Record Shops - a misspent youth

[theastradyne]

I remember the record stores of Leeds from the perspective of a teenager with an insatiable appetite for new music.There was Amazing Records on the very outskirts of the city centre. Two whole floors of records to browse through. I remember the store exterior being bright yellow.Gerols/Right Track. A truly wonderful place in which I spent many happy hours (hours which should have been spent at school) discovering new music. A safe haven from the tedium of anti-education. Rob (the owner) where are you mate? I owe you big time.Vinyl Frontier. Stood opposite the Odeon cinema. This was the place to go for cheap European imports. The store is still a music shop, now called Crash records.Jumbo Records. Jumbo was a great little store tucked away down the arcade at the back of the Merrion Centre. I bought many a great single in there for 10p a go. Now Jumbo is a boring record store in the St John;s Centre. It has no character any more, although it does still proudly display the original Jumbo record store sign above the counter.Replay. Was originally on Lower Briggate but moved up onto Merrion Street. primarily a CD store but had a few interesting vinyl's in boxes under the CD racks.Relics. Still there in all its glory. If you go downstairs you will go back in time to an all vinyl record store complete with jukebox.The Polar Bear. Could be found in the Arcade opposite Replay. Only CD's, but you could spend all day in there and the staff would play whatever you asked.Bostocks. This store still supplied 8-track cassettes in the mid 80's. Lots of cheap import cassettes and super low priced vinyl. You could always find a bargain in Bostocks, then go outside to watch that very odd flying machine thingy come to life every quarter hour.Kennedys. An ex-jukebox 45 supplier housed inside the Kirkgate Market. Bit of a swindle going on in Kennedys. They would remove the singles from their original picture bags and flog them to you in plain white sleeves. Then there was a rack where they put the picture bags and you could buy them for an extra 10p. Tut tut.There was a record store in the Mini Market. It was run by a miserable old fat geezer who never smiled and was always shiny with sweat. I never knew the name of this store. But the Mini Market was like a time capsule in its own right, kind of like the Merrion Market is now.If I've missed any record stores from the 80's/90's please fill in the gaps. Hope I've brought back a few happy memories.

[oldleedsman]

This is an excellent summary: I'd already forgotten about a number of these places. I remember Kennedys from the early 70s. They had a shop at the bottom of George Street as well as a market stall. Even then, the reason to shop there was to buy ex-juke box singles. A full priced single was 50p then, but they sold the ex-juke box ones with the centre punched out for 30p. If you bought popular ones they were a bit well played, but the more obscure ones were fine. I got the likes of Sabbath's Paranoid, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and early Jethro Tull singles there.

[Johnny39]

I seem to remember "Woolies" selling records years ago.

[BLAKEY]

Johnny39 wrote: I seem to remember "Woolies" selling records years ago. I still haver a few of their "own brand" 78s and 45s - Embassy was the name of the label. They were pretty good quality too with red labels ans silver lettering.

[theastradyne]

oldleedsman wrote: This is an excellent summary: I'd already forgotten about a number of these places. I remember Kennedys from the early 70s. They had a shop at the bottom of George Street as well as a market stall. Even then, the reason to shop there was to buy ex-juke box singles. A full priced single was 50p then, but they sold the ex-juke box ones with the centre punched out for 30p. If you bought popular ones they were a bit well played, but the more obscure ones were fine. I got the likes of Sabbath's Paranoid, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and early Jethro Tull singles there. I was born in 1970 and discovered music in the early 80's. My dad played stuff like "Ommadawn" by Mike Oldfield and various Pink Floyd albums. He still does (Ommadawn is brilliant by the way)!By the time I discovered Kennedys it was circa 1982. I was buying the likes of Madness, Adam Ant, Thompson Twins etc... But to this day Kennedys will always be tarnished by their picture bag swindle.I recall Rob (of Gerols/Right Track) once ran two stalls in the Merrion Market. His main stall which we all know, and a smaller one directly next to the back exit (the exit facing towards the St John's Centre). But that was only a short lived venture.And, my friends, I have just remembered a couple more. In the mid 80's there was a store called Mr. B's in the arcade opposite where Woolworths used to be. It was great for reduced price ex-chart singles and picture discs. If you continued up the arcade and turned right and right again you arrived at the original HMV shop tucked away in its little hidden corner. Incidentally, does anyone remember the original Virgin records? It was in between the original Woolworths and the Yorkshire Building Society on Briggate. I'm not sure when it moved to the top of Briggate, but I remember buying "Hymn" by Ultravox from there which will have been 1982.Anyone remember Black Cat records? That too was tucked away down an arcade on Briggate. I'm not very good on the names of these arcades so perhaps someone can fill the gaps. Again, Black Cat was an 80's/90's venture selling reasonably priced second hand records over two floors.Vinyl Tap was located around the back of the Corn Exchange. It was a tad too expensive for my taste. This was the mid-late 90's. They have an eBay shop now.The Listening Booth. This was inside the Corn Exchange. The owner had a coffee machine installed inside the shop. Why? All those hot beverages hovering just inches above those lovely vinyl records. A big spill could have been disastrous!Anyway, I will carry on dredging the dark recesses of my mind. perhaps I will find a few more......

[RaggyTash]

theastradyne wrote: oldleedsman wrote: This is an excellent summary: I'd already forgotten about a number of these places. I remember Kennedys from the early 70s. They had a shop at the bottom of George Street as well as a market stall. Even then, the reason to shop there was to buy ex-juke box singles. A full priced single was 50p then, but they sold the ex-juke box ones with the centre punched out for 30p. If you bought popular ones they were a bit well played, but the more obscure ones were fine. I got the likes of Sabbath's Paranoid, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and early Jethro Tull singles there. I was born in 1970 and discovered music in the early 80's. My dad played stuff like "Ommadawn" by Mike Oldfield and various Pink Floyd albums. He still does (Ommadawn is brilliant by the way)!By the time I discovered Kennedys it was circa 1982. I was buying the likes of Madness, Adam Ant, Thompson Twins etc... But to this day Kennedys will always be tarnished by their picture bag swindle.I recall Rob (of Gerols/Right Track) once ran two stalls in the Merrion Market. His main stall which we all know, and a smaller one directly next to the back exit (the exit facing towards the St John's Centre). But that was only a short lived venture.And, my friends, I have just remembered a couple more. In the mid 80's there was a store called Mr. B's in the arcade opposite where Woolworths used to be. It was great for reduced price ex-chart singles and picture discs. If you continued up the arcade and turned right and right again you arrived at the original HMV shop tucked away in its little hidden corner. Incidentally, does anyone remember the original Virgin records? It was in between the original Woolworths and the Yorkshire Building Society on Briggate. I'm not sure when it moved to the top of Briggate, but I remember buying "Hymn" by Ultravox from there which will have been 1982.Anyone remember Black Cat records? That too was tucked away down an arcade on Briggate. I'm not very good on the names of these arcades so perhaps someone can fill the gaps. Again, Black Cat was an 80's/90's venture selling reasonably priced second hand records over two floors.Vinyl Tap was located around the back of the Corn Exchange. It was a tad too expensive for my taste. This was the mid-late 90's. They have an eBay shop now.The Listening Booth. This was inside the Corn Exchange. The owner had a coffee machine installed inside the shop. Why? All those hot beverages hovering just inches above those lovely vinyl records. A big spill could have been disastrous!Anyway, I will carry on dredging the dark recesses of my mind. perhaps I will find a few more......Youre confusing me with your memory of the 1st Virgin record store...I always remember that being located next to "The Ostler`s" pub..Youre directions lead me to another record store that used to be called "Scene&Heard"..there was a pub at the side of that too called "The Precinct"

[RaggyTash]

theastradyne wrote: oldleedsman wrote: This is an excellent summary: I'd already forgotten about a number of these places. I remember Kennedys from the early 70s. They had a shop at the bottom of George Street as well as a market stall. Even then, the reason to shop there was to buy ex-juke box singles. A full priced single was 50p then, but they sold the ex-juke box ones with the centre punched out for 30p. If you bought popular ones they were a bit well played, but the more obscure ones were fine. I got the likes of Sabbath's Paranoid, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and early Jethro Tull singles there. I was born in 1970 and discovered music in the early 80's. My dad played stuff like "Ommadawn" by Mike Oldfield and various Pink Floyd albums. He still does (Ommadawn is brilliant by the way)!By the time I discovered Kennedys it was circa 1982. I was buying the likes of Madness, Adam Ant, Thompson Twins etc... But to this day Kennedys will always be tarnished by their picture bag swindle.I recall Rob (of Gerols/Right Track) once ran two stalls in the Merrion Market. His main stall which we all know, and a smaller one directly next to the back exit (the exit facing towards the St John's Centre). But that was only a short lived venture.And, my friends, I have just remembered a couple more. In the mid 80's there was a store called Mr. B's in the arcade opposite where Woolworths used to be. It was great for reduced price ex-chart singles and picture discs. If you continued up the arcade and turned right and right again you arrived at the original HMV shop tucked away in its little hidden corner. Incidentally, does anyone remember the original Virgin records? It was in between the original Woolworths and the Yorkshire Building Society on Briggate. I'm not sure when it moved to the top of Briggate, but I remember buying "Hymn" by Ultravox from there which will have been 1982.Anyone remember Black Cat records? That too was tucked away down an arcade on Briggate. I'm not very good on the names of these arcades so perhaps someone can fill the gaps. Again, Black Cat was an 80's/90's venture selling reasonably priced second hand records over two floors.Vinyl Tap was located around the back of the Corn Exchange. It was a tad too expensive for my taste. This was the mid-late 90's. They have an eBay shop now.The Listening Booth. This was inside the Corn Exchange. The owner had a coffee machine installed inside the shop. Why? All those hot beverages hovering just inches above those lovely vinyl records. A big spill could have been disastrous!Anyway, I will carry on dredging the dark recesses of my mind. perhaps I will find a few more...... Youre confusing me with your memory of the 1st Virgin record store...I always remember that being located next to "The Ostler`s" pub..Youre directions lead me to another record store that used to be called "Scene&Heard"..there was a pub at the side of that too called "The Precinct"

[String o' beads]

Before Briggate, the original Virgin Records shop was on Queen Victoria Street.

[RaggyTash]

Geordie-exile wrote: Before Briggate, the original Virgin Records shop was on Queen Victoria Street. I am 99.9% certain that the 1st Virgin record store in Leeds was at the bottom corner of Trinity Street..I remember it cos I was there,it got high recoginition because of its "Up Front" and "In ya face" name..a Virgin store coming to Leeds was like the Devil walking into a Church back then..its name caused outrage amongst the elder&rebel amongst the teens

[uncle mick]

RaggyTash wrote: Geordie-exile wrote: Before Briggate, the original Virgin Records shop was on Queen Victoria Street. I am 99.9% certain that the 1st Virgin record store in Leeds was at the bottom corner of Trinity Street..I remember it cos I was there,it got high recoginition because of its "Up Front" and "In ya face" name..a Virgin store coming to Leeds was like the Devil walking into a Church back then..its name caused outrage amongst the elder&rebel amongst the teens Info from British Phone Books 1972Virgin Records were in Queen Victoria Street. As the first store opened in London in 1971 I would have thought this was the first branch in Leeds