"I first heard it sitting in an armchair in our living room. 1957. I was 12. My sister Annetta, who's four years older, had bought it at the Record Rendezvous in Wallington, where we grew up. She put it on this Regent Tone record player we had, the type you had to plug into the back of the radio. My mother ran out as soon as it started, worrying about what was going to become of her children. Wayward rock. Totally naughty. That whole noise, bursting out of that speaker. When it was over I just couldn't stand up." - Last Night A Record Changed My Life: Jeff Beck on Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps (Capitol, 1957) - Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 2001
Comments
Dave Harwood
07 Dec 2023 at 03:02
I found this advert in the 'Croydon Times' dated 28th October 1955: “Now Open THE RECORD RENDEZVOUS - EVERYTHING FOR THE GRAMOPHONE ENTHUSIAST Jazz records a speciality. Rarities, Deletions, etc. Any Instrument, Sheet Music, Tutors, Literature, Accessories, etc. 123 STAFFORD RD., WALLINGTON, SURREY Tel. WAL 4282.”
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Name: Steve Mills
Comment: The earliest entry for the shop is in the 1971 directory where it is shown as being at 123 Stafford Road, Wallington. In 1981 it is shown as being located at 121 Stafford Road, Wallington. My friend and I were not aware that it had moved during its lifespan.
My friend regularly visited the shop in the late 1970s so we believe it moved to no.121 before 1981 during the late 1970s. The final entry given is in 1985. This could be the year of its closure but I have a feeling it stayed open for a couple of more years. I think I last visited it in 1987. It closed when the CD started to be widely available. I visited the shop a number of times when it started to have a closing down sale of all its stock and heard the owner say he'd decided to give up the business because of the growing popularity of the CD.
The shop only sold brand-new vinyl and cassettes. The shop owner was a wonderful knowledgeable and helpful gentleman. Anything you wanted which he didn't have in stock he said he could get for you if you were prepared to wait.
The shop was a real pleasure to visit. It was always clean and tidy with all the stock neatly stacked. As you entered the shop there were racks on the left-hand side and alongside the shop front window. The counter was on the right-hand side and there was an archway next to it leading to another little display area. My friend recalls that it had a listening booth with headphones but this wasn't there when I started to visit the shop in 1983.
We now wonder how the owner made much money from his business because you would only see about three other customers within the shop. It was located in a long row of shops outside Wallington town centre. I remember subsequently trading in some of the albums I had purchased from the shop and was told they were now deleted editions and no longer widely available, so I got a good price for them.
Name: Mike Lodge
Comment: I bought my very first Extended Play record from them in August 1962 - Elvis’ Follow That Dream. The owner was very friendly and offered a great selection of records. It wasn’t a shop I went to very often until I got my own car as it was away from the main shopping area of Wallington.
Landaus of Sutton was my main record store that I went to, although there was one up the road at Rosehill. Cannot remember the name but the owner used to let me help out during lunchtimes whilst on school lunch break. They had a loudspeaker built in over the front door and my biggest memory was the Friday when The Beatles' Can’t Buy Me Love was released in March 1964 - the owner just kept on playing both sides virtually back to back. Magical times.
Name: Paul Clark
Comment: I remember this shop well as I lived in Carew Road, great shop, one of a kind, and the gentleman was always friendly.
(2021)