Cloud 7

Name: Hamid Mantu
Comment: I worked in The Portobello Road Branch on Saturdays for a while. I remember that Saturdays seem to be just one big party!.We had an arrangement with the pub opposite and we drank beer all day and listened to great music.

Name: Robin Robertson
Comment: I was manager of Cloud 7 records in Hounslow for most of the 1970s, don't know if anyone remembers, happy days.

When I first went there to manage the shop it was still called Musicland, the best retailer I ever worked for, they just let you get on with it, so much freedom, I had a couple of vans delivering the latest American imports, all sealed. I remember how thrilling it was when they showed me the first couple of Neil Young albums, several weeks before British release, oh what bliss, ha!

Anyway that's enough from me, but if you are an old customer or friend please contact me at any time, you will find me on Facebook, just look for my name, I am the one with the white hat and glasses. Music is my first love and it will be my last.

Name: Colin Adkins
Comment: There was also a Cloud 7 on Wimbledon Broadway. A home from home.
(2021)

Name: Martyn Lee
Comment: Hi Robin, I worked with you for a while in Hounslow and Putney and also shops in Wimbledon, Ealing, St Albans, and Portobello Road. A great time in my life, will never forget the party atmosphere, especially Saturday afternoon in the Portobello shop, full of customers and Springsteen's Born To Run or Ted Nugent's Stranglehold, the volume cranked up high.
​(2021)

Name: Mick/Mike Warlow
Comment: Hi Martyn, how have you been? Did you carry on working in the music business? You and I had some fun and 'improved' various Cloud 7 stores. Me first in St Albans, Herts, then later Wimbledon and Putney. You were my chauffer from Ealing where I lived above Dave's store, now a shopping mall and still listed on my UK driving licence! We did some amazing things in Wimbledon, converting the back of the store to a singles department (even bought an old Rockola jukebox and loaded it with the pub rock/punk singles). Supporting all the local punks, later to become famous/infamous in their own right. The whole of the 2-Tone tour arriving two hours late, losing one of the store's front windows and me having to placate the local police, schools, and parents, but the kids got a chance to meet The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, and Dexys Midnight Runners: many stories to tell - and worth the aggro!

You followed me into the merchandising business, then we lost touch with one another. I carried on to 'bigger' (ha ha, tee hee) things and have had a successful career in the music business and publishing, etc.,etc. But through all of that my days at Cloud 7 managing various stores was a great time in my life.

Name: Kate (aka Dewey)
Comment: I worked at Cloud 7 Wimbledon as as Saturday girl from 1976, and summer/Christmas holidays until 1979. I started at Our Price in 1980 and was manager of the Wimbledon and Putney branches, starting in Kingston. Fun!
(2021)

Name: Steve Brown
Comment: Ah memories. Nearly 50 years ago now, I started hanging out in the Kingston shop in 1973/4 while I should have been at College. The shop was managed by Jean (Bean) who later went on to work for Tape Revolution/Our Price, after which I unfortunately lost touch. Others I met there included Ivo, area manager for Cloud 7, who I travelled to Morocco with in 1975 and who went on to found 4AD records, and Dave Botterell who later managed Haircut 100.

I did work for Cloud 7 after the Morocco trip, at the Wimbledon store leading up to Christmas 1975 and then the Portobello Road shop, just before it closed in early 1976, when Desire was released and was just about the only record that sold. After that I spent most of my working life in the music business, for Miles Copeland and working with Material, Conflict and as manager of Fields Of The Nephilim. Took early retirement due to diabetes and a heart attack, now live in Surrey with my wife and Labradors.
(2022)

Name: Tony
Comment: I lived in Wimbledon, so usually went to Cloud 7 in the High Street during school lunch hours to flick through the album racks and listen to whatever they were playing. They used to have occasional signing appearances by rising bands, including The Specials and Madness together, and the Rezillos. Cloud 7 later became an Our Price.

Name: Ray Jeffery
Comment: Used to buy records from Cloud 7 for our disco, MIRAJE.

Name: Guy Fisher
Comment: Used to go into Cloud 7 and buy all the punk and new wave stuff.

Name: Gavin Wybrow
Comment: Cloud 7 became Our Price.

Name: musicman56
​​​​​​​Comment: Sooo, St Albans. The Record Room in Chequer Street was the oldest shop - opened in the early 1950s, I believe. Then c.1971 came Cloud 7 (with their swish purple bags) who had a unit in the then new Heritage Close precinct. Not long after that Harlequin moved into St Peter's Street, so by the 1970s there were three. Our Price bought out Harlequin in the 1980s and Cloud 7 disappeared overnight. So when Our Price closed it only left the Record Room (rather fitting, I always thought). Sadly they also closed when the proprietor died in 2012. Probably spent most of my teenage years in these shops. So much better than the likes of Virgin, HMV etc that followed.