Harum Records

Name: Alan French
Comment: From 1988-1990 I worked a Saturday job at a Drum store in Archway. Naturally lunchtimes were spent at Harum Records looking for stuff to spend my hard-earned cash on. Looking back on those times the thing that brings back the biggest smile were the two awesome people who worked there… Chrissie Yiannou and Rajiv Sephi. Just the loveliest people, knowledgeable about music and who treated me as a 14/15-year-old kid like an adult/peer. Any visit to Harum Records was a total vibe.

On the approach to being 50 I can look back at magic times in my youth and Harum Records/Chrissie/Rajiv form part of my fondest memories. As per the idiom/cliché, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone!
(2023)

Comment: I used to work in Harum Records in the mid-eighties... In fact, my first proper job in 1983 (I think) was 2 weeks in the Muswell Hill branch (they had four others: Archway, Barnet, Crouch End and Enfield). After my initiation in Muswell Hill I was moved more permanently to the tiny Crouch End shop at the bottom of Crouch Hill. There was just enough space behind the counter for me and the manager, Eric. My musical education was there was incredible, if it wasn't learning from Eric or the plethora of record company reps that visited daily (nothing to do with it being a chart return shop, oh no!) it was the amazing locals. We bought and sold second-hand records which I was allowed to buy at cost so my collection grew very rapidly indeed.

Two unforgettable regular customers would have to be Chris and Keith. 'The boys' as we referred to them were 6'2", 25-stone identical twins and they were both blind, I assume from birth. These guys walked together along Crouch End Broadway to the shop every Saturday morning without fail. They took up the entire counter for a couple of hours, other customers had to work around them! They had the most incredible musical knowledge too, what one didn't know the other was sure to, so we saved up various enquiries to ask of them each week. They asked for a copy of every album or single before it was added to their considerable pile (they spent about £70 each per week on average, in 1983!), they took it out of the sleeve and inner sleeve and would be able to tell what label it was on just from feeling the pressing with their fingers! I swear on my life that is the truth.

We had a fair number of 'celebs' come through the door too - Madonna, Bob Dylan would probably be the most famous, but Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart's studio was 20 yards across the street so they were around a lot obviously. The directors were three mates who clearly loved the business and knew what they were doing in it. One of them, Colin Carter was in a comedy/covers band called Snacks at the Bar. At least once a year we'd all head down to Kentish Town to see them play.

I eventually moved on to the biggest branch in Enfield and from there into the music business which I have worked in ever since. It was fun going back to those times for a while, if anyone remembers me from those days drop me a line - [email protected]

Name: Ade Macrow
Comment: As a schoolboy from the nearby grammar school, Stationers, I used to frequent the Crouch End branch of Harum Records often in the early to mid-1970s. What my parents never knew was that the dinner money they gave me each week always went on a new single instead. (Well, when you're young, starvation is OK).

The manager then was (I think, but I could well be wrong) a tall-ish guy with an afro called Graham. Being at that impressionable age, we boys stupidly thought he'd care what discs we purchased and once, when buying a David Cassidy single for my girlfriend Sally, I contrived a ridiculous scenario which entailed me 'casually' turning to one of my mates as I approached the counter and asking him "What was that single Sally wanted again?". By this means, Graham would realise it wasn't for uber-cool, hip and trendy me. What an idiot I was! As if he'd be interested.

Decisions as to singles had to made quickly but it was in the days when most music in or around the charts was great - or at least seemed to be. I recall intending to buy 5.15 by The Who once, only to be informed it wasn't in stock. Rather than leave empty-handed, I plumped for Colin Blunstone and I Don't Believe In Miracles instead. Never did buy 5.15, as seven days later there was some other new song undoubtedly demanding I spend my 48p on it.

Later on, when working, we had the money to buy albums and what a joy it was to rifle through all the LPs in Harum, before selecting one. Ah, those truly were the days indeed.

Name: Phil Abel
Comment: There was also Harum in Crouch End, a second-hand shop. I was a passenger in a car going past it one day in the mid 1990s when I saw a sleeve in the window that made me insist that the driver let me out. It was Maggie Bell's Queen of the Night, produced by Jerry Wexler and including Eric Gale and Richard Tee among the musicians. I had heard a friend's copy many, many times, but it was too great not to have my own.

Name: Gary
Comment: Amazing to read all these comments - Harum Records Crouch End was our first shop in 1970. The partnership was Graham and Gary Umbo with Mike Harding and later on Colin Carter joined us. Out of the six shops and the three market stalls Crouch End will always be my favourite. The customers would discuss music sometimes for hours like the famous blind twins Keith and Chris. Such great fun in my years there.

Name: Tig Trafford
Comment: I remember the Crouch End shop very well, particularly during the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties. My relationship with Gary and Colin goes back to the early sixties when I went to William Grimshaw and then Creighton school with them both. My album record collection is largely made up of second-hand records bought from Crouch End, from Gary Eric, Spence, Graham, Alo or Colin. I built up a working relationship with the Harum boys as Alan Wood, another school friend, and I did most of their shop fitting for the shops over this period. We built browsers, racks and counters for all the shops. I remember vividly fitting the new Crouch End shop dropped till counter with Al one Sunday morning listening to Echo Beach by Martha & the Muffins, great track, not sure about the rest of the album. We were attempting to get it finished by twelve so we could meet others at The Three Compasses between then and two, as the pubs were only open for two hours at lunch time in those days.

I formed ‘Snacks at the Bar’ with Colin when returning to London from college in 1973. We started as a two-piece but grew into a six-piece with Alo Kealy playing drums and Al Wood joining us an additional vocalist. As has been mentioned by others ‘Snacks’ gigs at Bull and Gate Kentish Town and Dublin Castle Camden, particularly the Christmas ones in the early eighties were really well attended by those affectionately known as ‘rent-a-crowd’ which included Harum staff and most the band ‘Bad Manners’ with whom we shared a studio in Stamford Hill in the early days.

Thanks go to my son Joseph who found and sent me this link. It is great to be reminded of those exciting and very happy days, well done Spence!

Name: Ade Macrow
Comment: Good to know I remembered Graham correctly. Spent a great deal of what little money I had there, not just on singles (as detailed above) but also on albums. Harum in Crouch End always seemed to stock those albums other stores didn't, such as Open Road by Donovan. Later on, in a non-musical context, also met Colin Carter, as he was briefly part of our Sunday night drinking group in the mid-1980s. And, despite my Machiavellian scheming, Sally never did marry me...

Name: Richard Moore
Comment: I remember Harum, mainly the Crouch End branch, in the 1970s. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall the name of the shop came from a partnership between Gary and Graham Umbo, and a guy whose surname was Harrington. The Umbos later bought out Mr Harrington. Was a great shop and they showed fantastic loyalty to their customers. They would occasionally let you have free tickets for concerts, I seem to rememeber Greenslade and Yes... Great guys with a deep knowlege of the business.
(2 July 2014)

Name: Judy
Comment: I've just discovered this website. I'm in the process of going through my vinyl collection and deciding what to keep. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s my salary didn't stretch to buying full-price records. Many of my LPs have Harum stickers on them. I used to frequent the Muswell Hill branch at the weekends - happy memories! Thank you for reminding me, Spencer Baldwin!
(5 April 2014)

Name: Jerry Browning
Comment: F*** I loved Harum. Seems to me if I wasn't in there of a Saturday I was in John Beeby's Music Place, about four doors up the hill. Gary introduced me to Papa Nes (I had the Monkees albums but didn't realise he was good on his own) and countless others. I mainly went to Crouch End but later on I had the serious hots for the redhead that worked in the Muswell Hill branch - never did anything about it though :-(

I also played with Alo Kiely in a couple of bands later on. Oh, and Tig - I lived in the house in Rookfield that backed on to you in Cascade :-)
(14 July 2015)

Name: Linda Ruston
Comment: Just watching a TV programme about the days of vinyl... reminded me of the days in the early 1970s when Graham Umberleigh sat across the desk from me with a pile of records, we were supposed to be developing computer systems but he was always more interested in the music and he was always at Harum records at weekends!
(17 October 2015)

Name: P
Comment: I loved Harum. I used to visit the Barnet branch at lunchtime when I was at school/college. Sarah and another girl with back-combed hair behind the counter would always take time to chat. I did go in to buy records too ;-)
(4 April 2016)

Name: Colin Dean
Comment: My vinyl collection is also made up of lots of albums with the Harum sticker. I used to do the sound for Snacks At The Bar and Alo also played drums in my band, Colin Dean's Mutiny. I knew Gareth Umbo from Baptist church youth club. I too used to get the second-hand records at buy-in price. Perk of knowing the owners.
(30 September 2016)

Name: Barry O'Hagan
Comment: Haha, 'very tall'. And the only girl I remember from Barnet wearing black was Helen. Last spotted her at The Town & Country Club for a Waterboys gig in 1985.

Must admit, my time at Harum was brief, 6-7 months tops in 1984. It was my first proper job after I bailed out of a degree at North East London Poly, and subsequently onto 10+ years working for an American computer firm. Like Harum, sadly now deceased.

But I do remember some fun times and great people. Apart from Helen there was Sarah who shared my love of hard rock. There was also a girl who was still at school and did Saturdays. Think her name was Tilly, or similar.

Steve put in a few shifts and was taken by my ability to work out the projected chart places when it came to putting in orders. I was good at that. Wasn't so good at doing the weekly finances before banking the cash. One particular day in Enfield will live on in the memory. What took others an hour or two with the maths took me about six hours. Have to laugh at that. So did Mandy, who I've often thought about down the years as she took me under her wing. There was another great lady from Enfield, too, but time and memory robs me of her name.

I remember Mervyn, also. Big soul fan who used to wear custom-made Crusaders T-shirts and talk of Soul weekends at Caister, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Slave etc. Miles apart from my musical tastes but loved working with him.

So many memories packed into half a year or so. Also remember serving Sade's mum in Barnet as she had come in to purchase Your Love is King.

Colin was the only one of the 'directors' who I worked with. Brilliant wit, and funny guy. I remember some of his holiday snaps, haha. Livng in Donegal in Ireland, the past 20 years and working as a Psychiatric Nurse, the last 16.

Glad to see Harum have its place on the web. Am a Muswell Hillbilly so it was always my fave record shop. By the way, there's a claim out there on the web that Nick Hornby worked in the Archway store and that this became the basis for his book High Fidelity. Find it hard to believe but would love it to be true.
(26 October 2016)

Name: Ken Rowland
Comment: Does anyone know when Barnet Harum first opened and closed its doors?
(19 February 2017)

Name: Michael Payne
Comment: At rhe risk of being wrong, was there not a record shop of the Harum name in one corner of Bounds Green tube station ticket office? There was a sweet shop in the diagonally opposite corner. This was when Roberts the greengrocers were over the road where a fried chicken shop now is, probably about 1980 or so.
(18 May 2017)

Name: David
Comment: I was a customer of Harum in Crouch End in the late 1960s and through to when, sadly, it closed.

I have been roped into a project with a chap from U3A who is researching into musicians/bands that were active or had Crouch End connections in the 1960s.
There was an explosion of talent in the 1970s that is well documented but little seems to be known about what was happening in the previous decade.

We are trying to unearth people who were born or lived in Crouch End, who might have performed at Hornsey Town Hall, who might have attended or performed at Hornsey College of Art or perhaps even Mountview Theatre School.

Any help or contacts you can offer would be appreciated.
(2018)

Name: Mike Dixon
Comment: Regarding the query above about the Barnet branch, I think they all closed around 1994? I don't remember any branches before around 1982 but I could be wrong.

The mention of reps reminded me of being in (I think) the Muswell Hill branch and there being boxes of stuff lying around on the floor. The rep (or possibly a member of staff) tripped over one of them while carrying another box and careered across the shop floor, his momentum only halted by crashing into the display shelves on the opposite wall. Each one blamed the other. Happy days!
(2019)

Name: Nick Lees
Comment: I first encountered Harum as a student living in Crouch End in 1970. Gary was behind the counter and they hadn't been in business that long. He looked like a young Tim Buckley, the shop stocked all the weird stuff I liked, and the second-hand selection was perfect for my student grant-fuelled budget.

We became friends and through him met his future wife Ann and chum Howard (who was working as a shelf-stacker at Tesco but later became a big noise in A&R).

Graham Umbo was a lot more serious seeming, and looked like he'd be a character in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, until you got to know him and the same Umbo loveliness was just below that slightly crusty exterior.

Mike looked just as he was - a straight Accountant putting up with two hippies (Gary the one with the customer-facing flair, Graham the organised one). But again, he was a great bloke.

After finishing 'education' and loafing about, Gary hired me (probably out of pity) and I worked the Crouch End (with Robbie) Muswell Hill, East Finchley, and Watford (with Dino and Jeff) shops, as well as Dalston and Dartford markets before getting a proper job (selling Hi-Fi).

En route Graham taught me a lesson I never forgot and looking back set me up for life. Gary was off doing something so Graham worked Crouch End with me. I was bored, there were few customers, so I sat moping while Graham buzzed around the small shop just doing "stuff". Seeing my demeanour he had a few pointed but friendly words with me, and I discovered that doing "stuff" (like putting the albums in order, filing new releases instead of listening to them, dusting etc.) passed the time miraculously! So Graham, if you're reading this, I owe you a lifelong debt.

Colin had a way of looking at you that said: I'm just working out my latest jape. He got me big time when we arranged to meet at a Leisure Centre I'd not visited to play Badminton. I was a bit late and flustered but he greeted me at the entrance and directed me to the gents changing room. I rushed in and was greeted by the site of two naked people bending over with their backs to me. I thought nothing of it until one of them turned around and screamed "GET OUT!" at me. Yes, Colin had directed me to the ladies room.

Watford: Worked there for a short while in the mid-1970s with Jeff (Geoff?) the manager and young Dino. Dino was a loveable scamp who would clearly end up selling ladies underwear door to door, and Jeff loved anything played unfeasibly fast (never mind the music Nick, just listen to that technique). Sadly customers were few.

Watford postscript: about 10 years ago my wife and I were enjoying a mid-concert break at the Royal Festival Hall - the Brian Wilson Smile gig - when two blokes walked up to my better half and announced: "You're Anne, so (turning to me) you must be Nick!" It was Jeff and Dino, looking much the same, but I'd aged so badly they didn't recognise me. Huh. By the way Dino is now a lawyer.

I owe a huge amount of my record collection to Harum (Gary used to order one of each weird old hippy nonsense in the sure knowledge that I'd snap it up), and more than a few life lessons. They all stood by me in times of need too.

So thank you to Gary, Graham, and Mike (alright, the spirit of Colin too). Oh, and all the slightly barmy customers (especially at East Finchley).
(2019)

Name: Ian Jakeman
Comment: Harum became one of my favourites. They were good - very good. Prices were excellent, well stocked, efficient, Mike was the manager/owner I recall. I did visit the Barnet shop once - very similar- I bought tons of punk singles from them. Mike had a long-haired female assistant there. Location-wise it was at the top end of town - a bit away from everything but worth the walk - I left Watford 30 years ago - I think a café/vinyl store has now been there for some time - well done to them too.
(2020)

Name: Paul Allan
Comment: Seems like the Watford branch is long forgotten but for those that remember Harum Records was based by the pond next to a TV rental shop. Geoff was the manager and was into Zappa, Jethro Tull, Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen. He always had gorgeous women flicking around... I meanwhile worked with him and was the nerdy one who liked XTC, The Associates and The Cure etc. Was gutted when the lease was up and shop shut and became an estate agents.
(2020)

Name: Chris Hawkins
Comment: Wow, just wonderful to have found this - I was only talking to my partner the other day about my youth in Hornsey and Muswell Hill and the fantastic Harum Records. From the trips from Stationers to the Crouch End shop or from home to the Muswell Hill shop; they were a key part in my musical education and my lifelong love of music.

I used to love the second-hand sections where you could pick up incredible bargains or the singles where you could introduce yourself to a whole new world all on a budget.

The guys that worked there were great at getting to know what you might be interested in and pointing you towards other stuff that would help broaden and define your tastes for a liftetime of love of music. So thanks for Wreckless Eric, thanks for some great Trojan music, thanks for Otis Redding, thanks for The Clash, thanks for The Undertones, thanks for a world that led to Howlin' Wolf, Massive Attack, PJ Harvey, Leftfield, U Roy, Lady Lykez, and oh so much more.

My vinyl is still littered with new and second-hand buys from Harum, and my boxes of 45s, and my room full of music of all sorts is testimony to Harum's education.
(2020)

Name: Howard Revens
Comment: Wow. Just came across this site. Pulled out some old vinyl, Bad Company by Bad Company to be precise, from 1973 and it still has the original Harum Records little yellow sticker on it, £1.30! So I thought I'd google as I can't remember the shop. But I was brought up in New Southgate and went to Woodhouse Grammar in North Finchley so might have been Muswell Hill. Wish I could remember but amazing memories.
(2020)

Name: Mei-Lin Horton
Comment: I worked at the Barnet branch 1990 to 1993 (left to have my first daughter). Such great memories of my time there. Alex was area manager (and lived in the flat above the shop) who was the best. Ros was manager until she left to live in Belgium. She was so much fun to work with! Zoe was our Saturday girl, who left us for better money at McDonald's. Laura transferred from the Enfield branch to work alongside me (she left soon after me to have a baby too). I was lucky to have worked with such nice people. I learnt so much music-wise during my time there. Never a dull moment.
(2020)

Name: Louise Alabaster
Comment: I have just come across this! I worked in the Enfield branch in 1987-1989, firstly as a Saturday girl then left school and then full-time for a year - loved this job! I worked with Steve and Mark - I remember local DJs always popping in to get latest 12" singles. Reps coming in regularly, making Christmas windows! Great times it's where my love of music started! So good to read all these comments!
(2020)

Name: Sandra Wilson
Comment: I joined the Harum team when they opened the Enfield shop and was given a new name... Sandy! I had the privilege of working with Colin and sometimes Mike and Graeme until I left in November 1981 to work for RCA as a rep. Colin was such good fun to work with and always taking the mickey out of someone! Erik, who worked in the Crouch End shop became my partner in crime when we planned various things for Colin, especially on his birthday including a singagram. If my memory serves me right, his birthday was April Fool’s day so we just had to do something!

Whilst working for RCA ( until January 1986) I was lucky enough to have all the Harum shops on my patch so had coffee and chats in all the shops with all the bosses, every week. Don’t think much work was done then and of course it was easy selling the Eurthymics’ records in Crouch End.

Many happy memories of pubs and parties with Mike, Gary, Graeme, Colin, Alo, Erik and other reps including Maureen, Alo’s wife.
(2020)

Name: Paul Parker
Comment: Worked at the Enfield branch for a year with Steve, Mark, Spencer and a whole heap of others as we often got shuffled around the shops. Played football a couple a times with Steve. Will always remember over buying a certain record called We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off from the rep and when Steve got back from lunch he wasn’t amused... at least until a week or so later when we were the only shop around with stock and the record flew in at number one. Great memories of everyone there and the guys introduced me to a varied taste in music which remains to this day. one of the best jobs I ever had back in 1986-87.
(2021)

Name: Angie Kennedy
Comment: Hi, I'm not sure but I might be the 'hot blonde girl' although not from Barnet (Muswell Hill where I started with Harum Records as a Saturday girl in 1981 with Mike, Graham, Alo & Martin - the other Saturday man! ) they then took me on as a trainee manager about 14 months later where I went from Muswell Hill branch to Crouch End with Erik then Archway with Colin and then the Barnet branch for a while with Sarah and then Enfield where I stayed until I left (after almost five years), working with Spencer, Ajax and the manager was Mandy and Melvyn 'the soul man'. Many, many happy memories with the gang, watching Snacks at the Bar especially at Kentish Town. One of the most happiest times and one of the best jobs I ever had. Still miss them.
(2021)

Name: Nick Welch
Comment: Hi everyone, Back in the 1970s I used to live in Hornsey and remember the Crouch End shop. I used to hang out with Dave Stewart then and remembered a guy named Paul? Does anyone remember Paul as I would like to contact him and his wife Laura. The old Crouch End scene was great and we would regularly go into The Railway boozer. Crouch End was happening in those days as it was the nucleus for the old Hornsey College of Art before it moved up to Ally Pally. Still, if anyone remembers Paul and his later wife Laura please keep me posted.
(2022)

Name: Simon Kaye
Comment: My dad (Eddie) used to be in the print and used to do all the invoices and letterheads and stuff for Harums. He used to visit the Crouch End store mostly to drop off the work. He was quite good friends with Mike Harding. Sadly they lost contact some time ago.
(2022)

Name: Niall
Comment: My 'rite of passage' record shop was Harum. Just near Joan Rhodes’s bohemian cafe and John Beeby’s music shop. A tiny little place with a fountain of musical knowledge counter – often with an enticing box of reduced-in-price singles for you to browse through (25p or five for a pound). Lots of old heads (well, they seemed old to the then pre-teenage me) hanging around the shop (did they ever buy anything?) asking to hear the various trendy albums of the time. Going up to the high counter with my Saturday pocket money held in my clenched little fist, and feeling like Oliver Twist asking for more, I was so nervous, I had to write what I wanted (usually four or five singles) on a piece of paper, rather than try and stumble the titles out, or just forget them completely. That said, there was nothing really to be scared of as the staff there were so nice. I remember those crisp rows and rows of brand new 45s behind that counter and the record store ‘smell’ of fresh vinyl – hoping against hope I’d be lucky, and get some fancy picture sleeves, or limited edition coloured vinyl given to me. In fairness, I often did, and I suppose my collectible highlight from Harum was a signed copy by Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox of Love is a Stranger from their Eurythmics period. I believe they lived/recorded nearby, and were frequent users of Harum.

Come the mid-1980s, the ‘evils’ of the chainstore record shops came to town. I remember an Our Price opening in the Broadway, with its corporate look, racks of bland looking albums, and serve you quickly, no time to talk staff, in company t-shirts behind the sprawling and impersonal counter. Poor old Harum had to compete with this unwanted by me but wanted by many way of buying music, and I distinctly remember going into a completely empty Harum for the last time in about 1984/5, not long before I moved out of Crouch End to start my journey of moves further north, ending in Nottingham where I live now.

They can take away all those great shops and the feel of Crouch End of years gone by, but they cannot take those happy memories from my head.
(19 October 2019)

Name: Hemma Chohan
Comment: Anyone know where Mike Olivier is please?
​(2022)

Name: Stuart Umbo
Comment: Hello everyone - Stuart here, son of Graham Umbo who used to run Harum with Mick and Gary. I'm sorry to say my dad passed away last week. I sent him this webpage not long ago, and he loved reading the memories you all have of the shop (almost as much as I enjoyed the old photos of him). He always spoke of his time there fondly and remembered nearly all of you that have posted on here. He kept saying "I really should post something". But being the low-key guy he was, I think he was always keen to avoid the attention.
​(2022)

Name: Laura
Comment: I’m adding this comment here as Nick Welch is asking to get in touch with myself and my husband Paul. Paul Jacobs ran the record shop Spanish Moon. He lived with Dave and Annie and in fact introduced them.
(October 2022)

Name: Jamie Crampton
Comment: Loved this place [Watford branch], spent so much in there in the late 1970s/early 1980s they gave me a discount card. Nice staff, shame when it went.
(2020)