Comments
Dave Harwood
25 Sep 2023 at 04:36
I found an advert in the ‘Fraserburgh Herald & Northern Counties Advertiser’ dated 25th September 1956: “GRAMOPHONE Records - Send for our free list of records, available by return post. Dept. 10, Bandparts Music Stores Ltd., Union Place, Edinburgh.” ... and also this advert in ‘The Stage’ dated 14th October 1976: “BANDPARTS MUSIC STORES LTD., 10 Antigua Street, Edinburgh EH1.”
Name: Jim Suddon
Comment: Bandparts used to run adverts in the Evening News each Friday evening advertising the top ten records sold. They were ahead of the BBC with their top ten.
The shop was in a busy area as Union Place in those days was at the bottom of Leith Street and was one of Edinburgh's busiest streets. Mr Blacklock was the proprietor and the shop was quite small but had booths where you could listen to the record before purchase. I remember watching one chap buying three records only to drop them outside where they smashed, being 78s and made of shellac.
The area is now a large roundabout and when the property was about to be demolished the shop moved down to Antigua Street further down the road. Ronnie Blacklock then ran the shop when his father retired and the business closed when Ronnie died at a fairly young age.
Record stars were often visiting the shop if they were in the Empire Theatre and I remember Lonnie Donegan amongs others.
Small shops were not affected by prices as retail price maintenance meant that the same price was charged all over the country. Their nearest competion was from Woolworth, just up the road in Princes Street, with their Embassy label which was cheaper but had other artists singing the popular hits.
The block the shop was in at Union Place was part of a triangle with part of Boughton Street and Picardy Place, this was where Arthur Conan Doyle was born.
(8 February 2013)