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Record shop favourites in birmingham

I worked part time for a few years in the 70s for my sister in law
She was the manageress of Pimms Pets in the Market Hall and we were opposite Baileys records.
I remember ,in 1976,they played Brotherhood of Mans', 'Save all your kisses for me' through loudspeakers and everyone in the Market was doing the dance.
 
Alberta said:
I worked part time for a few years in the 70s for my sister in law
She was the manageress of Pimms Pets in the Market Hall and we were opposite Baileys records.
I remember ,in 1976,they played Brotherhood of Mans', 'Save all your kisses for me' through loudspeakers and everyone in the Market was doing the dance.
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One time I was at a Villa game and everyone sang Hey Jude.
I read somewhere everyone sang "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" at Wembley Stadium one time.
 
Griff_401 said:
Did there used to be a record shop on Summer Row in the early 80's, just down from the Shakespeare Pub?
(I remember there was a shop there that sold movie posters and memorabilia, a cafe and an adult bookstore, and a snooker club called 'The Anchor')
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Hey griff , you’re the only person that’s ever mentioned that movie poster shop. I bought and an evil dead booklet from there about 87. Hers a pic of the cafe in summer row I came across on google. Mid 80s I reckon
 

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wam said:
Dug out a few old record bags. Swordfish used to be in Needless Alley, Inferno on Dale End. The one I've found on Hurst St was called Rockers. I have an early issue of Brum Beat 1979(?) where they made the cover story along with Inferno after having been raided by the police for selling Crass albums.
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Hey ade, does the rockers bag have a skull on it? I seem to remember one. Behind the counter they had a melted black telephone. There always seemed to be Johnny thunders style guys talking to the shop owners who were prob in bands at the time (around 86) . The same guys hung around a record stall on rag market too. The lad who ran the stall was in a band called the sect. Ring any bells with anyone?
 
Hi John,
I think that photo is earlier than mid 80's. I worked/dossed/(played much 3 card brag) at the Anchor Snooker Club in 85-86 and spent a lot of time in that cafe, and I remember it looking a bit tidier than that - might just be a memory trick though. (The guy who owned it (Tom ?) sold it and set up a rock pub on the Queensway called 'Rosie O'Niels', just opposite Quenchers Bar).
 
Griff_401 said:
Hi John,
I think that photo is earlier than mid 80's. I worked/dossed/(played much 3 card brag) at the Anchor Snooker Club in 85-86 and spent a lot of time in that cafe, and I remember it looking a bit tidier than that - might just be a memory trick though. (The guy who owned it (Tom ?) sold it and set up a rock pub on the Queensway called 'Rosie O'Niels', just opposite Quenchers Bar).
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Yeah u could be right. I remember mods hanging round there about 84/85 so guessed it was then but could Easily be earlier. If u google Birmingham mods that pic turns up. Maybe it says when it was.
 
I remember as a teen I worked I worked at the Kings Norton Factory Centre (as it was called then) in the early to mid 70's and every Friday I'd run up the hill with my pay packet and into the little record shop in Cotteridge. I can't remember the name of it but it was next to Woolies and had just a small door at street level and stairs going up to the shop on the first floor. I was buying the T Rex and Bowie albums then. The shop was ran by a lady who knew me well and would pre-warn me when she was due to get the latest records in stock. Brilliant days!
 
I remember in the early seventies going into a record shop on the Pershore Rd in Stirchley.
I had a list of a number of LPs I wanted to order via a postal record club I had just joined.
I asked the chap behind the counter if he could give me record numbers as the record club required them on the order form.
He was not to helpful and told me in no certain terms to clear off.
I really didn't think at the time,and was surprised by his response.
On reflection afterwards I was fully understanding and couldn't belive I had been so brazen.
The cheek of me!
 
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BrummyPaul said:
I remember as a teen I worked I worked at the Kings Norton Factory Centre (as it was called then) in the early to mid 70's and every Friday I'd run up the hill with my pay packet and into the little record shop in Cotteridge. I can't remember the name of it but it was next to Woolies and had just a small door at street level and stairs going up to the shop on the first floor. I was buying the T Rex and Bowie albums then. The shop was ran by a lady who knew me well and would pre-warn me when she was due to get the latest records in stock. Brilliant days!
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Yes those were the days alright, sitting on the bus on the way home reading the record sleeve, then that final unveiling as you would pull the fresh record out of the sleeve before putting it on the turntable. What's the fun in downloading a record and having it sitting on a hard-drive and you can't even see it.
 
My favourite was Cranes in Corporation street, independent booths where you could get records from the assistant and take them to a booth and play them before choosing, later there was The Diskery in Hurst street, great days.
 
Sugar said:
Yes that's probably the stall I went too in the market as I was well into reggae them days .I remember the stall being on a corner and very dark and about you chatting the girls up in woolworths it was all in jest ! Nowadays it would be classed as assault . How times have CHANGED!
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The stall in the Indoor market was Bailey's records and I worked there in the 1970's
 
Alberta said:
I worked part time for a few years in the 70s for my sister in law
She was the manageress of Pimms Pets in the Market Hall and we were opposite Baileys records.
I remember ,in 1976,they played Brotherhood of Mans', 'Save all your kisses for me' through loudspeakers and everyone in the Market was doing the dance.
Click to expand...
I remember Pimms pets as I worked at Baileys in the 1970's
 
BrummyPaul said:
... the little record shop in Cotteridge. I can't remember the name of it but it was next to Woolies and had just a small door at street level and stairs going up to the shop on the first floor. I was buying the T Rex and Bowie albums then. The shop was ran by a lady who knew me well and would pre-warn me when she was due to get the latest records in stock. Brilliant days!
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The record shop was called 'Blakes' and they also sold TV's and Radios if I remember correctly. I used to work in the camera shop 'Shutterbugs' over the road. I bought all my T.Rex albums from there too. The lady would always be very helpful finding out when new releases were due
 
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knobbydave said:
The record shop was called 'Blakes' and they also sold TV's and Radios if I remember correctly. I used to work in the camera shop 'Shutterbugs' over the road. I bought all my T.Rex albums from there too. The lady would always be very helpful finding out when new releases were due
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Nice one knobbydave, well remembered!:)
 
knobbydave said:
The record shop was called 'Blakes' and they also sold TV's and Radios if I remember correctly. I used to work in the camera shop 'Shutterbugs' over the road. I bought all my T.Rex albums from there too. The lady would always be very helpful finding out when new releases were due
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The big question Dave, please tell me you've still got all of those records :)
 
Well ... I've still got the audio ... in digital form ... If I remember right I gave the T.Rex albums away years ago (along with all the other vinyl) when I got divorced and sold the cd's about 5 years back.
 
Heidibutler said:
My mum worked in the record department in Rackhams and before that in Walker Brothers, she then went to London to work in a record store in Kings Roaf
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I reckon they would be my two favorite places to work especially in a HiFi or record shop
 
I remember Clark and Piercey on the Lozells Road. I did a lot of window shopping there as a nipper. It was run by a miserable grump who "didn't suffer fools gladly" as she put it. She threatened to throw me out of her shop because I objected to a styrene record she handed to me and couldn't be bothered to see if she had any vinyl copies in stock.

For those that don't remember, styrene was a poor relation to vinyl, pressed exclusively in the US. They wore out very quickly and wouldn't even play on some record players. A lot of US pressed styrene found its way to the UK in the 70s when there was a strike in a large number of the vinyl pressing plants and demand outstripped supply.
 
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I remember once going to one of the record shops, I think on New Street, just after a meal and trying to chat up the clerk there. she said, "OH you just had Sausage and chips didn't you!" I have never been so embarrassed in my life I blushed and left!!!
 
The rag market had some good little record stalls over the year's, I remember one guy selling all sorts of items on his pitch and in the corner had a pile of American 7" singles, most of those were styrene an were already pretty poor condition. I don't know where this chap got some of his stock but in later year's he had some cracking stuff
 
The record stall I remember was in the bull ring rather than the market. They had an exhibition there for a week or two called "The daily necessities fair of the People's Republic of China" and the stall was selling 5 LP's for £1. Some had little holes in the top right corner like they'd been hung on a string somewhere. Most of the material and the acts were ones that I didn't think anyone would have heard of (although there's an LP in the Diskery at £20 that I paid 20p for) and even the ones you had heard of weren't necessarily going to make it to the local record shops.
 
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