Wells Music Stores Ltd

Name: John Lester.
Comment: Bought my UK London copy of Presenting the Ronettes there. They stuck those yellow labels on the 45s!

Name: Paul Bakewell
Comment: Listened to Led Zep II for first time in the record booth = Amazing!

Comment: Wells or 'WMS' as we all called the company, belonged to my grandfather and then my dad till it closed down in about 1996. I worked on and off in several of the shops in Romford during the 1970s and 1980s. Looking at this label brings back a few memories!

Name: Brian Allen
Comment: I have fond memories of going into the shop in the 1960s and 1970s, I was a fan of jazz in those days, Duke Ellington etc. In those days they had little listening booths where you could listen to tracks before you purchased the record, happy days.
(23 July 2015)

Name: David Cox
Comment: Loved that record store, I worked later in a clothing store a few doors down from it in the 1970s called Peters (I believe). I remember lining up outside for the release of Dark Side Of The Moon, and was late for a wedding.
(12 January 2016)

Name: Tim Maryon
Comment: I also bought my Ronettes LP in there, in 1965 I think... still have it. We were in there nearly every Saturday... spent bundles of money in Wells. Still have a few singles from the late 1950s/early 1960s with that yellow label on 'em. Good memories of those times.
(28 November 2016)

Name: Jacqui Greening
Comment: I worked here on Saturdays from 1974-76. Loved every moment. Arthur Wells was the loveliest man, and a true gentleman. Melvin Axelrood was my manager, and he was a top bloke. I used to get paid then spend it on an album a week! Dark Side Of The Moon was still a big seller, but Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells blew everyone away at that time. Good times.
(2019)

Name: Ken
Comment: Born in Romford 1937, left there in 1972 so I have memories of Wells Music Store, also another record shop that later opened in North Street called 'The Second Fiddle'. This had a basement where jazz gigs took place. Unfortunately, the place went down the tubes shortly after they built the ring road. Prior to that there was a bus stop right outside the shop, which afforded Eddie (the proprietor) scope for casual trade! Daresay, if I went back to Romford I would not recognise the place!
(2023)

Name: Barbara Walker
Comment: Bought my first records in Wells then later at the Co-op and there was an electrical goods shop in South Street that sold records in its basement, I can remember buying stuff on the Bluebeat label there.

Name: Sally Topley
Comment: I was born in 1953, so not as old as many posters on this page, but I remember buying Love Me Do with my birthday money in January 1963, at Wells Music Store.

The tradition was to listen to it in the booths with some sort of a speaker on a stick. In no way was it high-fidelity! But we could stand there ‘dancing’ in the booth, looking as cool as we could for the two minutes thirty seconds. If it was a single, at 6/8 (six shillings and eight pence), 33p, we’d have it slipped in a paper bag and go home.

But if it was an LP, from memory about 32/6, £1:12:6, £1.62p, we’d forgo the Wells Music Store paper bag and just walk around town, carrying it under our arm, with our hands stuffed into our Levi’s. It was a badge… showing how cool we were to have bought the latest LP.

And yes, I admit to carrying my coolest LPs around for weeks!

Name: Carol Wilson
Comment: Wells Music Shop where you could listen to the records before you bought. Still have a box of 78s.

Name: Derek Gooding
Comment: The first single I bought was Living in the Past by Jethro Tull, and the first album was The Pious Bird of Good Omen(!) by Fleetwood Mac, as Albatross had been in the charts.

I think I bought them both in Wells Music Stores in the Romford Arcade in South Street. (Near Craddocks)

Name: Mo Wood
Comment: I have some! I remember queueing up for tickets for the Rolling Stones at the Odeon, then, clutching my second row from the front, second house ticket after waiting since 5:30am, going to Wells to buy the new Beatles album (With The Beatles) with my Christmas money. Happy days!

Name: Julie Dines
Comment: I can remember going into Wells music store in the 1960s to buy a Monkees single on the day it was released. I was only about 11 and went in full of teenybop excitement to be served by a young bloke... but probably about 18, who served me with utter distain and clearly thought I'd not yet reached the age of cool!

Name: Laura RaRa
Comment: When The Beatles came to town in 1963, my Dad took me into The Arcade, Wells and I think they'd signed stuff nearby that day. Susan Maughan was with them and I got her autograph in Wells - Dad's aim had been for me to see the boys I think. I was only 6 at the time and had just started school at Crowlands, London Road. All the kids were talking about seeing The Beatles and buying jelly babies to throw at Paul. Wells relocated to the Main Road in 1965 I believe.