Name: Michael Bradshaw.
Comment: This shop started trading in 1966 and rode the crest of several waves until it closed just a few years ago (2013?). During the 1980s and early 1990s it was mainly known for selling dance music and hip hop. Fatboy Slim and Midfield General are well known for once working there. When the bottom started dropping out of House it went back to selling more mainstream pop and rock... but I always found good stuff in the racks at good prices. The staff were always good for a chinwag too. I did a brilliant deal in there once, towards the end of the shop's life, when I bought the entire contents of their January CD sale for not very much money. The same guy who owns Sister Ray in Soho also ran Rounder - but decided it wasn't making any money... hence the sad closure in 2013.
(22 February 2016)
Name: Nick
Comment: The nearest to a real-life version of the shop in High Fidelity that we have had in Brighton. The place where you could get all the tunes you wanted and find stuff that you didn’t know you wanted until you heard it there first. Famously employed Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim behind the counter, and Skint Records boss Damian Harris aka Midfield General. It was a very sad day when they closed on 29 July 2012. Was owned by Phil Barton. Prior to them closing I made a note of their staff’s favourite albums of the year for the whole duration that they were open, from 1966. It was listed inside their store above their front window. They also had a branch for some time at 92 Church Road, Burgess Hill, RH15 9BB, which didn’t quite have the same buzz as the Brighton store. Brighton Rounder was my favourite independent vinyl store in the 1980s and 1990s. I must have spent a fortune in there!
Name: Graham Gilbert
Comment: Hi Nick! If Rounder was your favourite shop through the 1980s and 1990s you will know me, I think. I owned Rounder from 1982 until selling up in 2000.
Rounder started in 1978 in Church Road, Burgess Hill, about a year after I left Virgin’s Marble Arch branch. We were getting Brighton DJs coming up on Saturdays because of our dance imports. Fine Records and Brighton Square opened in 1966 and I bought it from Ralph(?) in 1982. His record buyer decided to leave. I’d been in Brighton since 1971 and used to buy early punk toons there. Good shop, great position. Because we were in a tourist area we could open 364 days a year! Norman left to join the Housemartins and Damian came on board a little later. He was an excellent photographer and already known to the shop. I remember one of our earliest customers was “King” Jerry and when he saw our dance stuff and was told, as a DJ he’d get a 10% discount, he then went up to HMV and harangued fellow DJ customers till then came down to check us out. I would like to say thanks to Jerry as I have never thanked him properly.
In the 1980s Rounder was voted Brighton Record Shop of the Year, which year? Oh, something I picked out from your great listing. Phats and Small’s video for Can’t Turn Around was filmed in Rounder. The first shot is the front of Urban Records. They couldn’t get a good enough shot of Rounder. A quick mention of Req, also a Skint artist. Req (Ian) used to breakdance Saturday afternoons outside the back of the shop and then became our resident graffiti artist, graffitiing album covers or whatever on the back wall every week. His work can now be seen on the end wall of the Prince Albert pub. Your list brought back a lot of memories and reminded me of some old friends and Brighton characters. Izzy from Red Rat, Rick at Attrix and the ever-lovable Dave Minns at Borderline. I have recently finished reading Going for a Song by Garth Cartwright which is, “A chronicle of British Record shops – highly recommended”.
(2 April 2020)
