Does anyone still shop at HMV?

(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.

Love Flashback in Crouch End. Great stock, very reasonable... Got a copy of Miles' Filles De Killimanjaro, which I'd been wanting for the longest time, for under a tenner, and a copy of Syreeta's 1980 LP for three pounds.

If anybody finds themselves in the NW of London or near Watford, there's a nice little place opened up in Bushey called Second Scene.

http://www.secondscene.co.uk

Is that Vinyl Villains in Leith Walk? If it is, it's quite comforting to know it still exists. My record-shopping time in Edinburgh was strictly eighties - Ezy Ryder in Forrest Road, whatever the second-hand place in Cockburn Street (which later became a Fopp) was called, Avalanche when it was top notch. Also a terrific shop just across from Haymarket station and a smaller but still great one round the back of George Square; sadly I can't remember what either was called.

One Glasgow record shop that I never ever hear anyone mentioning is Record Fayre (across the road from the Tron Theatre). Despite living round the corner from it, I think I've only been in once. I remember lots of pretty mainstream 70s rock. Has anyone ever bought anything in this shop?

Another place nearby where I've picked up lots of good stuff is the Panopticon charity shop on the High Street. Again, nowadays the good stuff leaves the shop quicker than it arrives, but it has fair prices and the owner tends to give impromptu discounts.

Always the way with charity shops, though; the good stuff gets seen and bought as soon as it gets put in the racks – I know, I’ve done it – which is why the same old CDs tend to crop up everywhere; it’s the stuff they can’t shift or sell, displaced, overpressed, oversold old favourites. No real solution to this other than trusting to luck and good timing.

Never found much of interest in Record Fayre, tbh (there's a similar shop off the Great Western Road, just before Kelvinbridge station, that again offers a pretty uninspiring selection imho.) These days I'm as likely to be buying DVDs as CDs, and again, neither shop has much to interest me (and their prices for secondhand stuff are often higher than buying the same thing new from Fopp.) I should say that I've actually had some pretty good CD bargains from both Monorail and Volcanic Tongue, although the latter's secondhand selection is generally pretty small.

Haven't been to Relics for a while, but during the summer it used to have a fabulously cantankerous cat that would sit on the bargain vinyl and sratch anyone who tried to stroke it. (Voltaire and Rosseau also have a big fat tabby who sleeps on the books).

One of the things I like about Missing is that they have a high turnover of stock, they're always buying in new stuff, whereas in Mixed Up the stock seems a bit more static. But yes, the combination of the hippy tea shop, Voltaire & Rosseau and Mixed Up makes Otago Lane one of my favourite places to graze in Glasgow. I curse thee, property developers and corrupt councillors.

I've seen quite a lot of CDs in the CEX branch opposite Fopp in Union Street, but cursory inspection hasn't yet yielded that complete Morton Feldman collection I'm after...

How many market shops were there in Glasgow?

I recall one or maybe two in the Cambridge St shopping centre, one of them had a lot of bootleg tapes. There was also one or two in the Queen St market upstairs, I remember a copy of a OMD Live At Drury Lane video hanging up that never ever sold.

Oxfam Books & Music in Crouch End is pretty good, although not for cratedigging. I just picked up the first D'Angelo album and Simple Minds' Sons & Fascination/Sister Feelings Call for two quid each.

I also donated a ton of 90s dance vinyl there recently so if that's your bag get in.

I have nothing to add to it but Internet Alan's edinburgh post really made me happy.

Is Kristina in dalston any good? I always walk past at night when it's shut. It looks like it might be pricey.

It is very pricey and there’s no sign so you have to “know” where it is. Lots of very good stuff there – if you read Wire magazine or Dissensus, it’ll be right up your street - but way too expensive for the likes of me. Rest of clientele resemble cast of Fresh Meat with the occasional dismayed-looking tourist thrown in.

Internet Alan's was spot on. Especially about Avalanche.

Absolutely. The weekly port huron statements on ~the future of record shops~ on twitter and their website are especially cringey.

(xp thx Marcello - stands to reason!)

Re market shops in Glasgow - I used to go in the one in Sauchiehall St Centre (upstairs right next to the video arcade) quite a lot in the 80s, they stocked a lot of 60s garage and 80s US punk - remember lusting after those two Aussie VU bootleg comps they had for too much £££. There were a couple of good stalls indoors at the Barras too. There was a second hand shop in Partick I bought a huge part of my early record collection from, really cheap & great selection, there always seemed to be a member of a Glasgow band rifling through the boxes when I went.

A1 Sounds!

rat records in camberwell is great

Everyone - especially marcello - should go to the resonance site & listen to Ian penman's 2 wiremag shows where he plays & talks about records he finds in charity shops. Seriously lovely.

Marcello - Yeah, Vinyl Villains is at the top of Leith Walk on Elm Row. I'm sure it hasn't changed much since your last visit. As for the others, before my time I'm afraid. This wonderful resource might stir up some memories for you though http://www.edinburghgigarchive.com/page28.htm

I'm thinking I might make a trip through to Glasgow soon when I can afford it and try and support some of the shops mentioned here that are still open. My music buying days blossomed in the late 90's and I felt like some cursed angel of death insofar as almost as soon as I'd discovered a new shop it was soon to be closed. Some of my fondest memories are of finishing my paper round on a Saturday morning and feeling flush with £6 to blow, eagerly jumping on a bus into town armed with a map and few tatty scraps torn out the yellow pages and scouring the city for record shops I'd never been to before. I'd be out there all day. It was a genuinely exciting part of my life, full of and adventure and discovery. There's probably not a close or a or a lane or street I've never walked down in this beautiful city and I owe a lot of that to my love of music and what those shops meant and signified to me.

Ah, Record Fayre by the Tron... I was thinking about that when reading this thread. Not been in for ages, but it used to be a staple in my teens as it was a great place to pick up cheap classic rock and pop vinyl and look at the bootleg band t-shirts. And there'd always be the odd curveball in there, like a great Marvin Gaye live album. Last time I was in it was just the dregs of 80s rock sadly, but as it's just round the corner from Monorail, the excellent Plan B comics and the Modern Institute gallery, I suppose there's no harm popping in while in the area.

To get really obscure... I do remember the Jamaica Street record exchange from the 90s, the remnants of which are now in a sqaure off Pollockshaws Rd (at least I think it's the same place - same signage) opposite Queen's Park. It mainly flogs DVDs, but it has a bit of vinyl. A poor selection, although I did get a UK copy of Al Green's Livin' For You for £2 there recently.

Shawlands Arcade, until recently, had Southside Music, whose stock did the rounds of pop-up bargain bookshops for a while after. It was pretty much classic rock dregs, but my ex managed to pick up a Talisker album in there, which I'm sure Marcello will be familiar with - Ken Hyder's free jazz/Scottish folk group from the '70s. You'd think it would be easy to get their stuff in Glasgow, but alas no...

There's also Lost Chord in Park Road, just off Great Western Rd. The one with the animal paintings on the front. I think it makes most of its money from porn, so ew.

I had a lovely couple of hours zipping around the record shops of Glasgow when I was there last Summer. I forget most of the shops I visited, but I especially loved the 'new' Monorail - was my first visit since it relocated (which was probably a long time ago), what a wonderful shop.

Monorail's been in the same place since it opened in 2003... Maybe you mean Monorail as in Stephen Pastel's old shop at the top of John Smith's bookshop in Byres Rd? That was a great place too. Remember reading about it in the NME and MM when Bis, Mogwai etc were coming up. I still treasure my vinyl copy of Paul's Boutique I bought there as a plukey teen.

Monorail's been in the same place since it opened in 2003... Maybe you mean Monorail as in Stephen Pastel's old shop at the top of John Smith's bookshop in Byres Rd? That was a great place too.

Ha, yes, that's it! Went record shopping there with Sleater-Kinney in the late 90s, that was also a great record shop.

Sadly that bookshop is now a Starbucks. To think they once had a rooftop gig there... Byres Rd and environs used to be great for record shops, now there's just Fopp and Oxfam. Still, compared to many cities we can't complain: some good SH places, Rubadub for dance vinyl and gear, and two world class shops in Monorail and Volcanic Tongue.

Nice wee piece on Monorail by Nicola Meighan: http://nicolameighan.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/happy-birthday-monorail-music/