I used to love this shop and frequented it every Saturday and additional days during the holidays as a music-obsessed school boy from 1976 until it closed down, which must’ve been late 1983/early 1984… annoyingly just as I was about old enough to try to get a part-time job there!
It was run by Maxine & Tom who were a lovely couple. They were really kind and helpful. The shop used to display the Music Week Top 75 singles chart in one of the glass-panelled front doors, which was my first exposure to the fact that there was a longer chart than the one broadcast on Radio 1 on a Tuesday lunchtime. The counter was at the far end of the shop and, once inside, I used to make a beeline for the Disco 7” section, positioned on the far left-hand side of the counter to check out the new releases and see what my pocket money (by which I mean money I’d been given for school dinner tickets that I decided would be better spend on vinyl than school dinners!) could get me that week. This would’ve been 1979-82 - my peak disco years!
I’d occasionally get something from the 12” single section if I considered it a ‘proper’ 12” (not just the 7” version being pointlessly extended). I bought my first ever 12” single in there. I had saved up for the 12” red vinyl version of Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’ but, on the day I rushed to Debden Broadway to get it, I was crestfallen to be told it had been sold, so I bought the boring old black vinyl version instead - not the landmark start to my 12” collection that I had hoped for. Maybe should’ve gone for M’s ‘Pop Musik’ double-groove 12” instead! Randomly, Discocity occasional US import disco LPs & 12”s too. The US Salsoul release of Cameron’s self-titled debut album and the Gordy issue of Teena Marie’s ‘Irons in the Fire’ are still prized possessions.
I had kept a 7” paper bag and a plastic 12” carrier with the shop’s logo until a few years ago when I moved house. Sadly, they didn’t survive the move.
Once in RE class at school, aged 12/13, we were asked to draw what we hoped our future might look like. I drew a picture of me, with a beard for some reason (maybe inspired by Tom), standing outside Discocity with my future wife. Spoiler alert: it didn’t come true!
It was run by Maxine & Tom who were a lovely couple. They were really kind and helpful. The shop used to display the Music Week Top 75 singles chart in one of the glass-panelled front doors, which was my first exposure to the fact that there was a longer chart than the one broadcast on Radio 1 on a Tuesday lunchtime. The counter was at the far end of the shop and, once inside, I used to make a beeline for the Disco 7” section, positioned on the far left-hand side of the counter to check out the new releases and see what my pocket money (by which I mean money I’d been given for school dinner tickets that I decided would be better spend on vinyl than school dinners!) could get me that week. This would’ve been 1979-82 - my peak disco years!
I’d occasionally get something from the 12” single section if I considered it a ‘proper’ 12” (not just the 7” version being pointlessly extended). I bought my first ever 12” single in there. I had saved up for the 12” red vinyl version of Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’ but, on the day I rushed to Debden Broadway to get it, I was crestfallen to be told it had been sold, so I bought the boring old black vinyl version instead - not the landmark start to my 12” collection that I had hoped for. Maybe should’ve gone for M’s ‘Pop Musik’ double-groove 12” instead!
Randomly, Discocity occasional US import disco LPs & 12”s too. The US Salsoul release of Cameron’s self-titled debut album and the Gordy issue of Teena Marie’s ‘Irons in the Fire’ are still prized possessions.
I had kept a 7” paper bag and a plastic 12” carrier with the shop’s logo until a few years ago when I moved house. Sadly, they didn’t survive the move.
Once in RE class at school, aged 12/13, we were asked to draw what we hoped our future might look like. I drew a picture of me, with a beard for some reason (maybe inspired by Tom), standing outside Discocity with my future wife. Spoiler alert: it didn’t come true!