diskery. Where was the shop exactly. I remember going down Digbeth way. The chap that ran the shop was amazing. You would ask for a record and he would quote the reference number straight away from memory and pull it out of the rack. H was a very friendly chap. Up stairs he had a store of spare and old stock. He would let us go up there and browse through this treasure trove.
 
Hi Guys

I bought my first plastic record from Sutclliffe's? on the Flat at Hockley Brook. My cousin took me and I bought Lonnie Donegan's 'Love is Strange', much to the disgust of my older cousin. My first proper 45 was 'Apache' by the Shadows. I even bought the sheet music and took it to my very staid piano teacher. I was thrilled to bits when he played it for me but the look on his face! Almost as bad as my cousin's!
 
The Diskery started in Hurst St. in the 50's it was on the left hand side going down towards Bromsgrove st. just before the traffic lights
 
Dave89 said:
Hi Deritend Boy,

That was Murdoch's, I used to buy my records there too, -
remember the booths like telephone boxes?

Kind regards

Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, yes I remember the booths, seems like only yesterday listening to "Pucker up Buttercup" by Junior Walker and the Allstars, before buying a copy.
Regards.
 
Michael loved the Diskery it specialised in imports and rare records. He still has some strange singles.......well they are to me!
 
That's the place John, thanks. I've been trying to remember the name for ages and now it is obvious.
Wendy, do you mean that it is still going? I know that there is or was a great record shop in Temple Street or near there
 
Pete used to fetch records from a shop on Six ways Aston for his older brother but he can't for the life of him remember the name of the shop. Can anyone out there remember. Jean.
 
Mike you have to remember I was a child bride.......lol.......now i'm in trouble! No the Diskery like Reddingtons went with the internet.
 
Chock2 and Harley....l hung about Lewis's basement record department...every Saturday it was a ritual Lewis's basement then down to Murdocks spend half of the afternoon listening to records in the little booths they had, those were the days of Nat Kingcole,Billy Eskine,Johnny Ray,Peggy Lee, Les Paul,to name a few...aah those were the days. Brenda
 
With reference to the Sparkhill record shop owned by Bev Bevan..... it was nextdoor to the bank on the corner of the Stratford Road and Springfield Road and was called Heavyheads. The shop frontage design was based around the Rolling Stones huge red lips which framed the shop window and was particularly good for picking up white label/test pressing & promo copies at the time. Bev did appear in there, working behind the counter quite regularly, as more occasionally did Roy Wood. The shop began life as a knitting wool & tuck shop owned by Bev's Mom before slowly moving over to the records. I don't recall it lasting for very long sadly. Hope it helps someone!
 
I used to use Cyclops, the two or three Inferno Records shops, first Virgin shop opposite the Minories in town and the first HMV in New Street.
Cyclops was also the best place to buy tickets for gigs that were not at the Odeon.

For anything of a rare nature, I would go to Reddingtons at the back of Marks & Spencers next door to Cards & Posters.
Talking of Reddingtons, I kind of remember them in Oasis when it first opened too!
 
Not quite so long ago. On the odd occasion I bought a reggai recording, I would go to Don Christies not far from St Martins Church. He had the most phenominal sound set-up imaginable. I used to take my son with me when he was but a young child and 'The Don' as Don Christie was known would always make a fuss of him.
 
love this, all the chat about recs, and music great ,thanks .harley
 
Used to be one that sold mainly Reggae in the Bull Ring market, where the clothes bit meet the meat bit, also one in the passage way up by the Woolworth building that used to be good for the odd bootleg album. Had to time it right when no one else was in the shop! WHSmiths was always worth a look as well as Woolies, remember getting The Undertones and Xray Specs albums at a good price from Woolies by the Bull Ring. Was a record shop over by the Threepenny bit shops going towards Moor Street station too if I remember right
 
chocks2 said:
Can't remember the name of the record store but it was under Lewis's it may even have belonged to the store but every Saturday I'd get the bus into brum, have a knickerbockerglory in the cafe under Lewis's, nip into the record store, buy the latest hits then bus home to annoy my folks by playing them too loud and too often.
Click to expand...


Yes, it was part of Lewis's, I remember it well.
 
Another record shop I used to buy from was Libby's on Soho Road as I used to work nearby.

It was a really good, independant place that used to have a good selection of less commercial music - not just Top 10 stuff.
The guy in there was always very helpful.

Don't know what happened to it in the end - does anyone else remember it?

eta. this was about 1966/67/68
 
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