Comments
Name: Mike Smallman
Comment: I had known of its existence for many years and had popped in a few times as a child with my mother and brother. It was very close to Cannock bus station, in a row of very old-fashioned shops that also included a shoe shop and a chemist. McConnell's was the only place in Cannock where you could purchase records, musical instruments, sheet music etc. The first record I bought from there was Telegram Sam by T.Rex. The shop moved to a new building in the mid-1970s and remained the only decent shop in the area to stock records other than the usual chart music.
At the beginning of the 1980s, links from Cannock to bigger towns and cities such as Wolverhampton and Birmingham became much easier and the vast majority of record buyers (including myself) took full advantage of it. McConnell's plodded on for a few years before eventually folding in 1985. A sad loss to the town and one which has never been bettered.
I have included a scan of the shop bag, which I found in the middle of a pile of records. The bag is from the shop's first site and the address is that of the location it held for many years prior to its move in the mid-1970s.
Name: Paul Harrison
Comment: I remember McConnell's well. I would imagine most of the records I bought in the 1970s as a teenager were bought in McConnell's. If I remember correctly, the polythene carrier bags with "I FOUND IT AT McConnell's" printed on them came in green as well as orange.
(19 March 2016)
“McCONNELLS MUSIC CENTRE - MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, SHEET MUSIC, RECORDS, 8-TRACK CARTRIDGES, MUSICASSETTES. PREMIER AGENTS for everything. WE ARE NOW AT 11, MARKET HALL PRECINCT, CANNOCK. Telephone: Cannock 2929.”