Whilst reminiscing I came across your site. I was trying to find a record shop in Worthing close to where I lived called A-Z records. It was located at 225 Tarring Road, just a bike ride away.
It was run by a gentleman in his 50's resembling George Martin (5th beatle).
It occupied the LHS of this shop (I can't remember what was on the RHS).
The shop frontage was small with the entrance door at an angle. The shop frontage / name was "A to Z Records" in white on a lime green background. Inside the shop was very small about 16' x 8' tops. It had modern rock / pop
music on the longer wall and classical / easy listening on the shorter wall. The shop counter was only about 5' wide. I used to buy my albums there between 1971-1975 after which
I went to Uni and never returned. The gentleman was very knowledgeable / helpful and would always order records if he didn't have them. He had a turntable behind the counter and would play any record on request. Apart from the location, the other reasons for using A-Z was that he was competitively priced. Most of the shops in the town center would be selling their albums @ £1.10p/£1.15p where as they were only £1.05p in A-Z.
(with my paper round bringing me £1.50 a week that extra 10p made a difference). Also, you were given a free sturdy plastic cover to protect that precious gatefold sleeve; you could always buy additional plastic covers for 3p each I remember. I'm sure if I open my vinyl record cases under the stairs the plastic covers would still be in place (not perished!). By contrast their carrier bags were very thin white plastic bags with no logo or shop name on them.
It was a popular shop and used to sell other related items such as album cases, record cleaners,
stylus, record players, headphones etc. I do remember that it was just the album cover on display
with the vinyl record kept on shelves behind the counter. I assume this was to prevent any accidentswith the vinyl but thinking about it..... maybe all other record shops did this anyway?
Unfortunately I have failed to find any reference to the shop online so hopefully with this basic
information someone will be able to add to it.
I can't remember all the records I bought in A-Z but my first few were
1. Tarkus : ELP
2. Who's Next : Who
3. Hendrix in the West : Jimi Hendrix
4. Rainbow Bridge : Jimi Hendrix
and the last one was 'Sad Wings of Destiny' by Judas Priest (having just seen them go down a storm
at the Reading festival in 1975)
FYI... there were many 2nd hand record shops in Worthing not tied to any franchise
(I remember 2 in Tarring road alone); they were really just an early version of 'swapshop'.
