Harlequin was perhaps the godfather of the chain-stores that dominated record and tape retail in the eighties and nineties (Virgin, Our Price, HMV, etc.) The Harlequin shop at 1 New Market Square was large enough to stock a good range of genres and was very much on the ball in terms of current tastes.
Basingstoke was Harlequin’s 51st store but its arrival was trumpeted in a two-page advertisement/feature in the weekend Gazette of 31 May 1974 which included a personal message of goodwill from Deep Purple.
In 1980 the Harlequin chain was itself purchased by Our Price and for a short while Basingstoke had two Our Price stores; the other was originally in the parade of shops opposite Rumbelows (in the space now occupied by Greggs’ or the T-Mobile shop) before relocating to Castle Square in the Malls in the space which is currently Jessops.
[Thanks to razrazzle from Basingstoke Music History]
