Comments
Name: Alex Baker
Comment: Used to go to Soul Sense with my dad for years. I must have spent the majority of my childhood in that shop! Does anybody know the name of the manager that used to run this shop?
Gavin Wright
Gary, I used to sell him records from a distribution company. Great bloke. really knew his stuff.
Name: Duncan Hornby
Comment: I came to this website from searching for Soul Sense as I was wondered what happened to the owner, yeah Gary was his name!
I started record buying when I was about 15, it used to be called Bluebird Records. It was a great loss to Luton when that record shop closed.
(11 March 2017)
Name: Dave S
Comment: I went to uni at Luton in 1992, I spent a good portion of my time and student loan in that shop. Yeah, his name was Gary, and he had a guy that worked with him around that time too. I used to think it was his brother because they looked a bit alike, but when I asked Gary if it was he just laughed at me and said don't be silly or words to that effect. Great shop, great guys :-)
(2019)
Name: Anthony Cefai
Comment: Loved it in there, weekend visits for a long time.
(2019)
Name: Dik Fozbee
Comment: Yes, Gary brought the shop from Bluebird Records when they were brought by DMC. The other shops stayed as Bluebird... Soul Sense was a shop I'd go to and knew Gary a little. He did distribution on a record for us in 1989. Met various people.
I'm looking for Mark and Paul that were in the shop a lot and made music as Dimension and later made a release with me - Psychology EP.
If anyone knows where these guys ended up or a way to contact them that'd be great.
(2019)
Name: Alex Baker
Comment: Been a while since I've visited this thread. I should have mentioned on my original comment that I remember the manager being called Gary, but not his surname! It'd be great to get back in touch with him if anyone had his details - always wondered whether he opened another shop somewhere else...
(2019)
Name: Alex Baker
Comment: Duncan, great to know that you shopped there too. I bought my first records from here at 10. Such a shame that it's now gone.
Does anyone know Gary's last name?
(2020)
Name: Martin Ging
Comment: Originally as Bluebird Records, was owned by Colin Watts and Andy Taylor 1980s-90s. Think they sold up to Gary Dennis and he named it Soul Sense records. Abley assisted by Dave and Jonny G I recall.
(2021)
Elaborating a bit on my experience, I grew up in Stevenage and we moved to a village near Hitchin, so Soul Sense in Luton was really close by for my Dad to make his weekly trips to spend silly amounts of money on new music.
Having gone with him as a kid for years, I finally bought my first 12" single there when I was 10 and never stopped collecting since. At the time, I somehow took a liking to all the Soulful House out on the Naked Music label which Gary introduced me to. Whenever I had a bit of spare pocket money I'd buy something. One of Gary's colleagues (can't remember his name, but think he had a ponytail IIRC) got me into UK Garage when all the stuff on LockedOn was coming out. Soul Sense was fantastic for lots of underground electronic music at the time, and my Dad ended up getting quite seriously into Drum & Bass - specifically a lot of the stuff on Good Looking Records which he bought there, in addition to all of the Jazz, Funk & Soul stuff he mainly liked.
Great times, lots of childhood memories and would love to know what some of those guys are up to these days - especially with a huge vinyl revival underway these past few years. Soul Sense doesn't get anywhere near as much of a mention in terms of it's influence on many different scenes in the Nineties. Many other famous shops get referenced often, but Soul Sense was just as influential in many ways, not least for me!
Is he still in Luton ?