Edinburgh. Again, memory is fading rapidly - I can't recall whether it was on Frederick or Hanover Street - but it sold new stock and had two long aisles either side of a central browser rack. It lasted a few years in the early '80s. Comment: dn784533 45cat forum
Listen, which used to be on Renfield Street in Glasgow. Although it had been there for a while before me and my friends discovered it, I remember it as one of the 1st places in Glasgow to start selling punk records. It had a huge selection of other stuff as well though, and for a while was a kind of neutral territory for punks, hippies, Teds etc. Happy days were spent browsing the shelves.Cheers, Allan.
Cambridge Street was the first shop in the empire of Steve and Mike McNaughton. (See also Echo.) Latterly their main shop was in Renfield Street, Glasgow, ("No.8")with other branches in Byres Road (Glasgow), Paisley (just past the Bruce Arms) , and Edinburgh (Fredrick Street). They also owned the Bloggs stores - Renfield Street (opposite "No8") was the disco shop while the second just around the corner on St Vincent Street - now a hairdresser - was Glasgow's premier punk and indie store. Comment: Vladimir Lenin.
The Listen in Renfield st Glasgow opened a second hand basement which was the beginning of a long journey for me of scouring second hand record shops across the land and sometimes abroad. The small Bloggs shop was another haunt bought station to station there in the hot summer of 76. Yes I remember the punk thing happening they also sold ripped and drawn on plastic bag T-shirts. But I don't think the hippies that ran this empire took it too seriously just another way of making£££. I remember when Elvis died, across the road from Listen in Renfield St, lots of Teds were going to see his films at the cinema ! (Then the classic, now a clothes shop still a great building)More photo's please of any of these shops. Comment: Alistair D.
Paisley’s Listen record shop soon became a local hang-out. McGlynn again: It was apparently owned by two brothers whose rich parents bought them the shops [there were separate branches in Glasgow] to keep them off drugs, very hippie-type aura to begin with, then the punks invaded. Picture a rougher version of the shop in the movie ‘High Fidelity’. If you think the staff in that shop were musical snobs, it’s fuck all compared to Listen Records. Big John of The Exploited worked behind the counter, as didmy brother Kenny, although they weren’t the snobs I’m referring to. The FEGS lasted just long enough to contribute to the Ha! Ha!
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The first branch of Listen was on Dundas Street just outside Queen St Station it was there in the early 70's. There were two branches on Renfield Street around 1976, almost facing each other, the one on the West side of the street closed in the late 70's I think. There were also two branches of Bloggs just around the corner on St Vincent Street.
Name
Ian G (2019)
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1976 - 1978 Saturday mornings with paper round money in pocket I would descend into Listen.
My memory is a very steep staircase coming direct of the street - but that’s maybe my imagination.
At the bottom facing the stair was a long counter with mostly blokes hanging around - in blue army great and smelly damp Afghan Coats - smokin roll ups and other things to the extent that you could hardly see what was on the wall.
I think it was all second hand stuff downstairs.
Like a portal to another Morlok world.
Cool see through Polythene record bags with handles and the word Listen in red running vertically on the bag
Name
Andy McAvoy (2023)
Record Shopping in 1980 (Glasgow)
