R.I.P. mister CD and the record shops in berwick street

Mister CD was shit, I won't miss it, but it is part of trend of record shops closing which is a bit sad.

It wasn't shit, the £5 section often had good stuff in it. But they closed that bit.

Yeah they closed that a few years ago!

And the prices in the main shop weren't any better than SelectaRay.

Selling stuff as cheaply as possible is the only way to survive I think. Now when's the closing down sale!!!! *rubs hands with glee*

I missed the Reckless closing down sale :(

I don't think there was much of one, stock was probably disposed of wholesale - suspect same will happen here

They had one at the Soul & Dance shop, but I was running out of lunch break and only had a quick look. Didn't see one at the main shop.

has anyone heard any more about the mythic new rough trade in brick lane? i was eaves dropping in the portobello shop a few weeks ago and they seemed as hazy on the details as everyone else seems to be...

When last I looked at the shuttered Reckless (i.e. last Friday) they still had all their stock inside so Christ knows what they're going to do with it.

Glad Beano's is still there, though, as is that other second-hand shop round the back of the Whitgift whose name I can never remember (just around the corner from the reggae place).

I assume my old employers Music And Video Exchange are still going.

I've seen the new Rough Trade space. Looks pretty massive, but it's currently a totally empty space with white walls, which tends to make a space look much larger.

Also, there was a massive queue of people going in the front door, right through to the back, which I figured might be some kind of Record Store Clerk Idol hiring process, but maybe they there for something else entirely. I didn't ask.

MVE still going for all your Claire Sproule/Jenny Davey/Roger Robinson needs.

MEV has the biggest tumour of a record collection in that one Camden store. It's like three or four rooms of absolute unending shite.

So many other stores look to be headed the same way as Reckless though. On The Beat and Haggle Vinyl have a pretty bleak feel in 'em, these days. I like the selection in Haggle, but god that place is a mess. They're sitting on a ton of stock that's virtually unbrowsable! They've hardly got the space to sort shit out, to be fair. Reminds of me of Gnashers in Bath (RIP). Exactly the same story, and now he's gone. Get busy tryin' etc!

And what's the store up off Camden Road? Is it ODC? South American dude runs it, and they've got thousands of records downstairs, but a) nobody knows it's even there, and b) he doesn't sell any stock online! Gotta make a go of it, at least. The smell doesn't help things either...

How many of all these stores be could be using eBay more effectively, I wonder?

that other second-hand shop round the back of the Whitgift whose name I can never remember

Assuming you mean 101, round the back of the Drummond? Cos I seriously doubt you'd be talking about Memory Lane...

Yep, 101, definitely not Memory Lane.

The Health and Safety Executive need to pay a visit to Haggle Vinyl, as though I'd pay any money for something drawn out of an unbrowsable pile of vinyl, all helpfully stacked horizontally for that extra warp.

Flashback just up the road is very good, though.

has reckless closed then? i just asked a colleague whose brother works in the rare records section and he seemed to think they'd consolidated into one shop... haggle is a bit grim but they don't do themselves any favours with their pricing, esp. given the proximity to flashback.

Yep, both Reckless branches are shut (the very shortlived sale in the soul and dance shop was definitely a case of attempting to sell off the unsellable). The Camden and Islington branches remain empty and unsold.

has DISQUE doing? fucking fantastic shop that is.

*how's*

Not sure that's still going either. I looked out for it last time I was down Chapel Market but there were lots of anonymous/interchangeable coffee places instead.

i think disque is still going, at least it was a month or so ago. that shop just flys in the face of record shop etiquette with it's unfettered frendliness.

all this 'record shopping should be an experience' is a bit weird i find. i dont go to record shops to get a good coffee or a nice bit of cake or a bagel.

That having been said, you have to admit that having a toilet in TCR Fopp is an example which other chain stores would be wise to follow...

(as opposed to most used record shops which are in themselves toilets heheh etc.)

Bookshops are often pretty good at having loos in.

Losing Ambient Soho was the beginning of the end of Berwick St for me.

I still haven't found the alleged Ambient Soho shop in Camden, nearly a decade later. Pity 'cos the Berwick Street branch was a terrific shop and Matthew Herbert was a friendly fellow indeed.

The shop off Camden Road is called D.O.C., I've walked past the aging yellow sign pointing it out for a decade now and still never gone in. Actually I had a look one time but there was a note on the door saying "ring for entry", I always feel obliged to buy something when they do that so I bricked it. Steve's Sounds near Leicester Square is gone now too, no great loss there.

Ahhh.. Mr CD. Assuming the £5 section was the downstairs that was very manky but had some right bargains to be had, lots of good electronic/dance/pop stuff if you came at the right time. Sadly when it was given a lick of paint the £2/£5 sections disappeared! Nice guy that worked downstairs too, helpful. I remember the guys upstairs used to listen to football on the radio so never gave the impression they were interested in selling any music bar chart CDs for a tenner or less - a bit like Tesco's.

I like the manic over-friendliness in Disque, was in there on Saturday. Anything you ask for that they don't have they almost insist on taking all of your contact details. Still with all their attentiveness they don't waste your time trying to palm of crap and no inane ploys to engage you in a conversations about the origins of house music, "it all started with James Brown y'know, mate." heard this in the shop that was at one time City16 on Cheshire St last week. Still anything better than the surlyness of certain specialist shops.

Got a flyer through the door for D.O.C offering 10% off. Will get down there when the missus isn't looking.

D.O.C. has some good stuff. I understand that whole having to leave with something, but the basement is pretty large. Ring the bell!

There's also a really interesting guy who lurks there regularly. I suspect he might be a bit of an acid casualty, but half-suggested he was involved with a band called World Domination Enterprises, who I hadn't heard of them at the time, but I think there was a thread or two about them recently, and they sounded pretty interesting.

Reckless is the one that had the decent techno section, right? I was in Phonica, on Poland Street around this time last year and it's so near to Berwick Street and has such an unfathomable ridiculous amount of stock (cos of being a web business) that I reckon it single handedly blew any place selling new house or techno out of the water.

pelican neck in manchester has gone too . . .

I always thought that was part of boomkat

I didn't know Reckless had shut. Shame. Yeah, the dance one had good stuff, as did the rock one upstairs (where the reggae, and jazz and stuff was). The actual rock bit in the basement was a bit weird and overpriced, though.

Phonica is great, really, although they look at you funny if you DON'T want to listen to the records before buying (which I don't have time for in my lunch hour). They also have a vinyl pressing plant and they put out FACT magazine, so they've got a vertigal integration type-thing going on too.

vertical

what berwick street needs is for sister ray to halve its *ridiculous* prices

or you could just go a quarter of a mile to the oxford street Virgin megastore, their range is actually fantastic

The Oxford Street Virgin Megastore is useful as a shortcut to Tottenham Court Road but that is it.

was I thinking of the Oxford Street HMV? never could tell them apart

Sister Ray seems to have taken over Selectadisc's pricing, actually, so a lot of stuff is REALLY cheap (reissues especially, although presumably some of them are bootlegged or "grey market" or whatever).

Their 2nd-hand prices are a bit steep, though.

so, marcello (or anyone else), could YOU recommend me a cheap central London music store with great range and depth? the music and video exchange is great but you don't generally find much recent stuff there...

Disques been doing a big sale tuesday & wednesday (12th & 13th June) with most stuff down to about 50% off, so it might not be long for this world...

a reeeal shame.

pelican neck in manchester has gone too . . .

-- djh, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 15:42 (4 hours ago) Link

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I always thought that was part of boomkat

-- gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 15:55 (4 hours ago) Link

yes, connected to boomkat (which is still online)

went music and tape exchange in notting hill today - the rock one, theyre alright but one of the guys was so fucking moody and unhelpful. why is it only record shops, or ESPECIALLY record shops where these people find employment? are music buyers meant to be held in contempt?

50% sale at Disque is through to the weekend at least apparently. They are clearing stock and getting a few quid in so they don't shut down. Indeed that would be a shame. I miss Smallfish the most of recent passings on...

Yeah, Smallfish...the only shop which had the Pluramon album in stock after I'd spent all Saturday looking everywhere else. That's very much missed.

As for cheap central London record stores with great range and depth, the choices are becoming increasingly narrow. In chainstore terms Fopp at Tottenham Court Road and HMV at Oxford Circus are far and away the best and most affordable (even if the former forced the latter to up its game). Sister Ray still has a decent range of reasonably-priced stuff if you can shield your eyes from all the DVDs clogging up the front but its stock control is variable. Rough Trade in Covent Garden is OK but not cheap and not really a patch on the Portobello one.

went music and tape exchange in notting hill today - the rock one, theyre alright but one of the guys was so fucking moody and unhelpful. why is it only record shops, or ESPECIALLY record shops where these people find employment? are music buyers meant to be held in contempt?

cos the people who work there are lazy and bored.

I only bothered with Smallfish once or twice. Wasn't it mostly just middling electronica? And most of the CDs were positioned in a ridiculous way that that made it impossible to browse. I found some albums by Gate and Hall of Fame in there though. Looked like they'd been sat there for quite some time.

Oh no, Reckless is shut? I had vague daydreams of taking a whole lot of CDs up there to sell but I hadn't got round to it because I'd have to take more than I could carry on the bus to make it worth the bus fare.

Mind you I never had much luck with the dance section and I don't know why anyone bought from the rock place except on credit, second-hand CDs barely cheaper than they are new, and when you sold to them you'd only get a little more than at any other used CD shop.

I'm never going to get rid of the unwanted CDs cluttering up my room, am I? Second-hand shops closing all round the country, nothing sells on ebay...

... charity shops... preferably in my neighbourhood, if your CDs are any good

I think our tastes only overlap (if at all) on the stuff I want to hold on to and you already have.

Problems with charity shops:
1. they'll charge more than anyone would pay even if someone who knew what it was came in, which is already quite unlikely round here
2. ...so they'll linger dustily on the shelves for a while until they just get skipped, which I guess is fair, but I don't like the thought of my books and CDs being skipped by people who don't know or care what they are
3. I spent thousands of pounds on these things under the desperate delusion of them making me seem cool if someone ever came into my bedroom and looked at them, and now I've realised nobody gets that far because I'm not, I can't even make the price of a pub lunch off 'em?

OK, mainly 3, really.

Car boot sale? In my neighbourhood again, of course. Actually, I met a guy on Sunday, who opened a market stall just to sell off his - admittedly rather good - collection.

C'mon Tom... names and numbers.

No way, I want those CDs for myself!

So I guess loads of these are shut now, but Woebot had a good roundup of the Soho record shops a couple of years ago.

(googles)

Here it is http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000127.html

I still miss Groove Records (ask yer parents).

take them to Cash Converters! cash converters eastbourne has great stuff. except the copy of "my life in the bush of ghosts" i found didn't have a CD in it so was kind of useless. they let me take it back thou.

Cash Converters Streatham is useless, and Cash Converters Croydon doesn't even stock CDs any more.

Mr CD once sold me a pirate DVD (without telling me) so I think it is a bit rich him complaining about file sharing and shit.

obv not berwick street, but has phonica closed down? this morning its sign seemed to have been replaced with a big ASOS.COM number

Up the road a bit, Borders can't even go into administration properly.

I saw the ASOS signs up on Thursday evening but I think they were letting the online retailer use their shop for an evening event. I say this, as I saw woman with clipboard ticking off people coming in circa 7pm. The CDs on the wall looked untouched behind the ASOS hoarding in the shop. I bought MIles Davis Get Up With It LP from Revival and Alter Ego - Decoding The Hacker Myth CD from Exchange earlier today. Nearly bought some bits from Sister Ray but couldn't be bothered to join the queue.

THE INDEPENDENT LABELS MARKET

Hello all

Heavenly founders Jeff Barrett and Martin Kelly will be setting up stall this weekend from 10am on Saturday 21st May on Berwick Street Market, London W1. Not something they normally do but part of a new annual event called Independent Label Market which sees the heads of the UK's finest indie labels getting together and selling their wares directly to the public. It's a rare opportunity to see and meet the people who sign and release the bands you love.

Jeff and Martin will have a limited number of the Saint Etienne On 45 box sets available. These copies - priced at just £35 - have been specially signed by all three members of the group so get down early to avoid disappointment.

Also on sale will be a special 7" pressing of the Manic Street Preachers 1991 Heavenly single 'Motown Junk' resplendent in original artwork. The single was released on CD and 12" only on it's original release and these are set to be very sought after.

Martin is also promising to dig out a box of Heavenly vinyl rarities so you may just find a copy of what you've been looking for.

Roll up, roll up it's the greatest Heavenly record stall on earth!

Sarah Bob and Pete xxx