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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.
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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