Manzi Records

Name: Eugene
Comment: I used to work at Manzi's Record Shop at Swiss Cottage - non-stop Led Zeppelin III and the Carmina Burana, good times.

Name: Rod Symes
Comment: I worked with Eugene Manzi in the early 1970s, happy memories, best job I ever had. Used to cook bacon and eggs for breakfast!

Name: Fred S
Comment: I loved Manzi's, great vibe. I used to come home from school about a mile away and then dash up to Swiss Cottage on the 13 bus. I bought Court & Spark and so many great records there.
(24 September 2014)

Name: Rod Symes
Comment: Eugene, alive and kicking, it would be great to catch up, so many happy memories. Peace and love, man! Rod.
(22 June 2013)

Name: Eugene
Comment: Rod! where are you? I've been looking for you for ages but to no avail. It would be great to catch up with you sometime.
All the best, Euge.
(11 October 2012)

Name: Peter Ward
Comment: Used to purchase records here during my time at Westfield College (1969-72). Great place, friendly staff and good sound booth. Still got a lot of discs from that time!
(25 May 2012)

Name: Peter Barron
Comment: I remember Manzi's. I also remember the great sound booth. I bought one of my first ever singles there... Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan. It had a sort of hippy vibe.
(22 April 2015)

Name: Anna
Comment: Uncle Eugene, we used to come as my mum would always be buying records and me and my brother would hang around the shop, and the sound booths. You and your shop were great. I remember it changing a bit? I think if I remember right, a downstairs area opened up, selling other items. My parents were into a lot of music, but my mum was a Bob Dylan fiend, I was always happy when something else arrived on the turntable. Bob D doesn't have much appeal to kids' ears, those sound booths were great and so were you, real sound.
(17 January 2016)

Name: Steve Hunter
Comment: I used to work in Lucas Sports, just down the road from Manzi's. Spent most of my wages in there! LOL.
(27 September 2016)

Name: Nick Saloman
Comment: Me and my mates bought loads of stuff here. Mad River, Beefheart's Safe As Milk, Electric Ladyland etc etc. Great shop. If I recall there was a basement selling posters. Not too long ago, one of my mates met Eugene Manzi at a party or something, and reminded him how we all used to frequent his shop. He said he remembered us because one of our gang was an albino and we were always nicking things! Totally untrue. I loved that shop and I genuinely never nicked anything. I was deeply hurt by the suggestion I was a tea leaf.
(22 November 2016)

Name: Mike Baess
Comment: Manzi's shaped my earliest musical memories and as a youngster growing up in Swiss Cottage this shop was a dream come true.

My earliest memory of Manzi's is from around 1968 when I used to walk past on shopping trips and noticed the incredible vending machine that would dispense the top 20 singles at any time of day for the princely sum of 9 shillings and sixpence (or something like that).

By 1969 I was getting enough pocket money to save up for the odd album and in 1969 - just before the school autumn term started - I proudly marched into Manzi's and bought the newly released album by The Beatles - Abbey Road.

From then on visiting Manzi's was something I'd do almost every month when I got a bit of dosh together and I distinctly remember buying Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi there as well as Led Zeppelin II, Cat Steven's Teaser and The Firecat, and most memorable of all The Pink Fairies' stellar What A Bunch Of Sweeties.

I also picked up about five copies of Oz in 1971/72, though sadly not the School Kids issue.
Through the 1970s I would wander in and buy great albums by Neil Young and I remember Eugene turning me onto my first jazz album, Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis.

There was also a groovy cellar where you could buy posters, hippy clothes, incense and most probably hash pipes.

What an incredible shop it was.
(2018)

Name: Dave O'Dell
Comment: I was a regular at the shop from late 1977, when I bought some of my first records there age 13, till some time in the early/mid-1980s when I moved out of the area. I used to get paid for my paper round on Saturday morning and spend the lot in Manzi's every week. I started out buying rock'n'roll and reggae stuff but noticed the racks of punk/new wave LP's and singles and got totally drawn into that scene. I think I bought the first Clash LP, first Damned LP, Pistols NMTB and Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation in one go to get started, around November or December 1977. I think one of the guys who worked there managed The Ruts for a while...? I can't remember the names of the staff there but I used to chat to them all quite a bit, I loved it there.
(2018)

Name: Michael Aronsohn
Comment: I used to work in the bookshop next door, Swiss Cottage Books, used to be called Mandarin Books. Spent all my money in Manzi's, both upstairs in the record shop and downstairs in the odd little shop selling Indian incense and other weird and wonderful things. I've been looking for my friend Jeannie Grant who worked downstairs in the 1970s.
I loved Manzi's and so many of the shops in that little parade and loved the great coffee from Cosmo's
(2020)

Name: Joe Pop
Comment: Bought all my teenage records there from 1977 onwards. Rushing on Saturday morning to buy the latest punk singles. I remember the listening posts... one of the staff laughing at me 'cos I was tunelessly singing along to The Ramones! Happy memories.
(2022)

Name: Andrew Carpenter
Comment: I loved this shop, and spent hours in one of their listening booths. I purchased my first album which was Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief. Then perhaps afterwards, a visit to the Moon and Sixpence cafe.
Good memories all round!
Well done Manzi’s.
(2022)