Situated just past the entrance to the market on the left hand side this small shop was another South East London stockist for rock steady and reggae in the late sixties and further proof, if any were needed, of the incredible popularity of Jamaican music at that time. It was presumably named after Leslie Kong’s Beverley’s Record Shop & Ice Cream Parlour on Orange Street, Kingston, Jamaica but the Lewisham shop didn’t sell ice cream. I was not a regular there but I have two very clear memories:
The first was after a visit to the A&E Department in nearby Lewisham Hospital… it was quite early one Monday morning and there was a large hand written notice in the window stating “54-46 NOW IN STOCK” so it must have been late spring early summer 1968 when The Maytals’ classic ’54-46 That’s My Number’ was released on Graeme Goodall’s Pyramid label.
I was there again on Christmas Eve the following year with two friends when one of the records I bought was ‘Jesse James’ by Laurel Aitken on Pama’s Nu Beat label. The shop was packed and I remember the lady playing ‘Skinhead Train’, also by Laurel Aitken on Nu Beat, originals of which now fetch alarmingly high prices. However, I was stopped in my tracks leaving the shop when I heard the unforgettable introduction to ‘Lock Jaw’ by The Upsetter with Tommy McCook & The Supersonics starring an uncredited Dave Barker of Dave & Ansel Collins fame … “from coast to coast the sound of now!”… it is one of the most innovative and influential records ever made. But I had spent all my money and, as much as I needed a copy, I couldn’t afford to buy it there and then. I was able to purchase ‘Lock Jaw’ after the holidays and played it over and over and over again until the black vinyl had turned to grey…
I’m unsure when the Beverley’s shop closed but a branch of Lee Laing’s Sound City opened towards the back of the market sometime in the seventies and, in the early eighties, a second hand record shop, ‘Raw Power’, opened up nearer the entrance. Ska, rock steady and reggae records were still available at reasonable prices and the two chaps running ‘Raw Power’ always had a serious selection so, needless to say, I became a regular visitor…
Harry Hawke (2024)
