Groove Records (London)

Name: YankeeDisc
Comment: Long run by the legendary Jean Palmer, with her sons Tim and Chris. I used to do business with Jean from 1977 to 1981, and it was at one time the premier shop in London for US imports.

Name: Luke Allingham
Comment: Groove Records - this shop was legendary, I can't stress this enough! It was THE shop in the 1980s for US imports, they would be flown over daily. As soon as a dance record was released in the USA it would be in Groove a few days later, sometimes even the next day!

Name: Steve Troughton
Comment: I remember London's Groove Records on Greek Street and Bluebird Records on Edgware Road. Spent many hours (and pounds) in both shops in the mid-1980s. Good times.

Name: Tim Palmer
Comment: Happy memories... best time ever and miss all the characters that made Groove Records the shop it was.
(19 September 2014)

Name: Deryck
Comment: I remember Groove Records very well. In particular, I remember hearing a track in a club one night, zooming down to Groove the following day and having to sing it to them coz I didn't know what it was called, but knew I had to have it. (Had to wait for an opportune, least-embarrassing, moment in front of everyone, lol.) Turned out to be Nitro DeLuxe Let's Get Brutal/This Brutal House (1986). I also bought Housemasterboyz' House Nation there in 1986 and so began my love of House Music.
(6 September 2014)

Name: Paul Cook
Comment: This shop was the best in the country, especially for new 12" US releases. Greg Edwards bought from this shop, I know because I was friends with his assistant Asif Deen. Groove stocked the most obscure stuff in addition to top-selling vinyl. Remember Jean on the TV (perhaps Panorama or something), her memory for records was amazing.
(14 December 2012)

Name: Deepak
Comment: Loved this shop... fond memories from the 1980s. They used to play the imports, I could only afford a few singles then, but would get a nice gem to take home and put the needle on the track...
(14 November 2012)

Name: Joey Jones Dartford
Comment: I remember Groove very well, I was really into The Pasadenas' Tribute and went in there for a copy when passing. I got hold of a really nice bootleg remix sampling Elvis, Little Richard, Gary Crowley!
(3 February 2012)

Name: Paul Cook
Comment: Yes, Greg Edwards and a host of other DJs bought from this special shop. Asif Deen (Greg's assistant) practically lived there. Now look at it!
(6 February 2016)

Name: Mark Cruttwell
Comment: Ah the good old days. Worked here back in the 1980s and have some wonderful memories! There was only one Jean Palmer! Met some great people including her sons Tim and Chris, Gareth, young Roger who worked there and my good friend Tony whom I'm still in touch with. Those days have long gone as have some of the above mentioned sadly but certainly never forgotten!
(21 December 2016)

Name: Paul Smith
Comment: Wonderful shop and I've still got one of their yellow record bags somewhere! They always had the most exclusive vinyl and my first record from there was the Trouble Funk LP, Drop The Bomb, which I still have. Must have got it around 1982. Used to spend my last pennies in there and import 12"s were around £4.99 at the time so prices haven't gone up that much. Hitman Records in Brewer Street was also good but didn't have the rarities that Groove had. As the decade closed, they were selling the rarest Belgian New Beat, techno and house alongside hi energy, hip hop, jazz funk and soul. Fantastic memories and my kindest wishes to all involved at the mighty Groove Records.
(29 December 2016)

Name: Jayne Murphy (née Ross)
Comment: Spent all my spare cash in this amazing shop in 1981/82. Bought Riot in Lagos by Riuichi Sakamoto before the awesome DJ Paul Trouble Anderson could buy it! I remember I quite liked one of the staff there, Mark Wells who used to DJ on Kiss FM before it became legal... wonder if he is still around?

Name: Paul N
Comment: I remember stepping in there while on holiday in London, I think summer of 1984 and seeing a lady knitting behind the counter, while some serious electro was thumping! Surreal, then, but this was of course Jean, I learned later!
​(25 April 2017)

Name: Susie Wright
Comment: I talk about Groove Records to this day! My entire record collection was bought at Groove Records from Cal Tjader to Judy Roberts. If I heard any amazing tracks at a club/parties like Flora Purim and Airto - Gilberto Gil I would be down Groove Records the next day... wonderful memories, wonderful times.
(16 May 2017)

Name: Steve Walker
Comment: I remember in the early 1980s meeting Martin Collins and picking up white labels - where's Martin these days? He did my 21st 36 years ago!
(2019)

Name: Simon Taylor
Comment: The man in the hat outside Groove Records is Richard Jones, brother of Gloria Jones.
(2020)

Name: Neal Masters
Comment: I used to be in Groove every weekend could fit about 15 people in there but you was in there. Would be impossible to socially distance in there LOL. I miss Groove so much, it's an adult shop now last time I looked. Peace.
(2020)

Name: Paul Cook
Comment: Tim Palmer released some really good stuff, probably amongst the best of British at the time. Groove was a legend! Real artists, real music, for real DJs like Greg Edwards. His assistant, Asif Deen, had an encyclopaedic knowledge (like Winston of ZR records). Those days were awesome! These people showed the rest how it was done!
(2021)

Name: Stephen Gould
Comment: What great times. I remember getting paid for my paper rounds and milk round as a kid and saying to my mum I am going out with my mates but really jumping on a train and going to Groove Records, Hitman Records, Bluebird and Red Records. I was only about 11 or 12 when I started going there. I can always remember granny scratch as we called her doing her knitting behind the counter. It was great getting on the train going back home to Swanscombe and taking the record out the yellow bag and rubbing on the top of your leg to break the shrink rap seal and get the vinyl out. What great times I still have a lot of them still today.
Thank you Groove Records.
(2022)

Name: Peter Bull
Comment: I worked at a school in Streatham with Tim Palmer's wife Kelly and went up to Groove regularly for white labels and promos which Tim gave me for our sixth form discos. My squad of DJs had the latest American imports courtesy of Tim and Groove and our school discos were definitely the best in town.
(2022)

Name: Gregory Burton
Comment: Wow, Groove Records, Greek Street! I used to go there as a young boy, I remember buying Leprechaun Loc It Up and The Inversions' Mr Mack from there, to name but two of many records. I miss those days so painfully much. God bless you all.
(2023)

Name: Paul Hyder
Comment: Wish I could jump in a time machine and travel back to the early 1980s and visit Groove Records again. Had some great times there listening to new music and discovering new acts. I think I heard Herbie Hancock's Rock It and Tyrone Brunson's The Smurf there and was blown away. Jean and I were friends and she even let me serve behind the counter on several occasions. Sadly those days are only memories now, but thank god I was around during those Golden Years to enjoy all that fabulous, funky music.
(2023)

Name: Lotus Hifi

Comment: Groove Records in Greek Street, Soho, the legendary epicentre of hip hop culture when it first came to the UK. I used to go there every saturday in 1981, 1982 and get my Tommy Boy imports then trot off down to Spats nightclub on Oxford Street for the lunchtime jams with a very young, spotty, pimpled-faced Tim Westwood. There was Hitman Records on Old Lexington, Bluebird on the Edgware Road and various others but Groove was the first and the best.