Oh, Monseur le Fopp, you are really spoiling us...

"The psychedelic sounds of" and "Easter Everywhere"

With extra tracks and booklet, etc. £5 each.

Oh, and the first two Suicide CD sets, also £5.

xpost Stewaaart! Next to the old co-op which is now Primark. Across the road from the old "Captain's Cabin"

I got the Suicide ones from Fopp in Reading.

The staff are a bit miserable in the London one (which is at the bottom of the upper part of Shaftesbury Avenue - more or less Covent Garden - next to Charing Cross Road).

no other shop comes even close.

but Im old enough to remember the 3 dance 12"'s for a fiver period.

Curiously, I tend to feel exactly the reverse, probably 'cos Selectadisc has an infinitely wider range of stock and overall lower prices (i.e. lots of £4.99s, virtually no £15s).

The original Fopp shop in Renfield Street was a splendid place, even if Gordon the owner insisted on calling me "George Russell" every time I came in.

xp

Bunch of lovely jazz and soul vinyl for £5 and £7!

Mingus - Oh yeah! and Blues and Roots for £5 each

Coltrane - Ole and Coltrane's Sound (most underrated according to AMG) £5 each

Also Meters, Betty Davis, Curtis et al for £7. Fopp used to be great for cheap classic vinyl but it dropped off for a while. Happy days are here again.

Only bought Oh Yeah today, but shall pick up a few of these soon.

Also on CD for £3 - Fall, Replacements, Meat Puppets. :)

Mind you, the MVC in Newport has been selling ridiculous records for silly money this last month - "The trip" (both Tom Middleton and St Etienne) for £4, "Produced by Trevor Horn" for the same, "Only Yazoo" and "Hot shots II" for £2...

I go the complete Spritualized vol. 2, which I was quite pleased about because I had been waiting for it to come down to a fiver. Then I listened to it and I was not so pleased.

There was quite a lot of good stuff going cheap, I may have to go back and have another look.

Advantage of Fopp over Selectadisc: you can take stuff back if you don't like it, or if you are a tightarse.

I am more overwhelmed by Bob Dylanism than Franz Ferdinandness these days.

I can still take NYC Man back, being within my Sucker And See period.

What am I to DO? It'll look like I've abused the lend something chronic.

Of course, I might just be a big spazz.

It was 100 metres from Fopp.

Yeah, I saw they had some for £3 the other week, but Fifi and the Flowertots is still full price.

Can you confirm that it is bigger than the Shaftesbury Avenue branch, Jerry?

For the record, the DVDs were the no less twee: 'Kiki's delivery service', 'Laputa' and the Boosh box.

pretty small and cramped tho

I got a film called Tarnation from Fopp for a fiver. I am quite pleased with my purchase.

2000: Tower & Rhythm Records

Vs

2006: Virgin & Fopp

Yay!!!!!

All old Can Remasters £8.
The new Can Remasters £10

you wont find cheaper. *Fact*

I did find cheaper. *Fact*

£7.99? gonna check this out at lunchtime.

holy fuck i'm there.

i reckon amazon ain't much more expensive though.

That means they'll be £4.99 in a month or two

x-post

And they never got down to £7.99 either

But also, you end up buying stuff you'd never consider otherwwise, as it's cheap enough to take a punt, and nine times out of ten it's inessential.

But, I did play those Kevin Ayers albums a fair bit. So, yes.

It was never like this in the early days when they were just a stall in the Savoy Centre in Glasgow (when they were still called A-One Sounds) and the owner used to enthuse endlessly about Arthur Blythe and George Russell.

Well, one question asked, usually.

Was that the place with a Tupperware box for the fanzine money?

I remember when the old megastore closed in London, similarly, and from being a 'postpunk den' into the streamlined sales point it is now.

dunno when...

thats up by Habitat and Heals, looks pretty big, although I hope they dont try to put a cafe in it lke they did with the edinburgh rose st. one.

I don't suppose that record stall round the back of Goodge Street will be there much longer after it's opened.

-- danny boy (daniel__hamilto...), June 15th, 2006.

hurrah!

MC -- what part of cheap cds don't you like? what should a record shop do? sell them moer expensively? i don't get the beef.

That answer your question, Henry?

xpost

maybe, but fopp has super-cheap stuff.

Have you been to HMV lately?

I saw Massive Records had closed when I was last in Oxford, which I think is a shame- they did have a huge range of dance stuff, and it was a big draw for DJs all over the south of England. No web presence any more apparently. That second hand place the other side of Gloucester Green will be next to go.

(also if it goes it will remove my last excuse for visiting Oxford city centre)

in which event I shall have no option but to retire to my yellowing spines and ruefully golden memories of days of plenty.

(McGoohan/McKern, p.p. MC)

haha xpost i was also searching for that beta band 'gag'

As I said, they've been moved to be more in-yer-face in line with modern retail torture, sorry, techniques

It is strange, isn't it, the Mutiny On The Buses thing? It's not like they're trying to attract a Mutiny On The Buses clientele, they just seem to be hoping that all the J. Spaceman fans are into Mutiny On The Buses as well.

Slap Her, She's French? Sounds worth a punt.

In fairness, they do have a fair smattering of "off-kilter" crap as well.

When did the bargain basement in Mr CD disappear? I used to find some good stuff in there occasionally. It's been 4 years since I was last working in central London, so it could have been ages ago. Was surprised to see Selectadisc gone and Sister Ray moved. Also surprised to see Reckless still there since the Camden & Islington branches shut down, figured they'd gone under or something.

Just a warning.

Thats why i said i'd buy it if they were that cheap Not smoking or drinking makes these things affordable.

wtf!

I've never seen the point of collecting DVDs. You watch them once and put them back on the shelf.

The great thing about listening to music is that you can do other things at the time, e.g. reading or writing or cooking dinner. You can't do that with DVDs so that also puts me off them.

In which case, it's the end of the world.

Ah, for the halcyon days of Impulse Records with the sleeve of Datapanik In The Year Zero proudly displayed in its window.

One way to watch "Rock and roll high school" for the seventh time without wearing the tape out.

It's the kids, Dawn, honest. They make me watch it.

(Srsly: While we had the weekend in Venice just gone, we returned home after "Aunty Mandy" had babysat, to find the R&RHS DVD on the table. "Umm, it's a bit adult, isn't it?")

Apparently:

AM: "You OK to watch this?"
Amber: "Oh yeah, we watch this all the time."
AM: "It's a bit rude, isn't it?"
Amber: "Well, we don't actually repeat any of it, so it's OK"

See, Amber rules too.

you can't do it with sex either.

dvds >>>>>> cinema

WH Smiths only stock a handful of cds now,Woolies is shite.
Asda probably stock more cds than them all put together.
Never been in Sainsburys or the new Morrisons.

I'm surprised Asda have never moved into stocking lesser known niche genres. If they get a good reputation then people will go there. Of course that would kill off indie shops, but I doubt asda would care about that. And its not like an indie shop in Hamilton would last more than 3 months anyway.

Fans of Mr Bongo's Brazillian beats series might like to know that you can get 2 x 2CD boxes for £5 each. I wouldn't mind them.

Also Fopp in Covent Garden(ish) have bucked the trend, by giving over a load of DVD space to books. Or perhaps they've just moved them.

Our Price was always a horribly over priced shop though I remember when I got my first grant cheque as a student going and buying 4 or 5 Beatles albums on cassette out of there.

I bought it because I'd heard Bryce Curdy playing "Song For Che" on Radio Clyde the previous evening!

Also, Waitrose Movement for a fiver but I resisted.

£5 is the same price as 10 Bounty bars, plus 10p.

http://static.flickr.com/72/167695655_a871bc3a6f.jpg

Is this thing on?

Sold out in Fopp on Cambridge circus AND it's a tenner anyway. I've been 'ad.

Is this the one with Focus and Judee Sill on it?

ML1 is Motherwell *Boo Hiss etc*

I bought that box set from Tower in glasgow on import before it got a UK release. Paid about £45-50 i think. Was well worth it though.

Oh and ML9 was the place to be (not)

Dadaismus: The Whistle Test dvd has Focus, but not Judee Sill. Think she's on the second one. Happily, the clip is on youtube. Voila:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM3EQVUkMzc

the loss of derek bailey and ivor cutler seems to DEEPEN over time - i think i finally understanding what 'irreplaceable' means

Does anyone go up the barras now? I havent been up there since about 1998. Used to get some great bootlegs from the barras and there was always plenty of cheap cds/vinyl too.

Did someone try to sell you ciggies or tobacco every 10 yards?

It was definitely a fiver, Nuggets. I haven't had nobody, me.

mine is the worst of all three worlds.

The chap in the shop said ten, honest!

i.e. you can't afford it.

Nuggets, it's a world unto itself.

It is now. Or, was. Just got one, and I didn't see any others.

Should, really, shouldn't I?

Oh, but the HEAT!!!

I wish to vist Fopp today.

Got these for a fiver each:

Boogie down productions - by all means necessary
Fischerspooner - #1
Gang of four - solid gold
Adam & the ants - dirk wears white sox

and the Sonic Youth debut EP reissue for £6! Woo.

not sure if the TCR one is open yet.... if theyve got room for a cafe, then surely they can have room for bizzarely priced vinyl...

its just not Fopp without the vinyl.

But I was a bit sad, and I thought it might cheer me up. Perhaps it will.

I am a bit disappointed with John Cale's Paris 1919 though. He has quite a boring voice.

HMV - top dog for pricing policy.

You have let me down here PJ, but most of all you have let yourself down. Still no sign of TCRFOPP opening.

Oxford Street is doing this now. The £7 price point is good for reisues e.g Siouxsie remasters. But I notice that the new Can ones were still £16.99 or something obscene. So off to e-bay...

Gram Parsons is a heap of shite - don't bother.

If you want to start a "Oh Monsier le HMV" thread, go.

i like slide guitars n' shit. i figure if uncut like him SO MUCH there must be something there.

can were £7 in hmv.

On Vinatge Violence I like the extra track that is a viola drone best.

Roughage Crew, you can get a Gram Parsons 2CD compilation with a nice booklet from Monsieur Le Fopp (and other retailers) for £7. I think it is you best bet, as it covers his entire (short) career. I can't remember what it's called - Gilded Cowboy Sinners, or something.

I think ppl are often surprised at just how trad/country Gram Parsons actually sounds, esp. on the solo albs w/ Emmylou Harris. The two Flying Burrito Bros albs have been collected/compiled on various cheapish CD sets, and are prob. the place to start (tho' you can now get the original Gram vocal versions of the re-recorded Byrds tracks on that new 'special edition' of 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo'. The 'Hickory Wind' take is some of Gram's v. finest ever singing - the very definition of blue eyed country soul). To be honest as much as I like or even love Gram Parsons, I don't he ever comes close to matching the country-rock magnificence of Gene Clark circa the Godsin Bros/first Dillard and Clark albs - get those instead!)

Some of the songs on Paris 1919 are magnificent - Sally Timms of the Mekons does a very sweet cover of 'Half Past France' - dunno how anyone can find them 'boring'

The Neu! resiisues were cheapish in Selectadisc some time ago. Maybe they still are, although it is Sister Ray now.

BTW, does everyone's Neu! (first one) cut off momentarily during track 2? Or did I get a dud? It ruins my cosmic reverie!

But the Neu albums are WORTH £13!

-- PJ Miller (pjmiller6...) (webmail), Today 11:23 AM. (later) (link)

Yes, this was also on the original albums, apparently on purpose. Some of the bootleg issues of the past corrected this, to Neu's amusement...

What a bizarre thing to do.

Dr C otm re Parsons, totally wretched. If you must buy some country get some George Jones or Merle Haggard first.

One of my favourites, I think.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00005BC89/026-3945335-0330023?v=glance&n=229816

I don't know how much proper country has such blatantly Catholic titles - isn't it mostly Protestant?

The pedal steels sometimes go through fuzz boxes and effects pedals, which doesn't happen in "proper" country. And the drumming is different, I am told.

oh that sounds nice, i'm warming to it again.

I went at lunch, they are still cheap - £6.99 each - but they only had 2 and '75, and I'm after the 1st one. Ah well.

PJM, remind me to play you "Abilene" by Pete Drake and his Amazing Talking Steel Guitar sometime.

The Gram solo albums sound like country to us because country subsequently changed to sound like the Gram Parsons solo albums, I think. This point is, I suppose, fairly academic since we can only really respond to how they sound to us, but anyway.

Also George Jones has a song with guitar effects, I think it is for comedy purposes, sort of. I can't remember the title. He leaves off singing and the effects-laden guitar finsihes the line for him.

But yes, the fuzzbox is on the Burrito Brothers' albums (maybe just the first one?) but these tracks are included on the compilation referred to earlier. The effects pedals are quite judicioulsy used, it's not just random pratting about.

And those solo albums have some really beautiful songs, I think.

Meanwhile, I had another listen to Paris 1919, and I still didn't like it very much. Evidence of his voice limitations can be found on the alternate version of Andaluisia, just after the reference to castles and Christians. I suppose that is why they did another version, but it illustrates what I was talking about.

I think we agree about Gram Parsons, though I'm not yet moved to shell £13 or whatever for those alternate takes.

I also think we agree on John Cale, who's one of those people I hear loads of positive things about, from people wose tastes I respect (sometimes even trust) but I haven't managed to make myself like him.

If I ever open it, rather than take it back, I will copy them for you, the alternate takes.

I was pleased to think that buying the Gram thing cheered you up. I hope you haven't been saddened by its continued state of shrinkwrappedness.

I say "favourite" but that just means it's one of about a dozen records (like House Tornado and Secrets of the Beehive) that assumed untouchable status in my head about 10-12 years ago and that I don't feel the need to revisit very often or reassess. This is probably a bad thing, I dunno.

In other news, I have unpacked all my CDs and set up my stereo for the first time in five months. The first CD tune I played (very quietly - it was nearly 1am when I finished plugged everything in) was Noel Akchote and Marc Ribot havin' a bash at Ornette Coleman's "New York" and the first vinyl tune was The Blue Aeroplanes' hooj summer smash "Yr Own World".

Perhaps I will blow the next Child Tax Credit payment in Fopp.

Congrats on the return of your stereo, MJ. Have you ascertained the precise location of the Sweet Spot, yet? Is the delicate technology well away from the reach of jammy, curious fingers?

It about two feet above and 10-12 inches behind my sitting position in the middle of the couch (speakers are very high in this massively compromised arrangement), so I expect to develop fantastic neck muscles, like Garth Cr00ks.

Is the delicate technology well away from the reach of jammy, curious fingers?

No, the missus can reach it. Ho ho! DVD, VCR and power amps are all at Ava-level, unfortunately. Pam's a dab hand at knocking together nifty-looking panels and stuff from a bit of cheap tongue'n'groove, so I'm sure she can come up with something to shield them. I suggested a minefield.

Thing is, I don't just want to listen to Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, I want to be them. I want to be groomed for stardom.

Secrets of the Beehive is a film, isn't it? No, that is Spirit of the Beehive. I have seen it, at the pictures. I prefer "Furtivos":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073028/

Perhaps John Cale is an artist best listened to in the winter months. I think I am going to file this record with that Gene Clark one that everyone says is great but I don't like - No Other, that's it.

I am surprised the Doc dislikes GP so. I like him, as most people seem to do. I recently discovered how much I like 'I Can't Dance', in a way.

I am thinking of buying SAINT MORRISSEY, the book, from this shop. Should I?

Most surprising recent bargain: Magnetic Fields, HOLIDAY, £5!

But the first copy I bought didn't have a CD in it!

I took it back and got the CD from a copy that said £7 on it.

Bargain!

haven't been able to gauge if the web prices are as good as the on-street yet but a good thing surely.

I bought "Mr Isaacs" by Gregory Isaacs

TCR has got confusing new categories, the main one being "alt/modern". Everything earlier than c.1995 comes under "classic rock/singer songwriter".

... which isn't strictly accurate as there's plenty of stuff from pre-1995 in the alt/modern section and there's a fair bit of stuff from post-1995 in classic rock/singer songwriter section, e.g. Can are in the alt/modern section while Faust are in classic rock, even more confusingly Frank Zappa is alt/modern and Petra Haden is classic rock!

Also pricing policy is a bit all over the (record) shop - I noticed the same CD on sale (in different sections but sometimes even in the same section) for £3, £5 and £7! And not just once either! So shop around. So I bought:

Lou Reed - Take No Prisoners £5
The Doors - Strange Days £3
Todd Rundgren - The Healing £1(!)
Lee Perry & Friends - Chapter 3: Live As One £1 (!!)

Chuffed with the last one as it's got a lot of tracks I've been looking for on it.

Of course, shitloads of other stuff I coulda bought and I think prices will tumble even further as the record industry lurches inexorably towards disaster and extinction *rubs hands with glee*

nice.

gotta be said, that hmv really has had to follow fopp lots; it's not the thing it used to be.

I will go tomorrow morning.

Hmm, bit of a way for a Soho-ite like me, but, if EDF stick a pickaxe through our cables again (only jokin', EDF), it's not like I'll be pushed for time.

Although there is quite a good one somewhere in the Soho area actually. I forget exactly where but it it on the junction of two roads at acute angles to each other and thus kinda juts out at you from the front. I bought Earth's first record there for a rip-off tenner...

Most of the tracks also appear on the 8CD re-issue of the wonderful Atlantic 1947-73(?) box set that came out c. 1987/88. Fopp are selling each of these for £3 each. Vols 7 & 8 are particularly fine: The Spinners "Mighty Love", Beginning Of The End "Funky Nassau", Persuaders "Thin Line Between Love & Hate", Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and the absolutely STONKING "Compared To What" by Les McCann & Eddie Harris.

Witness the demise of all these over priced rip off mechants in the past decade: Andy's Records, Sam Goody, Tower Records, MVC, Our Price.

Replaced by specialist online shops such as boomkat, e-tailers such as Amazon, supermarkets selling new/chart Cds at discounted prices, plus Jersey/Guersney VAT loop hole etailers, and the growth of discount chains such Fopp and Music Zone.

parp!

I shall Report Back later. I may be some time.

Here it is:

http://www.fopp.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2530

I used to have this anyway, but decided it was a bit too thorough, compared to the near-perfection* and boundless misery of the first Singles album. But I didn't get the first Singles album to replace it. It is, you may remember, a chance to hear "Your Navy Requests".

Postage is 1.50 if your order is less than 25 pounds.

I don't think I ever want to go to Fopp again after looking through that lot.

* I don't like "Top of the World".

-- RJG (RJ...), July 29th, 2006.

REALLY? You don't say!

**Cymbal Crash**

This is a sign from God.

It's massive!

Things of note:

They had new The WHO 12" by the window, in direct sunlight. They were warm to the touch. I expect them to have melted by the end of the week. Anything on the aisle ends by the window is in direct afternoon sunlight. They hadn't thought of that.

The Gram parsons Complete Reprise Sessions box set is £10 more expensive on TCR than on Shaftesbury Avenue. Worth the ten minute walk, I'd say.

They have some lovely lovely stuff from Ace going cheapish, such as the Deep Soul Treasures series, and some funk compilations. This is stuff that I used to pay 2775 pesetas for in Spain, which felt like an awful lot of money. Then they went up to 3200 pesetas and I could no longer afford them. I think they are still my favourite CDs, and I recommend them to anyone who hasn't got them.

They have the Westbound Funkadelic reissues for a fiver each. I would like them.

It looks like they have some nice things on vinyl.

You can walk right through the shop and come out the other side. I like that in a shop.

They have bucked the trend by giving greater prominence to CDs than DVDs near the entrance. Perhaps it is because of the sunlight problem, although I doubt it.

There is not much room in the aisles.

It is not as far up TCR as I thought. It could justifiably be considered to be on my way home.

It is much better than their horrible website.

If I were them, I would have a "board guy" outside Virgin, to speed up the inevitable decline of said Megastore.

I wonder if the Glasgow FOPP has them for £5. Hopefully someone can report back on that next time they're in.

I bought a copy of Nuggets for my friend. It was £10 in the £5 section but £5 elsewhere which was a little odd.

I have mixed feelings about the new TCR FOPP. One on hand, I love how its giving the big two fingers to said sad Megastore, a sort of "Look, this is how its done, losers!", yet I kind of miss how four or five years ago, that solitary store @ Cambridge Circus was the best kept secret in town.

Maybe I'm worried that once it does see off Virgin and the increasingly pathetic HMV, it'll abandon "stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap" and adopt the "stack 'em high and sell 'em expensive" policy of those stores.

I found it hard to find the new releases section!

A friend of mine works there and he admitted that some of the stock is in odd places because they didn't know where else to put it, while on other occasions things had been classified oddly.

Still, that's half the fun.

PS I'm quite taken with the MVE basement!

Irmin Schmidt - Soundtracks 3xCD £7 - bargain? Or the krautrock equivalent of Prince's Emancipation?

Amazing Grace is £7 in glasgow.

got Nuggets for a fiver (am not convinced of its greatness, was expecting Psychedelia and got a lot of people trying to be the Beatles, Stones or Dylan). also bought Leonard Cohen (one of his cds anyway).

not always, no. and the thing they were trying to be was merseybeat era beatles. (track i'm thinking of is Knickerbockers : 'Lies')

WTF??

We could have a TCR Fopp FAP!

Edinburgh Fopp no longer serves beer. It was a rubbish idea.

Ooh! I want this. OK I know where I'm going tomorrow lunchtime.

New Rotary Connection: Hey Love (vinyl)
Mia Doi Todd: Manzanita
Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man: Out of Season
Yves Montand: Car J T'aime
La Jetée/Sans Soleil (dvd)

filed under 'dance'? 'pop'? 'indie'?

filed under £5. but dance too i thnk.

I still haven't really touched on the classical and jazz sections.

i got der knife too!

I was only in Fopp for about 10 mins though cos I had to go to the post office & bank first and used up most of my lunch hour doing that. I did see a whole load of other great albums for a fiver though, such as Peter Hammill's Nadir's Big Chance & Overkill by Motorhead.

Metalheads may also be interested in Black Metal by Venom for £1!!!! Pity I just bought the fucking thing from Sister Ray for £5.99, dammit.

Also the Taxi comp on Pressure Sounds for £3, and that Waylon Jennings twofer fer three too.

Plus a dodgy-as-hell Toby Keith LP for a fiver, but you don't want to know about that.

(The Horace Andy CD which they have tons of for £1, "You Are My Angel", ia a real winner by the way, one of his very best. Also aces is the Joe Gibbs comp called "The Reggae Train" and that's only £3. (The latter is an LP which I strongly suspect Mark E Smith of owning: within a couple of years of its release The Fall had covered "People Grudgeful" and "Kimble". What a great record.) I don't have that Blak Twang LP and don't much fancy it.)

The one I bought last night was a Trojan reissue of two old comps ("Jackpot of Hits - Explosive Rocksteady" and another with a similar name) and looks nasty and cheap, so suits me very well.

I like Hey Love if New Rotary Connection is the same as old Rotary Connection.

I think Car means But.

Toby Keith looks a bit "squeal, piggy, squeal" to me.

(Start by downloading the marvellous "As Good As I Once Was".)

(By my previous post, I meant "he sounds even more "squeal piggy squeal" than he looks" but that mayn't have been clear.)

Attention everyone else: Joe Meek Portrait of a Legend 4 CD boxset @ 10 pounds.

The Joe Meek box is an absolute must at £10. I think I paid about 17 on Amazon a while back. You haven't lived until you've heard JM sing on the Telstar demo. The booklet is absolutely amazing too.

Did find a "Primal Scream Live" CD for a tenner, jap import. (Recentish, has Autobahn 66 on it).

I didn't get it, but isn't someone here a PS nut?

They have a lot of nice jazz compilations going for three quid, as lonmg as you don't mind them being called Legends of Acid Jazz or Heroes of the Hammond.

Guess I'll have to keep walking over to the further end of town, lunchtimes...

or i could stick to buying 10p cd singles off ebay...

Best of Syd Barrett 3.97 in Music Zone. Dafty here paid much more.

Good old Napster of olden times, I say.

Who has the Rolling Stones "classic 60s recordings" cheapest? 7.97 is pushing it a bit at Music Zone.

I may venture into Reading tomorrow morning, with my daughter.

...and all I went there for was a field guide to mushrooms.

Better check the Reading one.

a day in mourning/celebration for Tower Records perhaps ?

but i could have got last year's time out film guide for a tenner, which i will do, at some point.

Output is gone...

- most of the Output Recordings catalogue is now a £3 special !

£3 and a bargain!

FOPP BUY 67 MUSIC ZONE STORES
Well, a bit of good news from the world of music retail. Glasgow based Fopp yesterday announced it was buying 67 of the stores formerly owned by its rival Music Zone, making them, over night, the biggest independent music retailer in the UK.

As previously reported, Music Zone went into administration earlier this year, and formally closed down the whole of its 100+ chain on 25 Jan after a buyer for the company could not be found. Fopp will now take on 67 of Music Zone's stores, saving some 775 jobs that had been lost when Music Zone ceased trading. The deal sees Fopp triple the size of its UK wide empire, going from 35 stores to over 100.

Confirming the deal, Music Zone's administrator, Bill Dawson of Deloitte, told reporters: "We are pleased with the disposal to Fopp, and wish them every success in the future. This represents a much better outcome for creditors and other stakeholders than a piecemeal disposal".

source:
http://www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk/daily/index.html

Fopp previously had 35 stores + 67 acquired Music Zone store locations = 102 stores

Fopp Shops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fopp_%28retailer%29

if Fopp can have shops in smaller towns such as Andover, Bedford, Horsham why not Maidenhead?

46 + 67 = 113 stores

If there isn't a Fopp Shop already there = likely to become a Fopp

I think Fopp have their admin offices above the Chiswick branch. Not sure if that makes it more or less likely that they will relocate.

= more work for the Sign Makers !

There's a very shut MVC here.

Guess it's not going to be a Fopp in the next 3 days.

Maidenhead = small town, hip motherfucker population = 1 (me)

Hang on, I'm forgetting to factor in DVD sales.

Where's my board rubber?

Maidenhead = small town, DVD buying population = several million, including Rolf Harris and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

QED. I shall start camping out now.

They are going to get so sick of me.

The main reason I didn't think they would come is because there is already a Fopp in Reading, which is "just down the road".

That bird with the dyed red hair in the TCR shop is a bit arsey when you take stuff back under the popular "suck it and see" policy.

Today, seen and/or bought!

The Sly/Family Stone remasters = £5

Also, Metal Machine Music = £5

go deh!

Gah, this thread always resurfaces when I have £0.00

The Maidenhead Music Zone/Fopp hybrid has now closed completely.

I would like SHUT IT! for a pound.

ah right, won't go to Maidenhead then.

I'll be visiting the Fopp in Charing cross on Friday. What's good in there at the mo?

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy (£5).

I don't know if that's a good deal, but I might get it if it's still there next time I go in.

Um, today is Friday...

I meant friday next week.

>> The Dictators Go Girl Crazy (£5).

It is. Get it. I know I will next week!

I wouldn't bother with their other albums though (Bloodbrothers isn't bad but not great either).

Exeter's Musiczone is definitely becoming a Fopp; all the POS stuff has changed, the price points, the silly genre sections, etcetera, just not the sign above the door yet.

:'( Couldn't find Dictators CD in TCR Fopp...

I might have been hallucinating. I hallucinated it on their PUNK display rack though. Perhaps it was THE DEAD BOYS.

I have checked though and you can get it for very cheap off the internet if you don't mind waiting for it to come from the colonies.

Colonel PoOTM

They do have Dead Boys - We Have Come For Your Children CD for a fiver.

Maybe it was on the New York/London wall by the vinyl - there was an empty shelf near Ramones/NY Dolls - could have been there.

Not remotely in the same league as "Go Girl Crazy" however (or even "Young, Loud and Snotty")

Younger, Louder and Snottier is best.

No Dictators CDs available from online Fopp.

I must have been wrong then.

The really cheap one has gone from here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00000253W/ref=dp_olp_2/026-3945335-0330023?ie=UTF8&qid=1180709618&sr=1-1

I just bought it off Ebay for £4.91 inc shipping! Hurrah for saving 9p!

If you look after the pennies...

I wonder if Mark got anything on Friday.

Heh!

No, I had bought more than enuff the previous week.

I did buy the Joe Strummer 'mix' CD, and actually it's fine indeed. But oh NoE!! full price! What am I, mad?

The odd full price purchase does the constitution good.

The Donnas' "Gold Medal" for £3 a week or so ago. Strange because there was an identical copy behind it in the racks for £11. It's OK, but doesn't sound as good as "Spend The Night" to me.

"The odd full price purchase does the constitution good."

Right up to the point where you see the same item available at half the price you just paid.

Nirvana Live Tonight Sold Out DVD for a fiver.

Suicide Why Be Blue and A Way of Life for four pounds each.

This was in Reading. There is a "sale".

The "sale" is rubbish

They've had those Suicide ones for ages.

I got the first two fora fiver each. The first is U&K, the second is ok for the price, those two I dunno.

Robbie Williams mad Rudebox album : £3 (and i'm loving it !)
Prince - 3121 : £3 (not in the mood for this yet - too busy laughing to Robbie)
Emma Bunton - Life in Mono : £3 (filed for a mellow day)
Adam and the Ants boxset : £15 - very tempted by this i have to say ..

hurray for stock clearances

Yeah, tempted by that Robbie one. The Emma, the kids'd go for. Maybe that antbox. Prince? Still haven't got to that "Emancipation" boxset I got for £3 from Fopp back whenever.

Emmas album is very laid back, 60s styled pop music and rather nice, if a little cheesy, perfect for when your ears need some light easy listening relief, whereas Robbies album is hilarious/offensive - easily worth the 3 coins for the sheer 'WTF!' factor, and the Pet Shop Boys tracks are gorgeous.
still not spun the Prince one ..

I never understood the criticism that album got which seemed seperate from the usual Williams hate, as if it was much worse than his other albums. It's probably his most interesting record. He did release the absolute worst choice as first single though, that didn't help.

Marketing people should pick up on this generally; there are some albums which you wouldn't mind buying for three quid but would shirk at paying full price or even the £10/11/12 Fopp new release price template, and I think both Rudebox and Life In Mono fit into that category very easily. They probably would have ended up selling more copies as well.

Indeed, if Fopp sales qualified for the chart, Rob'd be outselling TakeThat now.

Fopp going into liquidation rumours, anyone?

Overstretch?

HMV are having a bit of a DVD chuckout sale: MIB box (2 films, 4 discs) £3.

They said they had Clockwork Orange for £3 also, but I found none save the £10 ones.

Fopp going into liquidation rumours, anyone?

just came on to post this too - cheap stuff, even cheaper!

According to someone on the DiS boards there are three current theories amongst staff:

* closing down all but the top 40 performing stores.
* someone is buying out the bigger ones and they're closing down the smaller ones
* closing all of them

However:

But a girl who works in Fopp Truro just rang my boyfriend, who sells his band's CDs in there, to tell him to come and pick them up cos they're closing down! So from the horse's mouth, Fopp = dead...

Some other quotes/speculation:

someone on my other forum who has connections in the music world: "I'm being told by more than one source that Fopp have gone bust after being cut off by their distributors. It seems all stores are closed today."

someone else says "There are reports saying it's all one big stock take but it seems unlikely. Apparently they will all be open for trade again tomorrow."

A friend of mine who is in the music retail business in Scotland has given a pretty full picture of this but remember that NONE OF THIS IS CONFIRMED. It seems that Fopp wanted to buy Music Zone for a while knowing that they were in trouble. They waited until Music Zone went bust so that they would get all the stock cheap - the bust "Music Zone" being the debtor rather than the newly formed "MZ 2007" set up by Fopp. The distributors disagreed and billed Fopp for stock not yet paid up by Music Zone, claiming that Fopp were now responsible for all debts. Fopp refused to pay. The distributors cut Fopp off, refusing them restocks and new releases. It is being reported that they declared voluntary bankruptcy yesterday.

I'm now hearing that the company's auditors were instructed to undertake an immediate full stocktake as a consequnce of the ongoing dispute over Music Zone's stocks and that all stores are expected to be open tomorrow. Whether or not they are bankrupt is not yet confirmed.

This is a bit sad, I feel like me and Fopp grew up together!

... still down there tomorrow to pick over the corpse! Luvvly!

I feel obliged to say:

Noooo... THEY BE TAKING MY FOPP AWAY!!!!

"Monsieur Fopp, Monsieur Fopp
Is it true what mummy says
You won't come back
Oh no-oh no-oh no"

i know fopp is dead - long live fopp!