Comments
Name: Vicky Bowman
Comment: I remember it too, playing Missile Command on the machines at the back in 1979/1980, after realising that there was a better place to buy records than John Menzies next door, if you dared to climb the stairs.
Name: Pete Chilton
Comment: I have fond memories of visiting the Music Market store in Cornmarket Street. Walking through an open doorway you scaled the stairs that faced you with a number of LP sleeves on the walls on either side as you climbed. Turning right at the top you would then feast on a rich selection of music covering all genres, selecting your purchase and making your way to the counter, outer sleeve in hand which you then presented. The album itself would be inserted and placed in a distinctive green bag with black type. Heady days!
(12 January 2015)
Name: Gary Jones
Comment: Thanks for posting the image of the green music market bag , as a 14-18-year-old I lived in the High Street store, it was dark and dingy but it was the place to be seen! I started looking at this site as I had a notion that the 'cool' dude blowing smoke rings was John Cooper Clarke, now I look again with eyes that 40 years have damaged I can see it isn't. But fond memories of looking for old Deep Purple albums, and trying to catch the eye of the local girls... sometimes it was more of a pick-up joint than a record shop.
(12 December 2016)
Name: Richard Berry
Comment: I bought all my first Adam and the Ant and Sex Pistols 7"s in Music Market as a 11-year-old in 1981. At St Stephen's Primary School in Lansdowne, we had to cover our hymn books. So I modified that iconic green plastic Music Market bag 😀 Was worried my teacher wouldn't be impressed. And disappointed he then didn't comment how cool and innovative I had been!
(5 August 2017)
Name:Â Johnny Dee
Comment:Â So, I used to work there. Achieved my ambition to work in a record store at the age of 20, it was downhill all the way after that! I think, might be wrong, that the 'elegantly wasted' dude on the iconic green carrier bags was Steve, the manager of one of the branches. Think he ran a fanzine called Charlie Horse, too.
(2018)
Name: Tim Hughes
Comment: I bought my first album from Music Market, Banbury. Motorhead - Bomber, 1980. The bloke behind the counter said 'good choice' I was a very happy boy.
(2019)
Name: Caroline Black
Comment: I bought my first Adam and the Ants 7" vinyl from there, Young Parisians, and thought it was rather a racy cover. B-side fab too!
(2019)
Name: Robin Bryson
Comment: I worked at the Music Market shop between 1976-78 while at Oxford Poly when the shop was at No. 51 (if memory serves) High Street. I am proud/ashamed to say that the "world's most elegantly wasted record store" tag line was all my own work...!
Working (I say "working"...) there was EXACTLY like High Fidelity (both book and movie) with those precise characters either side of the counter.
Interestingly Music Market was quite a breeding ground. The original owner, Ian Howard, went on to found the Borderline venue and subsequently owned the Brixton Academy among others.
Ian sold the shop to Peter Lee, who built it into a chain along the Thames Valley. Pete sold the Music Market chain to WH Smith and founded a video store chain that he then sold to Blockbuster becoming CEO of the UK business.
Hello to Ian, Pete, and Chris Heath and the many customers it was a delight to serve/annoy.
(2019)
Name: Graham Franklin
Comment: I loved the second-hand record shop they had upstairs on the High Street at Carfax, I must have spent £100s there during the 1980s, all those wonderful prog albums I got, magical times indeed.
51 High Street is currently empty!
(2019)
Name: Ian Adamson
Comment:Â I used to work in Music Market in Smelly Alley in Reading in 1983 - without doubt, the best working year of my life to date.
If Steve (the manager who lived in Oxford) is out there - hello.
​(2020)
Name: Ian Adamson
Comment: Did Peter sell to WH Smith? I worked at a Music Market, Smelly Alley in Reading and I thought our shop went to Our Price?
(2021)
Name: Phil Mann
Comment: Worked for MM from 1983 - 1986 at the Worcester shop. Great memories of Gary Amos, Martin, John Northcote, Ian Howard, Chalky, David Stephens, Andy Lown, Mark Clements, Sam Johnson , Martin Johnson, Chubb and Johnny Richins. WH Smith bought Our Price then MM and basically gave the running of MM to OP middle management, sacking the majority of MM staff, that's my take on it.
(2022)
Name: Brad Jones
Comment:Â Being able to buy the 'X-rated' Come Again Derek & Clive album as a 16-year-old in spring 1978 with no hassle endeared me to the shop (No.51). Other memorable purchases were second-hand copies of Black Sabbath's Never Say Die LP & LS's Freebird 45 with my first wage packet on the way home from work. Then, a year or two later, driving down to the shop at 8pm Friday evening as advised by one of the staff to see if the new Sweet album had arrived in a consignment that was due in - it hadn't!
​(2022)
“MUSIC MARKET, Record retailers, require intelligent managers, assistant managers and assistants for our new shops situated in Yeovil, Weston-super-Mare and Taunton. Apply In writing far application form: Miss Lynsey Smith, MUSIC MARKET, 15 HIGH STREET, BANBURY, OXON.”
...and this in the 1st August 1985 edition:
“MUSIC MARKET, BRISTOL. Music Market require SALES STAFF for their store opening in Bristol. Successful applicants will be well presented, possess a minimum of 2 O-levels and have a working knowledge of contemporary music. Apply for an application form in writing only to: MUSIC MARKET, NORTH BAR, BANBURY, OXON. Closing date: August 16.”
...and this in the 27th November 1985 edition:
“MUSIC Market, strongly established in the Southwest, will be bought by W H Smith and Son for up £55 million. Its chain of record and cassette retail outlets includes Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Taunton, Yeovil, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Swindon.”
...and this in the 7th February 1986 edition:
“MUSIC MARKET, 47 High Street, Weston-super-Mare. Avon BS23 1JA. Experienced Sales Assistant required for National Record and Tape Store. Applications in writing please giving full CV details.”
...plus this in the 15th February 1986 edition:
“Music Market are running two shops 50 yards apart with no significant loss of trade. Martin Butler of Bath, who has been opening up new outlets for Music Market for many years, suggests many reasons for the change: “A few years back there were a whole load of indie shops like Cruising in Bath. Many of them have closed now so there’s a greater volume of trade going through the established outlets.”
We had a Gallup machine and we helped manufacture the top 40, with added incentives from record company reps.
Got tickets to see PiL, The Damned, and others just for punching in a few numbers.
Manager was an American guy called Doug. Assistant manager Steve.
Heady days.
“Mr. John Zinkewycz, manager of the Music Market, High Street, Banbury, said sales of Lennon's music had risen by 80 per cent, following his death.”
“Sexy pop sensation Kim Wilde was in Banbury on Friday signing coples of her new album. The Music Market in Banbury’s High Street was the venue and hundreds of fans lined the pavement as the blonde bombshell came to town.”
...and this in the 13th August 1981 edition:
“MUSIC MARKET, 15 HIGH STREET, BANBURY. Tel: 3575.”