Established in 1977 by Jeff Amor, Scorpion Records was originally a Friday and Saturday market stall started due to a gap in the local market and from Jeff’s frustration of having to journey 30 miles into central London to purchase records for his own collection. The idea took off and shortly afterwards the shop, simply named after the owners Scorpio star sign was rented and remained a vibrant record buying mecca for almost 30 years until February 2006.
Not long after the premises were opened, Jeff was joined by friend and fellow music enthusiast; Steg who also remained at the shop until the day it closed. The pair played a key part in my musical upbringing and offered advice and inspiration in my own diverse musical tastes. At one point I put some of my salary on tab in the shop to feed my music buying obsession!!!
It was a great shop and originally sold tickets to the Friars venue concerts at Aylesbury civic centre where ALL the great bands played such as David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Queen, The Ramones, The Clash and many more!
As well as records, cassettes, videos and eventually CD’s and DVD’s the shop also sold badges, patches and fanzines too. They promoted local punk legends, The Xtaverts, three 7” vinyl only releases which now change hands for large sums in stark contrast to their original price labels!
The shop finally closed due to the area being redeveloped and is now site to a Sainsburys supermarket!!! The town could live without another supermarket and the gap left behind from Scorpion’s closure was a sad day for many, many people.
John Rogers made this video (which does probably still work but doesn't have a thumnail selected) in late 2004 shortly before the shop closed.
Two of the three staff - Cheryl & Steg opened Counter Culture Records later in 2006 with reasonable success and have moved location twice and are presently looking for new premises due to increasing rent rises. Counter Culture can easily be located on Facebook…The bag shown on the site is an early example, before the Scorpion logo was established. The picture I have supplied of a Scorpion bag, recently found in the attic, is the right dimensions for holding a 7" single or CD's – there was also a 12" version of this design. Thank you Scorpion Records. John Kelly, March 2015.
9 July 4, 2015) Ah Scorpion, my favourite ever record shop. I took those two photos of the shop exterior in 2005 so feel free to credit ;) I'd left Wycombe in '91 having used Scorps on a weekly basis for a decade and came back to visit years later. I'd heard that the shop was going to close and captured those photos for Panoramio. I have more photos but they're all pretty much the same. Great images of the bags there too. RIP Scorpion Records. Comment: Tony Allen.
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Spent many a pound in Scorpion records. Jeff introduced me to Bevis, Soft Hearted Scientists, Terrascope and loads more. I moved away just before the shop shut. It remains one of my favourite records hops ever. Sadly missed.
Name
Kevin Mulrooney
(2022)
… and this article in the 6th December 1994 edition: “THERE is something about the feel of it, the smell of it and the look of it, that nothing else can compete with. Vinyl records that is. Today’s technology has attempted to phase out this beautiful product. This has proved a partial success but not, fortunately, a foregone conclusion. Most people dream of one day being able to earn money from something they really love doing and turning a lifetime’s passion into a profession. This happened to Jeff Amor who now owns SCORPION RECORDS in Oxford Road, High Wycombe. When Jeff was six years old, his mother bought him his first ever record - a copy of 'Rawhide' by by Frankie Laine. That event was a turning point in the young man’s life and started his immense passion for music and records.”