Comments
Name: dn784533
Comment: Essential port of call for the indie fan. It opened in 1983, just in time to stock records by The Shop Assistants, The Pastels, and Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes. Used to sell off white labels and Mayking test pressings for pennies each. It moved along the road to bigger premises later, and in the 1990s had several branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Still trading, its Edinburgh operation is now in the Grassmarket. Highly recommended.
Name: fabgear66
Comment: Not quite my scene as they say, although great for indie stuff. I'm sure they're famous for having said some not nice things about Oasis at one time and I think Oasis paid them a visit a few years later.
I did visit the branch they had at the top of Cockburn Street a number of times when I was going through a stage of purchasing Byrds and Beach Boys CDs and before they moved to the Grassmarket they were doing a clearout and I picked up some 1960s singles, which was strange because I don't remember them selling anything like that before. Haven't been to their Grassmarket branch yet so must check it out.
Name: Gerry
Comment: I was a regular visitor to the West Nicolson Street branch throughout the early to mid-1990s before I moved back south of the border. A very friendly shop. The owner Kevin was always pleasant, I got on well with him , possibly helped by the fact we were both Englishmen living in Scotland. As others have said the shop was very indie-orientated in those days but they always had some decent rock and punk vinyl too. I found a lot of stuff there over the years. They were always reasonable on prices for the rare records too. They also had a shop at Dundas Street (where I once got a huge job lot of unused early 1980's 7" and 12" singles at 50p each from an unsorted stockpile in the back room) as well as a tiny outlet in Lady Lawson Street where I remember finding a Led Zeppelin IV purple vinyl LP for £20.
(4 August 2015)
“I think that people here like their music a bit more in their face.” Like drink, it would seem that the Scottish market prefers its music hard - this helps explain happy hardcore’s popularity north of the Border. “Scotland prefers its beats per minute slightly faster than the rest of the country,” opines Andrew Tully, a seasoned employee of the independent Avalanche record chain. “Some dance records used to be speeded up for the Scottish dance scene. Before happy hardcore, Scotland was a haven for Hi-NRG and it was only particular people who bought it.”