Lost record shops of Glasgow

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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby War Baby » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:34 pm

I could be wrong but I think the Virginia Galleries had to close down because the building was in danger of collapse. It might have closed around the late eighties or early nineties. ...One day, I was rumaging about looking for something for my father's birthday - and suddenly found an old framed picture, dated 1911, of the place where he was brought up, a place he never stopped talking about, a tiny village called Sandford, near Strathaven. What a discovery that was!
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby moonbeam » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:44 pm

Burgher Street Parkhead had a record shop. The guy sold records in a shop in the Gallowgate opposite the Whelk Shop on Saturdays and Sundays. Then a shop opposite High Street railway station. I recall raking in Silverdales in Argyle Street. They had boxes of secondhand 45s plus 78s.One day a dust cart stopped outside and one of the dustmen came in with an armfull of 45s and LPs. After a long discussion some folding notes changed hands.Golums in the Saltmarket used to sell records. How many went downstairs to Lewis's on Saturday afternoons not to buy records but chat up the girls who were into Cliff, (not Jimmy but "Sir")the Stones, Kinks, Troggs, Beatles etc? Happy days.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby bAzTNM » Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:14 pm

Is the owner of the "DVD & CD Exchange" talked about a page back quite bald and have glasses? I believe I had him serving me in the "Exchange" shop in Paisley. He didn't seem a particularly nice guy at all.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby weerobjazz7 » Wed Aug 01, 2012 2:41 pm

This is my first post. Thank you for allowing me to contribute. Very interesting posts on lost shops.

I started collecting jazz records around 1959 and when I got my first job in 1961 I used to go every Saturday to Silverdale’s Records & Books at 1146 Argyle Street. The shop was at the junction with Kelvingrove Street with the bookshop nearest the junction. Mr. Silverdale was not keen on browsers as I found when I visited the bookshop, however, luckily for me the record shop was looked after by a very nice lady who let me browse for as long as I wanted. As I did not have a lot of money I used to buy 78rpm records which were on long shelves at the back of the shop. I used to work my way through the whole lot and found several gems. The basis of my jazz record collection came from Silverdale’s.
When I had a wee bit more money I started buying second-hand LPs and EPs. I think my first buy was a 12” LP of Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Hot Sevens on Philips Minigroove. These LPs were very heavy with very sharp edges! The other LP I remember was a 10” on London Origins of Jazz “New Orleans Horns”. I used to regularly go to the shop most weekends until I left Glasgow to work in London in 1969. Happy memories.

I did visit Stanton’s in Gallowgate once. He certainly did not like browsers and wanted to know specifically what you were after. Not a happy experience and not my idea of record buying. I did not go back.

In London I continued using specialist shops in the 70s and 80s. Sadly they are nearly all gone now. Such was my addiction that I worked Saturdays in a specialist jazz record shop in Covent Garden for 15 years – James Asman’s Record Centre. Now gone I’m afraid.

There is a website on specialist record shops for anyone who is interested - www.britishrecordshoparchive.org . It is run by Leon Parker whom I am sure would be interested in any memories of Glasgow shops.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby War Baby » Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:14 am

weerobjazz,
I think Mr Stanton was ill. Around the sixties, I was in my twenties, very shy, and always bought an LP or two when I was in. Perhaps he was one of those shop owners who didn't like you to browse and walk out with nothing, and until you got to know him, he immediately suspected you were like that. I loved his shop. He had a love of Jazz himself.
Whenever, I bought a record, I would always milk him for a little bit of information ... in my quiet, shy voice - and somehow seemed to win him over.

I asked him one day if he had any records of old Jazz musicians talking about the very beginning of New Orleans Jazz...
Right away, he went away into the back of his shop and brought back several records. On each record, it said that only a hundred had been issued but Stanton warned me that they were dubbings and asked if I still wanted them.
(Dubbings .... record recordings with talk-overs, between each record, in this case.

The recordings were made by Bunk Johnston in the 1940's. Bunk was old enough to have known all about
King Buddy Bolden ... and he talked about him. Great record - made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end!
It was the real stuff. The record made the streets of New Orleans come alive - it really succeeded in doing that.. It gave you an idea of marching bands, the noise of the streets, the crowd noise as they followed the band, and also gave an idea of a New Orleans funeral in the early days. I wish to hell I still had that record!!!

...I have heard old Stanton give a real blast of hot air to customers myself, so I know that you are correct about what you say about him. It was a pity that, because he must have chased away some genuine Jazz lovers from his shop.
Stanton was very red in the face at the time as though with high blood pressure, and you never know, maybe that man was in pain and this was what made him blow his top so frequently.

I have some half memories of some things he said to me. (It was a helluva long time ago) He mentioned Lonnie Doenegan's early, starting-out days, and something about having recommended him to Chris Barber, and as far as I know that's how Lonnie got started. I think Stanton was an organizer for gigs on riverboats "Doon the Watter" - he mentioned it! He tried to encourage me to buy records of Scottish Jazz bands, but I had already heard King Oliver and the Creole Jazz Band on Humphrey Lyttletons Jazz program on the wireless, so I was hooked on the New Orleans stuff.

Also bought all the early Satchmo stuff, Bix, the Eureka Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton etc - a huge variety of stuff, all out of his shop.

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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:34 pm

As discussed above and on page 29 of this thread.


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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby weerobjazz7 » Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:14 am

Interesting reading about Mr. Stanton. You could well be right War Baby. Unfortunately he did chase off a lot of customers with his attitude. Browsing is what it is all about in record shops and book shops.

My memory of the location of SIlverdales was faulty. It was actually at the junction of Derby Street and Argyle Street.

There was another secondhand record shop in Byres Road - at the bottom right hand side just before the junction with Dumbarton Road. Can't remember the name but it sold a lot of fire damaged records where the sleeves were discoloured by water. I bought several Columbia Clef 12" Lps of people like Art Tatum, Charlie Parker , a Teddy Wilson EP of 1946 piano solos and others. All still in my collection.

I don't think the shop lasted very long but it had some wonderful stuff.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby stillrockin » Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:11 pm

My first post after getting registered. I had a great time reading the memories of others and thought I should get some rambling down.

I distinctly remember the original Virgin shop - it was on the way to the bus station. It had the feel of a Byres Road boutique to it or maybe it was slightly more, well, subversive.

I did my growing up in EK. First records were bought from Glorias in Battlefield and then upstairs in the arcade in EK. Here's a question. Is it a suburban myth or did Brian "Robbo" Robertson work in Glorias before he joined Lizzy?? One of my early memories is a pile of us buying Genesis Lamb Lies Down from the EK shop. We were mesmerised by the sleeve and the story of Rael. We were a bit less mesmerised by the album ... as there was a mis-pressing and they all had to go back.

When I went to uni I did a lot of my buying in Listen in Byres Road. I remember to this day the thrill of hearing Killer Queen as a single via the speakers high up on the ceiling. The stereo phasing sounded out of this world and I could not wait for the album to come out ( and the subsequent gig at the apollo). The next year I remember uni pals creaming themselves when Born To Run came out. What a glorious sound that was. A couple of them went to Hammy Odeon to see his first UK show. Oh to be able to turn that clock back.

It was the same time that Lost Chord opened in Park Road. It was first run by a really nice guy called Gordon (?). Why go to the beer bar when you could check records every lunchtime?

After Glorias shut in EK we had a spell of only Woolies and John Menzies. Does anyone else remember king of bass Campbell Owens working as a Saturday boy in John Menzies? And then there was Impulse run by Jim Scobbie and his missus and team. Everything an out of city centre independent should be.

And then there was Tower! I've still got my "Tower Goes Glasgow" long sleeved t-shirt handed out to mark spending some daft amount of money on import cds. Every time the wife and I were in town for the cinema or a gig it was we could just pop into Tower for a couple of minutes to check it out before going home. You forget before t'internet how difficult it was to get information about overseas releases. And there they were spread out in that section round the back American long boxes and Jap obi strips.

My greatest pleasure was possibly the "flexi day". In myself to the west end. No pressure from my other and better half. Start at West End Records and work my way up past the various short lived places at the bottom of Byres Road to John Smiths and then Echo and Lost In Music. Get the trade ins sorted then check the purchases and do a deal. I liked them all for different reasons. Smiths had a great stock of imports. Echo piled high floor to ceiling with used and new. Lost In Music friendly, knowledgeable staff where the natter was part of the visit. And the gentle pointing to recently traded in barely used review copies at brilliant prices. And the discovering something out of print on the shelf at a decent price rather than the premium price we have come to expect on fleabay. I used to enjoy a similar sojourn to shops in Embra but that is another story. Truly those were happy days. While it is still fun hunting down obscure items on the 'net it cannot replace the shop browsing experience.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby Bridie » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:43 pm

"While it is still fun hunting down obscure items on the 'net it cannot replace the shop browsing experience."

Hello stillrockin :D Welcome to HG and your right about the record shops !!
I only know of one long lasting record shop and it's not in Glasgow.

http://www.spillersrecords.co.uk/
Yes HH,I know
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby RDR » Tue Aug 28, 2012 7:54 pm

stillrockin wrote:My first post after getting registered. I had a great time reading the memories of others and thought I should get some rambling down.

I distinctly remember the original Virgin shop - it was on the way to the bus station. It had the feel of a Byres Road boutique to it or maybe it was slightly more, well, subversive.

I did my growing up in EK. First records were bought from Glorias in Battlefield and then upstairs in the arcade in EK. Here's a question. Is it a suburban myth or did Brian "Robbo" Robertson work in Glorias before he joined Lizzy?? One of my early memories is a pile of us buying Genesis Lamb Lies Down from the EK shop. We were mesmerised by the sleeve and the story of Rael. We were a bit less mesmerised by the album ... as there was a mis-pressing and they all had to go back.

When I went to uni I did a lot of my buying in Listen in Byres Road. I remember to this day the thrill of hearing Killer Queen as a single via the speakers high up on the ceiling. The stereo phasing sounded out of this world and I could not wait for the album to come out ( and the subsequent gig at the apollo). The next year I remember uni pals creaming themselves when Born To Run came out. What a glorious sound that was. A couple of them went to Hammy Odeon to see his first UK show. Oh to be able to turn that clock back.

It was the same time that Lost Chord opened in Park Road. It was first run by a really nice guy called Gordon (?). Why go to the beer bar when you could check records every lunchtime?

After Glorias shut in EK we had a spell of only Woolies and John Menzies. Does anyone else remember king of bass Campbell Owens working as a Saturday boy in John Menzies? And then there was Impulse run by Jim Scobbie and his missus and team. Everything an out of city centre independent should be.

And then there was Tower! I've still got my "Tower Goes Glasgow" long sleeved t-shirt handed out to mark spending some daft amount of money on import cds. Every time the wife and I were in town for the cinema or a gig it was we could just pop into Tower for a couple of minutes to check it out before going home. You forget before t'internet how difficult it was to get information about overseas releases. And there they were spread out in that section round the back American long boxes and Jap obi strips.

My greatest pleasure was possibly the "flexi day". In myself to the west end. No pressure from my other and better half. Start at West End Records and work my way up past the various short lived places at the bottom of Byres Road to John Smiths and then Echo and Lost In Music. Get the trade ins sorted then check the purchases and do a deal. I liked them all for different reasons. Smiths had a great stock of imports. Echo piled high floor to ceiling with used and new. Lost In Music friendly, knowledgeable staff where the natter was part of the visit. And the gentle pointing to recently traded in barely used review copies at brilliant prices. And the discovering something out of print on the shelf at a decent price rather than the premium price we have come to expect on fleabay. I used to enjoy a similar sojourn to shops in Embra but that is another story. Truly those were happy days. While it is still fun hunting down obscure items on the 'net it cannot replace the shop browsing experience.


I went to school with Brian Robertson, though not the same year and he did work in a record shop, not sure if it was Gloria's.
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby Crate Digger » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:22 pm

I was searching 'record shops glasgow' on google & it brought me here. This thread has been a great read & very informative.

Does anyone remember Vinyl Freaks that was at Charing Cross a few years ago? The guy in the shop said they had to close down due to rent rises. Did they move elsewhere? Are they still on the go?
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Re:

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Thu Nov 22, 2012 11:16 am

Dexter St. Clair wrote:I first encountered Vinyl Freaks at the Barras, and then they had a place in the Church Basement at the top of Gibson Street and ended up on St. George's Road and are probably on line

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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby Crate Digger » Fri Nov 23, 2012 10:14 pm

sorry - don't know how I missed that but where are they now?
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby The Egg Man » Fri Nov 23, 2012 10:24 pm

I see mention elsewhere of 'Hamiltons', a 'lost record shop' at Finnieston somewhere opposite Harvey's the undertakers.

Any thoughts?
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Re: Lost record shops of Glasgow

Postby robertpool » Sat Nov 24, 2012 2:35 am

it was in villa toscana's shop
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