• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Record shops in Bham

shardeen said:
hello Elizabeth, excuse my formality but i think the record shop in Gooch st was called greene's, i used it myself a few times when i was one or two years younger ehe-ehem. bye for now
shardeen
Click to expand...
You have a better memory than me faces i remember names no good,i had a friend from
hope st school who lived almost next door to the shop liz
 
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...

Hi

When I left school in 1961 I worked on the record department at Boots the Chemist in New Street. I worked there for about 4 years and loved it.

The reps from all the different record labels would come into the store every week with demo copies of all the new releases. I was always a Cliff Richard fan and the rep from Columbia Records would give me the demo copy of Cliff's latest record.

Prices: Single 6/8. EP 10/9. LP 33/3.

Veegee
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Talking of records who had a dansette record player,i remember Saturday mornings we used to play glad all over Dave Clark five,and our friends next door used to put it on as well made quite a racket why Saturday morning (dads were out at work moms shopping)
Liz
Click to expand...

Dansette - ah yes if you left the arm up it would play the record over and over. Mine was green and beige.

Veegee
 
veegee said:
Hi

When I left school in 1961 I worked on the record department at Boots the Chemist in New Street. I worked there for about 4 years and loved it.

The reps from all the different record labels would come into the store every week with demo copies of all the new releases. I was always a Cliff Richard fan and the rep from Columbia Records would give me the demo copy of Cliff's latest record.

Prices: Single 6/8. EP 10/9. LP 33/3.

Veegee
Click to expand...

I remember the Record Department in the New Street Boots, if I remember rightly it had one of those booths you could listen to the records before buying?

I had a Dansette record player (red and cream) for my eleventh birthday, I believe it's still at my parents house!
 
hi sparks
many years ago ithe begining of the fifties
there was a big record shop in steelhouse lane
it was a big store and it had a couple of listening booths inside
thats where i used to go and buy my records
at this moment in time i cannot recall the shop name
perhaps one of our other members can recal it
it was still around when peter and gordon the singing duo released a record
have a nice day best wishes astonian ;;;
 
A Sparks said:
I remember the Record Department in the New Street Boots, if I remember rightly it had one of those booths you could listen to the records before buying?

I had a Dansette record player (red and cream) for my eleventh birthday, I believe it's still at my parents house!
Click to expand...


I think there were 3 booths and a couple of hoods on the wall.

There was this woman who would come in everyday and listen to the same record (I say woman she was about 18 or 19) but I was only 16, anyway this really got on my nerves and one day I said "what again", well she hit the roof and demanded to see the manager of the store. A little later I was marched up to his office and made to apologise to her, then given a good telling off by the manager!!

Imagine that nowadays, your lucky if shop assistants look at you let alone talk to you. lol
 
hi mike
good memory. yes it was cranes
also in there store was the first of its kind in birmingham
was a recording booth where you record your self singing
i cannot remember how much it cost you would put your money in only a couple of quid not no more than that
then it would start recording your singing
my younger brother dave and is best mate was tommy
curly, and they went every where together
pubs and clubs , and the ironical thing mike they was the spitting image of peter and gordon and tommy was wearing the dark rimmrd glasses just like peter of the duo .
every body nicked namedthem as the duo ;
and thats howi learnt odthe recording booth
they went in and recordrd there song ,
but beleive it was complete rubish
after that installion in cranes the indoor market birmingham
just inside they introduced a booth but it soon got abused and broke they removed it
tommy curly did eventualy go into the local pubs
playing and singing on is own
he later got to a state of a good enterainer around the
social clubs and pubs
i do not know whether tommy is still alive or not
because we all have got old now and working on the merit
of most of my friends have all died
but any way tommy.s heart was broken when is mother got murdered and the guy set fire to her body in the bed room
lucklythey apprended the guy withintwo days
and a short while i think he packed up is entertaining on the circuit
ant way mike thanks for jogging my little brain after all these years
have a nice day best wishes astoian ;;
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Talking of records who had a dansette record player,i remember Saturday mornings we used to play glad all over Dave Clark five,and our friends next door used to put it on as well made quite a racket why Saturday morning (dads were out at work moms shopping)
Liz
Click to expand...


That has brought back memories, we used to play my Dansette at my mates house, trouble was with 6 girls stamping their feet to Glad all over. It brought the plaster off the ceiling below......boy did we get in trouble. Pocket money and my Dansette impounded for 6 weeks

Heather
 
Yes you could certainly make some noise, 5 teenagers in our house and much the same next door, Glad all over sounded better than ever
 
At the tail end of the 1970's and the beginning of the 80's, I used to buy vinyl at:

- Inferno Records: down by the ramp up to the Oasis Market. The walls were covered in Punk singles. It was only a single room and always seemed to be packed on a Saturday. I remember buying a ticket for the Dead Kennedys at the Imperial Cinema in Moseley from there. It's now a McDonalds - oh, the horror!

- Virgin Records: up where the Blacks camping shop is now. Upstairs for LPs, downstairs for singles. Back then, Virgin were still 'independent' and you could hang around in there all day if you wanted (ideal for an 11 year old!)...

- Rockers Records: halfway down Hurst Street (which looked like a bombsite back then), just down from the Kahn and Bell clothes shop (which sold fanzines in the back room). It was a low ceiling-ed shop on two levels, covered in posters, and selling some great records. They later moved into the city centre and started Swordfish Records (in a couple of sites off New Street)...

- Reddington's Records: it was situated opposite Moor Street Station then (next to the Co-op). It always seemed a bit overpriced (and not exactly full of 'rare' records). I'd rummage through the (seemingly endless) boxes of vinyl, and then go next door to The Peace Centre to buy fanzines (if the joss-stick aroma didn't choke you)...

Later in the 80's, there were other shops: Frank's Wild Records (opposite the Bull Ring market), Plastic Factory (just down from the Law Courts), a 'Thrash metal' record stall in Oasis, and a record shop down at the town end of Broad Street which I can only vaguely remember...

A quick question: does anyone remember Studio Musica in Northfield? My wife used to buy Buzzcocks and X Ray Spex singles from there back in the late 70's...
 
In 1973, heavily pregnant I tried all the record stores in Birmingham to try to get Tres Hombres by ZZ Top, all I got was sore feet and an aching back. Oh well, I got it on CD years later
 
In the late 60s, early 70s I used to buy the latest reggae sounds from a shop on the Dudley Road. All my other records were from the shop on the corner near Cape Hill Market - I think it was called Rediffusion?
 
The first shop that I purchased records from was Parkers on Bordesley Green.They were a TV and radio shop but sold records too.Still have all the sigle's and albums that I have collected over the years,even though I have most on CD, I can't bring myself to part with the originals.
 
keegs said:
It sure is,I drove past there last week
Click to expand...

Not in Hurst St now though, its in one of the streets off Bristol St, Bromsgrove St maybe.

Same bloke as before, still helpful, but seems like mostly Jazz Vynil these days. I took my daughter there last year when she was after an obscure album by a band she heard in the states, he found it for her as well !
 
isn't it on the corner of bristol st and blabla,forgot wasn't it always there,said me who can't remember what i was saying,and Bromsgrove St
 
Does anyone remember the record shop in Wheeler St? I bought my first single record from there Wonderful Land by The Shadows and an LP, Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard.
The Diskery is still in the same place, Bromsgrove St.
 
The man who owned the shop as I remember was quite big? I worked in a hairdressers in Wheeler St and the girls who worked in the shop used to send me to buy their records. One that always reminds of the hairdressers was Georgie Fame's "YEH YEH," just playing it now on Youtube!
 
Im very pleased to hear that the Diskery is still doing business. I used to go there now and again if there was a particular record, or album, that I had trouble locating in my local shops. You could always rely on the Diskery to get it for you. Nothing was ever too much trouble for them. Barry.
 
Hi Folks.

I think I can go back a bit further than the 1960's

I used to go to little shop off Union passage I think it was called Scott's, I remember buying Eve Boswell Pick in a Chicken from there a Buswick label.

Ray
 
Bazzm, the Diskery is still operating along the same lines now. Jimmy, the manager is a very accomadating man.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top