Does anyone still shop at HMV?

I remember the big Borders at Oxford Circus which was incredible; they had just about everything. Best philosophy book section I’ve ever seen. Also the slightly smaller Borders in Charing Cross Road and the one in Oxford, near St Giles (great for Saturday morning coffees in the basement). And then they got TOO ambitious/greedy and gradually you saw the stock dwindling and knew that their days were numbered.

HMV, well you know what happened; some management bot decided to standardise all the branches so that they’d all look the same/stock the same things/order from the same centralised supplier, and so the specialist knowledge went and so did the specialist stock. I recall late 1998, reading in MOJO about the Bill Fay CD reissue (first two albums + single A & B side on one CD) and going straight to HMV in Cornmarket and, lo and behold, there it would be. There weren’t many Steps mugs or B*witched key rings around IIRC. In my experience the Ox Circ one was OK until around 2004-5, then it started to go downhill, I swear to the point where they'd only stock one copy of something I was interested in, on the assumption that I'd be the only one who'd buy it.

I turned fifty not so long ago, so am now officially An Old Man. Pay no mind.

I have more or less stopped buying music online now, with a very few exceptions I buy what I can buy from shops. There's too much stuff I want to own for me to afford / house / listen to it all so I have to find a way of controlling the amount of music I buy. So I mostly just buy what I can from shops, and suck up the slight extra expense - I save money overall. And there's still more than enough.

This also means that when I find something I've been looking for for a while - like Novos Baianos' "Acabou Chorare", last weekend in Lisbon, it's joy unconfined.

Now and again there'll be something I NEED (or something v limited I don't want to take a chance on) and I'll buy it online.

It's certainly true that record shopping's not as bounteous as it once was, but I'm finding some sort of enjoyment in the scarcity.

At least until a few years ago, HMV Oxford Circus was one of a handful of HMV branches that was 'out of the chain', ie it could and did order in its own stock - hence its superior selection of 'speciality' music (as they used to call it).

Don't expect to ever again experience that incredible feeling of plentitude I got the first time I visited Tower, when it first opened in Piccadilly - just the sheer overwhelming number of things I'd never ever seen before in a UK record shop (including an absolutely massive selection of imported 7 inch singles, some of them dating back years.)

Of course, if you'd said to me, back in the 1980s, that one day there would be a portal, in your living room, that would let you hear and acquire pretty much any recording ever made - well, I would've leapt at the chance. The web has certainly let me hear so many rare and obscure records that I would never have otherwise seen, or been able to afford.

But nothing will replace the sheer pleasure to be had of wandering round the central London record (and comic) shops on a Saturday afternoon, with like-minded companions - encouraging one another to buy things, applauding rare or bargain buys, that sense of drift and play and pleasure, all gone now.

Maybe the record shop situation in Lisbon is better.

There's still Fopp (Covent Garden only; the lovely wee one in Bloomsbury adjacent to Waterstones closed a few weeks ago), Ray's (within Foyles), the Berwick Street run, Phonica and Harold Moores + sundry MVEs and a few scattered others but it's different, I can't classify or typify it but it doesn't bring me the same joy and wonder as before and more often than not the effort and hope involved in stumbling across something at random just tires me out these days, when you spend forever flicking past multiple copies of the same old unsellable toss.

Was complaining about this while trying to source an actual physical copy of a CD for the 22Listens project. Just could not find a functional second hand record shop in Soho, let alone the disc I needed. Ended up buying it online, waiting ages for it to arrive, and hating the experience.

But it does show you how long it's been since I've set foot in that HMV (I do have the excuse of unemployment) that I did not notice it was gone until only 2 weeks ago.

There's still Fopp (Covent Garden only; the lovely wee one in Bloomsbury adjacent to Waterstones closed a few weeks ago)

Nooooo! I did not know that, and that's a damn shame.

You know, when I think about the mural on the staircase ascending to the Tower Piccadilly jazz section, of the sleeve to Bitches Brew, I get a pang of loss akin to when I think about the mural in the Keith Moon bar at the Astoria. Can't believe those places, which meant so much to me, actually don't exist anymore. And when I think about, say, the classical section of HMV Oxford Street, which I don't think I ever stepped in, but with the doors that sealed it off from the rest of the store, the rarified atmosphere within...

Can't imagine why - apart from a sudden lack of any ready cash, maybe - you would ever sell anything 'rare' or 'collectible' to the M&Vs these days.

I think I miss Stevie's Sounds (just off Charing Cross Rd) the most of all, that was the biggest drain on my wallet over the years.

But nothing will replace the sheer pleasure to be had of wandering round the central London record (and comic) shops on a Saturday afternoon, with like-minded companions - encouraging one another to buy things, applauding rare or bargain buys, that sense of drift and play and pleasure, all gone now.

Damn this is a melancholy thread. Beautifully put.

But that's just what happens, isn't it - time moves on, and pays no heed to our nostalgia or sentimentalism

i find this immensely cheering!

Good god, Steve's Sounds on Great Newport Street, I used to spend unfeasible amounts on otherwise unfindable bargains there. And the late, lamented, yes it was an unholy mess but it usually had terrific stuff in it Cheapo Cheapo Records just before you get to Berwick Street - I sourced a lot of the more obscure Then Play Long entries from both of these shops.

Even MVE's not what it once was; now totally gone from Camden (and yes I miss Rhythm Records big time) and drastically reduced in Notting Hill.

What was that massive 2nd hand record shop near-ish Wandsworth roundabout? Am I totally imagining it?

I think I lived in London for 4 years before I acquired enough nerve to delve into Cheapo Cheapo Records, what a weird shop, so *damp*

(xp) No, you weren’t imagining it, it was called Zodiac Records: “COMPACT DISCS PURCHASED, SUBJECT TO INSPECTION.” Lots of cassettes there as well and yes I did get stuff out of there whenever I was in the neighbourhood on a Saturday afternoon. That went some time ago, basically because the guy in charge couldn’t afford to keep it going, except via mail order. Like so many other record and book shops.

Thank god... Thought I was going mental there...

But that's just what happens, isn't it - time moves on, and pays no heed to our nostalgia or sentimentalism

i find this immensely cheering!

― lex pretend, Monday, February 10, 2014 11:24 A

Don't worry, Alex, you'll get your Old Man Nostalgia Badge when they knock down Plastic People to build an 18-story luxury flock of bats that only cunts can afford to live in. ;-)

At least until a few years ago, HMV Oxford Circus was one of a handful of HMV branches that was 'out of the chain', ie it could and did order in its own stock - hence its superior selection of 'speciality' music (as they used to call it).

Grafton Street in Dublin operated that way when I started working there (in 2000) but that changed fairly quickly; head office put strict controls on the in-store playlist and the racks facing the front of the store. So no more racking up a bunch of quirky cool things that would actually sell.

Don't worry, Alex, you'll get your Old Man Nostalgia Badge when they knock down Plastic People

they already knocked down the old Plastic People on Oxford Street :((((

Ward Fowler way otm. I think on balance the trade off is worth it just for the sheer amount of new stuff you can hear, but I wish it wasn't a trade off and both could exist. So much of my youth was tied up in spending hour after hour in record shops.

The HMV in angel was having one of those even-the-shelves-must-go sales a few weeks ago. I wandered in and there was just. fucking. nothing I'd have bought. Didn't bother bumping this thread because... well, quelle surprise.

I was about to note that the Glasgow Buchanan Street HMV had a massive sale around 2004 from which I got loads of 'speciality' music and after that there was virtually no reason to ever visit that shop, but now I think I'm getting confused - that shop was a Virgin at that time, right?

The one I used to spend most of my time and money in was Selectadisc on Berwick Street. Always had the best selection of stock at reasonable prices, T-shirts and magazines too. Haven't been there since Sister Ray took it over.

Maybe the record shop situation in Lisbon is better.

Haha no. Not even close, except (unsurprisingly and as far as I could tell) for Brazilian music. But I did find something I was after and hadn't been able to find in London, in a tiny shop.

(I found myself in Housemans Books yesterday as well, and bought something which I'd probably have put back on the shelf in Waterstones - I reckon all I can sensibly do to help shops I want to survive is to buy things, and hope a few hundred / thousand others think similarly; we're at a point where I feel like I have to be prepared to pay an extra few quid the way of these places here and there, and concentrate what spend I do have into places I like.)

(Lisbon xp) That’s always the way. I have to avoid the urge to go over the top about how good the record shops (including HMV) are in Toronto but they are really, REALLY good (Rotate This!, Penguin Music, Sunrise, Sonic Boom etc. etc.).

Best one in Glasgow now is Oxfam Music on Byres Road. I know there are other highly rated shops there but I don’t really do vinyl now unless there’s no other way of getting a specific record (and equally I have to resist the urge to get all nostalgic about the golden age of 23rd Precinct, Listen Records, Bloggs, Iona, James Kerr, Graffiti Records on Queen Street...).

I still get misty eyed for Rat Records first location in the gallery (forget which one, somewhere near Queen St/Miller St)

Best one in Glasgow now is Oxfam Music on Byres Road.

Rec shopping is obv a subjective experience as much as listening to the stuff is, cos I really disagree with this sentiment! Have always found the stock in Oxfam Music to be very overpriced for what is (I'm not a vinyl buyer, either.) Monorail, Volcanic Tongue and LoveMusic are all good for various types of new discs, and Missing underneath the Arches often has some genuine CD bargains.

Best one in Glasgow now is Oxfam Music on Byres Road.

As Ward says, it's terribly overpriced. I prefer the Oxfam (books and records) in Govanhill, where you can still find a bargain, although the stock is less exciting than it once was.

Rat Records - that was in the Virginia Galleries, across the way from Argyle Street station. Great for SST back catalogue in particular.

And there was the "original" Fopp at the top of Renfield Street run by the guy who founded Fopp in the first place. Big fan of George Russell and Arthur Blythe as I recall.

Oxfam prices are ridiculous. Standard price of a v used, not rare 7" in the one near me is about 3 quid!

£25 for 'The Sebadoh' on vinyl. Hmmmm, no.

That's a great record.

when I was in my teens, I used to wander round the record shops of Glasgow, just checking the stock and reassuring myself about the natural order of things.

I had nothing else to do, and with no money, it was like being some weird unofficial librarian.

I used to love the feeling of getting a promo in missing records for under a fiver, or a US import at Tower records for fifteen quid.

Going to London on family trips was like another level of record shopping, and braving the alleyway at the bottom of Berwick street to compare the stock of Ox st. HMV and Trocadero HMV was a thrilling event.

sorry, the twin reminiscing of both record shops in London and Glasgow, has just sent me off on a melancholy tip.

are there any good spots in london for charity shop record buying? spent some of saturday bumming round clapham, camden and holloway road and all these places were useless, just overpriced tatty garbage.

As a former volunteer at the Govanhill Oxfam (managed by the legendary Eddy: T-Rex superfan and maker of deadly curries) I can say that it's cheaper than Byres Rd for a reason - it's in a working class area. We used to get some great stock in, but it's not so good these days. It's still well worth a visit though as you never know what might turn up. Plus there's the T Rex shrine in the corner and the opportunity to ask Eddy his stories about working backstage at the Glasgow Apollo. Really, the guy should write a book.

As for Byres Road, they're our pals, so I feel obliged to defend them. Maybe they don't always get it right, but I've found their prices to be fair most of the time and I've even got some bargains there. It's a shame people single it out when other nearby stores really take the piss. In the Chas shop I saw an early 80s Hunky Dory, in fair condition at best, for £25! Absolute nonsense. And in another one, some knackered Beatles albums at £30 a pop, with 'one for the collectors' written on the label. Er...

Best SH record shop in Glasgow - which hasn't been mentioned yet - is Mixed Up in Otago Lane. Next to the glouriosly disorganised bookshop Voltaire & Rosseau. Their pound bins have been a regular source of goodies and their main stock is really good and well organised by genre. Funnily enough, I'm watching the Danny Baker 70s show on BBC4 just now, for which they provided the vinyl.

Agree that Missing is still worth a look. A shadow of its 90s self, but some good cheap CDs and the odd tasty bit of vinyl.

Must admit, I don't enjoy the vinyl trawl as much as I used to. Mainly cos I'm a skint postgrad, but also cos the bargain bins offer diminishing returns. But Glasgow's still a great place to shop for music, with plenty of nice pubs to pop into between the shops (or in the case of Monorail, within the same building).

x-post. While visiting a friend in Mile End I came across a weird junk shop on Roman Road (had a woman's name in the title, can't quite recall it - Betty's Place, that sort of thing) which had a surprisingly good stack of mostly soul and gospel sitting on a chair at the back. Got the first Syreeta album and a nice late 60s Scott Walker compilation for the £3 a pop. And if you wander over towards Bethnal Green Rd, there's a pretty good place in the Buddhist centre with loads of classical vinyl and some decent 60s and 70s stuff.

Funnily enough was in Glasgow today (not a regular occurrence), made it to Fopp, Missing, Monorail and the Argyle St HMV; shouldn't have bothered with the latter, unless there was music stock I wasn't seeing it's actually got less than the Dundee one. Had never been in Missing before, right enough it's cheap, but I already had pretty much everything I spotted of interest.

Is Mixed Up down a wee alleyway in among a load of wee junk shops and things? Was in a shop that I don't know the name of, off Byers Rd (I think) a couple of years ago with lots of decent vinyl plus old instruments, recording equipment, etc.

Ah, the wee lane you're thinking of is Ruthven Lane - the junk shop is Relics. The SH record shop down there is ok, appealingly higgedly piggedly with all the instruments and gear knocking about.

Mixed Up is in Otago Lane - up and over the hill from Byres Road by the river. The shops there are threatened with closure by our corrupt and incompetent council, who want to erase any independent and unique places to create yuppie flats and Tesco Metros. Magic wee lane with a wee hippy tea room at the end of it by the banks of the River Kelvin where I once saw an amazing Jack Rose gig. Sorry, getting nostalgic!

Yes, it was very higgledy piggeldy! I keep buying physical music even though the trawl is maybe less fun than it used to be. I'm less patient, and the fact that if there's something I really want and can't wait for I can order it online takes a bit of the shine off it.

stew - thanks for the london tips, will have to look into those next time round.

Also, worth a half hour train ride from Glasgow is Europa music in Stirling (and y'know, the castle and all that is pretty nice too). My hometown record store, mostly SH but some new stuff. Built a large part of my collection from there over the past 20 years. Will never forget getting copies of Trans Europe Express and Innversions in there after sitting my Higher English exam. A life changing day in more ways than one.
Anyway, they've a big vinyl store out the back which you can easily lose an afternoon in. They had an amazing jazz collection in there about ten years ago, which, had I been the fan I am now, I would have taken a bank loan out to buy.
In the 00s Stirling was host to the great Le Weekend experimental music festival. Apparently when Thurston Moore was playing the fest, he went into Europa and bought all their Scottish bagpipe vinyl. I've never had this confirmed, but with the drones and all, why not?

NickB - wouldn't go out my way to check those out, but if you're in the area...

gotcha :)

are there any good spots in london for charity shop record buying? spent some of saturday bumming round clapham, camden and holloway road and all these places were useless, just overpriced tatty garbage.

Golders Green, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, High Barnet all worth a pop on occasion.

excellent! almost ventured further out on the northern line for old times sake, used to live near burnt oak

Crouch End still has a couple of legit record shops right?

Yeah this place : http://flashback.co.uk/home/

Oxfam in Kentish Town is pretty good too

I'll second that. Got a good haul of 7"s in various Kentish Town chazzers a few years back. Mostly novelty stuff - Greek beat group dance craze single La Yenka - but I got a nice Althea & Donna single and some creepy Emidisc acetate with a posh woman singing.

Glasgow is a great place for record shopping. Any love for Edinburgh? For new records it's pretty shit compared to Glasgow (though the new Vinyl Room in Coda at the top of the mound is brilliant and is revitalising my shopping). Avalanche Records is particular is an abomination, a shop with a great history that has the misfortune of being owned and run (into the ground) by one of the most obnoxious, condescending individuals in the business.

The second hand market is well catered for though; Vinyl Villains, Unknown Pleasures, Record Shak Voxbox, Elvis Shakespeare and Hogs Head (which is now selling used vinyl at some of the most reasonable and realistic prices I've come across). There's also the batshit crazy Backbeat in East Crosscauseway where the stock is pilled up so high and in such a cluttered and chaotic manner that your not even allowed to browse it yourself. You used to be able to get in but you had to leave any bags you had with you out on the street unattended. Not so much as out of fear you might be a dirty thief but more out of necessity because there wasn't enough space in there for you PLUS a bag. As far as I can tell the only way to buy anything from there nowadays is to turn up in advance with a list, plea your sincerity with the owner and then come back in an hour and see what the he can find. God knows what they actually have in that shop. In my wildest imagination I like to think they have everything ever made stacked up those ikea boxes that must stand 10 foot high and cover 99% of the floorspace and it's not inconceivable. When I started buying vinyl I went in and enquired about Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde'. After being told to piss off for a bit and lectured on my assumed unawareness of how much such hallowed items might cost I returned and had the owned thrust into my hand what must have been 6 or 7 different pressings of 'Blonde on Blonde'. I bought the cheapest and thanked my lucky stars for getting out of there. It's everything one should despise in record shops but it's so thoroughly alienating and bizarre it somehow has managed to take on a mythical charm for me.