- Sleccy's vinyl countdown - Mike Atkinson on the rise and fall of Selectadisc, a much-loved institution in Nottingham since 1966 - The Guardian, 13 March 2009
Name: Robert Cross
Comment: The greatest record shop in the world in my opinion. I'd always say to my wife, "I'm only going in for a browse..." and half an hour later I exit with at least two items. I remember first going to their store in The Meadows, then they moved to Bridlesmith Gate before finally ending up on Market Street. They had a football team made up of the staff members as well.
Name: Spencer
Comment: Great store! Great memories!! Greatest shop in Notts!!!
Name: Alistair Banfield
Comment: I used to go in Selectadisc on both the Bridlesmithgate and the main shop up near the Theatre Royal. Note the misspelling on the original advert. It wasn't a place where bridal gowns were wrought! Selectadisc opened a branch in Soho in the 1990s and lasted a few years, but the Nottingham shop seemed to keep going. Sad to hear it has closed.
Name: Ginger Pete
Comment: They had a sign on the door, Shop lifters will be taken in the back and have the s--t kicked outta them - imagine putting that on a shop door nowadays.
Name: Kelvin Grocock
Comment: Can remember buying quite a few expensive northern soul singles from the basement in the Awkright store in early 1970s.
Name: Debbie Jackson
Comment: I heard Marvin Gaye's Little Darlin' on Radio Caroline and went here and as it was a B-side it was an import so they got it for me.
I was so excited to have it. Sadly years later my ex decided to destroy it along with others so I no longer have it but I remember the small hole punched into the centre to let you know it was an import (next to the plastic centre insert). Happy days.
Finally, a personal note: like most people who work in music I started out as a fan, and as a teenager would spend every spare bit of money wangled from paper rounds and Saturday jobs on records, totally obsessed by and absorbed in music. I grew up in Leicester, which had quite decent secondhand record shops, but the ones in neighbouring Nottingham were even better, so every couple of months or so when I’d saved up enough I would take the train over there and spend a whole afternoon going through the racks at the different branches of Selectadisc on Market Street, trying to get the best bang for my very small buck. It’s hard to believe in these straitened times that an independent shop could have three sites in one street, but at that time Selectadisc had a shop for Dance 12″s + import Sub Pop 7″s at the bottom of the hill, a secondhand shop halfway up, and new records (over two jam-packed floors) at the top.
Designing The New Age: The Art Of Andy Martin
One Saturday in Nottingham I kept coming back to one record I’d seen on the wall of the secondhand shop with a super weird cover that caught my eye. In those pre-internet days, knowledge about esoteric sounds was hard to come by so I had to scan the sleeve for clues. I vaguely recognised the names of some of the people on the back cover as being from post-punk bands I’d read referenced in reviews in the music papers, but never actually heard, like The Raincoats, The Slits and The Pop Group. It was on a label called On-U Sound which again I’d heard of but never knowingly heard any of the music they’d released. It cost more money than I would usually pay for a record at that time but there was something about that cover drawing me in so after a long time pondering I handed over the cash and took it on the train back to Leicester. I put it on the record player as soon as I got home and I’ll be honest, did not get it at all. What was this? It started off with a reggae song, then some weird instrumentals, followed by a man howling over some industrial noise. The last track featured a woman talking about the heavy metal boys and the boys in blue not liking the look of you. It was deeply odd. But I kept coming back to it because I’d spent too much on it not to, and it slowly became one of my all time favourite records, and my introduction into the weird and wonderful world of On-U Sound. If you had told me back then that I’d get to work with the catalogue years later I’m sure I would have spontaneously combusted on the spot. So big up Andy for coming up with such eye-catching artwork and helping to pull me down the rabbit hole, and of course Sherwood for always working such magic at the controls.
