Is the end nigh? Record shops in London

[The Seventh Taylor]

If this not so pretty looking street strikes you as familiar perhaps it's because its importance to record fans led Oasis to put it on the cover for their (What's the Story) Morning Glory? album. It's Berwick Street, just off Oxford Street, Britain's most important high street. It's in Soho, a seedy district that used to be full of record shops. The highest concentration however you would find in Berwick Street.



I lived in London in 1994 and 1995 and Berwick Street was conveniently located between the Philips office on Tottenham Court Road and the PolyGram office at St James Square where I worked. Not a day would go by without me spending considerable time here.

Of course, every record shop had it's specialisation. Some focused on a specific genre, like dance, indie or reggae. I even recall a shop that only sold ambient house music. Others traded second-hand records, collectibles or just bargains. MrCD used to be such a shop, selling the latest albums for a few pounds less than the megastores just around the corner on Oxford Street. This is probably where I spent most of my time -- and money.

I've been back to London a couple of times in the past few years. My trips were never complete without a visit to Berwick Street. I was quite disappointed last September when it took my until well after 8pm to get there and my favourite shops had closed for the day. But I did not expect I'd have to regret my tardiness this much: Last week I was there again and the shop was completely vacated!



From a search on the web I quickly learnt the shop had closed for good, along with a couple of other cherished ones like Reckless Records.

There still are a couple of interesting record shops scattered along this narrow street including Sister Ray, who to my surprised had a copy of just about every Duran Duran single ever on stock, including all the Japanese versions. Price ranged from a reasonable £6 for the regulars to £20 for the exotic ones. I bought The Devils' CD here and was tempted to buy some of the many Stephen Duffy and The Lilac Time CDs they had in stock.



Anyway, it appears to me as the end of an era. Much more so than the not so important name change of Virgin Megastore to 'Zavvi'. (Whoever came up with that idea?)

I will continue to love visiting London but it has definitely lost some of its charm lately.

Some excellent BBC coverage of this sad story:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6707255.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6989973.stm

[redmumba]

Ah...Berwick Street. On my second visit to London in 1997, my friend took me there (amongst some other record store haunts) and I felt like I was in music heaven! So many promos to be had for as little as 50p on up. Yeah, it is sad that some of those stores are closing down. Each year I visited London, that area is where I'd inevitably end up.

[Glamour Tiger Baby Junkie]

'zavvi? huh? oh yeah, that's gonna go over well...*rolls eyes* I'll stick with HMV(please tell me that's not going anywhere...)

[The Seventh Taylor]

gtbj said:

I'll stick with HMV (please tell me that's not going anywhere...)

Not to worry -- for now. A while ago (2006?) HMV closed one of their West End stores but only because they moved into the building on the corner of Picadilly Circus and Regent Street that Tower Records vacated when it went out of business (even though that's another obvious sign of the state high street music distribution is in).

[The Seventh Taylor]

Correction: I actually think both Virgin and HMV have (wisely) consolidated their presence in the West End and closed some of their shops, mostly in Oxford Street, to increase efficiency. I believe VM had 2 outlets and HMV 3 (or the other way round), now reduced to 1 each. So HMV closed their 363 Oxford St store in favour of the 'Oxford Circus' one, and Virgin closed their 'Marble Arch' store at the other end of Oxford St.

[vonne]

Just recently they announced the end of the cd-single in the Netherlands....
Will the rest of the stores be next?

(don't think so....but I think the sales from video-games and/or DVDs are
the reason these stores still exist)

[The Seventh Taylor]

When I was in San Francisco the other week for a string of job interviews I'd been given plenty of time to get acclimatized (I was there for five days) and to check out the city. Of course I started out with the record stores. It was sad to see the Tower Records store closed down and completely empty. Fortunately the Virgin Megastore appeared alive and kicking. I guess they're in a better part of town for such a shop. I was also glad to find a branch of Rasputin Records, a small chain with mostly second-hand items I had discovered earlier in San Jose. They also seemed to be doing alright.

[Dani]

You didn't make it to ameoba

[La Princess]

Record shops are disappearing everywhere. In the last decade I've seen most of those I frequented disappear. It's a shame because that's where I found new artists. They carried artists the mainstream stores didn't. Today and tomorrow's kids won't get to experience a record store. Now if I want a cd I order it online, or sometimes download at iTunes (for those that are download only). I refuse to buy cds from the big chains.

[jaipie]

Yeah, if you made it into Amoeba you probably would've started looking for a place to live in the upper Haight, secured job or no.