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Record shops in Bham

Hi guys!

I don't think the record shop on the corner of Heathfield Rd and Wheeler street has yet been mentioned. It was an independent shop and was there in the 1960's.

Somehow downloading tracks from the Internet does not have the same appeal as browsing through thousands of vinyl hoping to come across gems. Music now seems so throwaway and unloved!
 
Oh heck! Have been out clearing snow all morning and my brain is frozen over! Should have said Wilson Road!

Memo to self......do not multitask when cold!
 
Anyone remember a record store in Digbeth called the Record Mart(I think).Opposite the old coach station ?
 
hi keegs
i most certaily remember it it was a couple of doors away from the big irom mongers and tools machinery shop
this tool shop was mentioned a couple of years ago on this forum
i just cannot recall the tool shop but some of our members will recall it
astonian ;;;;;;;
 
Re Record Shops In B'ham
I first started buying records from Mrs Bliss's shop on Park Road Aston (Aston Cross) it was situated just above Tower St, and although only a small shop she stocked or obtained every kind if record you asked for, this was from about 1947 onwards, you also used to buy a monthly 'song sheet' from there so when you played the record you were able to sing along with your favourite artists, these song sheets contained the words to ALL the popular songs of the day, and when I hear them played today on radio or in the old musicals on TV I can still sing along with them. Don Clive.
 
A Sparks said:
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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Hi there
I remember the record shop Libbys on the Soho Road. If it is the one I am thinking of, it was still there in the early 1970s. My Dad had a hardware shop in the same block and I used to buy the Beatles LPs from there in the 1960s. Lovely man
 
Bernard67Arnold said:
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
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hi i have just posted about greens if yu came from balsall heath do you remember my uncle daved hopkins he had a fruit &veg shop & a horse &cart he was all ways around ? regards linda
 
Astonian said:
hi keegs
i most certaily remember it it was a couple of doors away from the big irom mongers and tools machinery shop
this tool shop was mentioned a couple of years ago on this forum
i just cannot recall the tool shop but some of our members will recall it
astonian ;;;;;;;
Click to expand...

Astonian was it Greogery Panks

Mossy
 
Hi Everyone.
Fascinating to read all these memories, I'll throw a couple in the hat for you...Hawtins, Alum Rock Road, opposite the Capitol cinema. They were trading up until the early 1980's and then the shop lay empty for years. I remember Mr Hwatin always stamped the paper sleeve's of the records with the shop's stamp and I still have many a 45 with the distinctive oval stamp on ! Also there was Turned On Records, which then became Green Dragon Records on Alum Rock Road near Shaw Hill School and just a bit further down on the corner of Ludlow Road was Ludloes.
Rob.
 
john knight said:
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
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Didn't the Diskery start life in Moor Street on the first floor above Kay Westwoths. Run by a man named Fred Hunt in the early fifties, I think he was also a trumpet player. I still have the 78s I purchased there nearly sixty years ago.

George Wheeler
 
I worked at Bailey's records in the Bull Ring from 1977 to 1981.We sold all the top charts as well as reggie music.
 
Hi Brownowl,
I worked on the stall opposite Baileys at about the same time.The manager of Baileys was a guy named Paul who was a friend of my sister in law who was manageress of Pimms Pets(where I worked.)
 
Used the town ones like the Diskery,Reddingtons/Smiths et al.
Private ones tended to be the 2 Shirley ones,Phocus and Studio Musica,both long gone now:(
 
tony sammons said:
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
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What about Embassy records from Woolworths which they would play all day long when shopping there.
Regards Ian.
 
tony sammons said:
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
Click to expand...
Hello there, I believe the shop on on Stratford Road was George Greens, I used to go there in the early 1950s and buy my Freddy Gardener records, Bernard
 
Hi

that's right. Paul and John ran the shop for ages then I think Paul left but don't know why. I remember the pet stall and the handbag stall near to it. opposite was a stall selling hardware. only seems like yesterday....
 
dek carr said:
Brownowl i am a personal friend of John and Carol Bailey known them for 30 years. Dek
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Hi

I don't think they have a stall anymore as I went to the new market but couldn't find the record shop. shame it was not continued as I know they put a lot of effort into the business. I remember Johns father - we called him Mr B - seemed to work forever and the two boys Richard and Christopher ( think these were their names)
 
Brownowl you are right with the boys names Cris is married with one child John did have a shop in the new indoor market for a couple of years but sold up he has a job that keep him ticking over till he retires. I never met his dad but he started of in Summer lane with Baileys cycles.Dek
 
i cant believe nobody has mentioned the toy shop on nechells park rd which also sold records
the shop was named the cathederal
 
I've just been reading all these posts and wondered if anyone would mention Bliss's opposite Ansells bottom of Park rd. (post 96 ) She was my nan's sister and she had 2 daughters Milly who helped in the shop and Marg who had the chine shop,cant remember if it was next door or next to the dress shop. Iused to get my records for nothing great. Marg later moved to Witton and had a shop there till her hubbie died, it was a shop that sold all sorts you could spend hours in there mooching about.
 
Record shops are a perfect example of how we wish they would return in the variety in which we lost them-generally in the 1970's. Here in the suburbs of Wolverhampton record releases were stacked amongst the "radiograms" and black and white televisions which still had their place deaspite the increasing colour 'newbies'. Many of these shops were classed as 'general electrical retailers' and other parts of the shop were often used for displays of cookers and refrigerators. Cue for an "electrical retailers" shop thread maybe?

In some cases since 'transistor' radios were powered by heavyweight Every-Ready batteries, some shops were put over to the sales of push-bikes that the batteries would also been have use to.

Am i getting everyone misty-eyed out there?
 
The Diskery was run by a Canadian called Morris. Upstairs he had Jazz 78's (and a piano) and downstairs the LP's. EP's and singles. This was the place for Jazz, Blues and later Soul. Morris had a wonderful Zen way of handling records in which he would take an album our of its sleeve and onto the turn table, turning down the volume put the needle on the record and then turn it up. all in one fluid movement. He would play you anything he thought you would like and then sell you some import. (imported EP's were about.15s). Legend had it that Morris had once owned a trawler in Ross-on-Wye. He had got fed up with that and swopped the boat for that Jazz record shop in Hearst St. Anyway he lived in Ross on Wye and would commute. He educated a whole generation of music lovers and musicians.

Michael_Ingram said:
'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.
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Quote Legend had it that Morris had once owned a trawler in Ross-on-Wye i think you have to have a special license to Trawl for salmon on the Wye he he . Dek
 
ive read all the reviews on record shops in brum .no one mentioned Wymans on grand parade in the bullring,which later change its name to john menzies!It was the plce to be seen on saturdays with all the new tamla motown ect . gothic terrace
 
Don Christie was a community worker in the area-am
i right? I work-and still do- in the volunteer sector for many years, in england and Jamaica . Would like to get mor info please
 
I remember,Don Christies moved to the city centre.It was not the same,the atmosphere eas lost.It was the only place to buy real reggae music,there has been nowhere else like it since,sadly missed!!!!!!!!!
 
You are right that the shop lost some of the atmosphere when it moved into the City Centre but 'The Don' was a Gentleman and would always turn the base up whenever I took my son in the shop in the late 70s early 80s. Those were the the days when P.C.R.L. were broadcasting from Dudley Road near to the hospitall.
 
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