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

surprised to see so much vinyl in the Union Street one today (dunno when the last time I was in was), v surprised to see that a good deal of it was classic blues and jazz (Muddy Waters, Sonny Rollins, early Coltrane) on vinyl at ridiculously low prices - a lot at £8, some even at £3. What's the deal with them? Are 'Studio Media' and 'Vinylogy.ru' (maybe there were others too) perhaps not the most legit of labels?

is the Bob Stanley book good? I was already buying Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture today and one big fat book was enough for now, but I may pop back in on Thursday...

They've been doing the cheaper jazz vinyl for a while. That's what I remember Fopp being great for back in the mid to late 90s. They seem to have got some new stuff in, but I didn't know about the £3 stuff. Getting in aboot that.
Only dipped into the Bob Stanley, but it looks great. I've always liked his writing and the scope of it is fantastic.

Isn't it just the sad truth that large swathes of the jazz back catalogue are p much worthless, these days - certainly on CD - and lots of it is now out of copyright in britain, so w/ no royalties to pay, i guess it's possible to punt out blue note etc albs p cheaply - only way to sell em (obv this is no comment on their quality)

and the bob stanley bk is at least worth £3 i wld say

I don't think so, no (it's such a hefty tome it wld prob cost more than £3 to post it to you). Maybe HMV will get cheap copies, too (in my experience most music books published by Faber tend to get remaindered)?

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, June 17, 2014 2:21 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks for response. a new branch of HMV just opened in Galway almost directly opposite where it used to be before the company went under. They have some interesting stuff in but I haven't seen any books yet. Hope it's early days and this will appear. The old shop used to have a load of books turning up at considerably cut price.

Fopp Union street had a good chunk of the Greil Marcus back catalogue in - Mystery Train et al £3, Lipstick Traces at £5. No In The Fascist Bathroom though (I've got it, but it's got some of his sharpest stuff. Deserves to be more widely available).

got the Bob Stanley book and read the first few chapters on the train down, v pleased I made the purchase. Makes me want to listen to everything he praises, even the songs I've heard hundreds of times as sonic wallpaper.

The Bob Stanley book is good, yes. I am surprised it is so cheap so quickly. Ditto The Beatles book, I suppose. OK, ditto all books.

I got the Beck Odelay deluxe for a fiver (from Fnac, not Fopp) and it has one of those Aphex Twin pisstake mixes on it. It is not worth the while, the deluxe edition, I don't think.

I also got McCartney and McCartney II for a fiver each, in their 2CD versions. The packaging is very nice, and there are live tracks from Glasgow 1979, which must have been the bizz.

Those big Faber paperback first editions tend to end up in Fopp after a few months. A more compact second edition should be along soon enough.
Might grab Macca II. The extra tracks are glorious - all his bonged out wonky Kratfwerk jams like Secret Friend and the amazing Lee Perry does the Grange Hill theme of Check My Machine...

Fresh copies of the Beatles book in Fopp Union St today

thank you, got mine

Moderat II. FOPP Covent Garden. One of your English pounds. Result.

Great record, great price. I know it's not as good as it used to be, but I still miss having a Fopp conveniently nearby. It's not worth a trip to Edinburgh or Glasgow just to have a look.

Yeah, it seems the days of some box-set overstock being sold off for £5 are long gone

agreed.
also, the one in Bristol now sells standard catalogue stuff.
very rare that they get anything of interest in these days.

This is £15 in the Covent Garden branch:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fran%C3%A7ois-Truffaut-Collection-DVD/dp/B00OP9CPUA/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1437135806&sr=1-4&keywords=truffaut

Half the stock had £15, the other half had £25 so idk if it's a mistake but who cares?

has been on my amazon wishlist for months. (it's currently £30 on marketplace, £45 direct from amz)

Score! Was £15, as was the other 5 DVD box with 400 blows in it. They had 3 left. (The BRs were 25 quid, hence the possible confusion)

Yeah, was in Fopp in Glasgow today and they had the Artifical Eye Truffauts in various combos of cheap. Also, a set of five early Bergman films for a £10. AE product normally ends up p cheap in Fopp. There were lots of cheap Soda DVDs, lots of gd world cinema stuff on that label - I bought Play, Barbara, Bleak Moments and Wadjda at £3 each

Picked up that Truffaut box myself today.

Got a book I hadn't seen before on psych folk called Seasons They Change as part of their two for a fiver book set. I paired it with All You Nned To Know About The Music Business, but also on offer were The Copendium, and Wire, GoF, REM and Morrissey biogs.

hadn't realised that the basement of the one near leicester square was full of dvds, and more importantly, at usually the same prices they were when they were on display upstairs. this could be ruinous.

london trilogy, those 3 films for st etienne, was £3 (with another purchase)
robin redbreast (as mentioned in the sapphire and steel thread) also £3 with another purchase.

the £3-5 cds seem to have disappeared from the ground floor though, was almost all books and dvds and new music. (they might be upstairs)

those truffaut dvd boxes are £12 for christmas (covent garden)

LOTS of other decent cheap dvds in there this afternoon (read artifical eye, bfi, masters of cinema etc) and books. could've spent £50 without thinking on things that'd sit unwatched for months, like the last batch. books too.

virtually no cheap cds on the ground floor though (the newish vinyl they are selling takes up 4x the shelf space of a cd).

the cheap cd thing at fopp has dropped off a cliff these days.
they dont even have the random trade-in shelves.
however today the one in bristol had a pile of madonnas 'rebel heart' (non-deluxe version) for £3.
i'd say that's a pretty swift fall from grace for such a big album.

Thesedays, if I happen to be in London I usually drop in but I end up having to force myself to buy a couple of £5 CDs or books, mainly because I won't be in for the forseeable. It's usually not worth it.

It's usually not worth it.

this.

its just standard catalogue stuff now, nothing of interest i.e. i miss the randomness of their offers before.

The downstairs at Fopp in Glasgow Union St has removed a lot of DVD/blu racks to make way for the vinyls - I guess that's where the money is. They still occasionally have a cheap DVD label sale - Arrow, Artificial Eye, BFI, Masters of Cinema etc - and I enjoyed some of those jazz/soul/funk Japanese import CDs they were punting out at £3 a pop.

Their remainder books are the best and cheapest in Glasgow (as opposed to The Works, admittedly) and still throw up the odd bargain.

same in bristol ..
lots more space dedicated to £20+ represses of generic catalogue stuff.

I thought it was still ok at Xmas, even wished I'd had more money on me and had more time to spend in there.
So is this a development since then?
That'd be the Cambridge Circus branch so are they all bad?

Glasgow Union St Fopp - Decca/DG 20th Century composer CD series at £3 a pop (£4 for doubles) - I picked up Xenakis, Cage (played by John Tilbury), Carter and Reich - they didn't have the Stockhausen one, but might go back for some of the others

Thanks for the tip, I've just cleaned out the Covent Garden branch.

Is the Covent Garden shop otherwise naff now?
JUst was surprised to hear it had gone downhill by last month.

Are any of them any good?

I only get to visit about once a year and have found a lot of decent stuff over the years.
Still had a lot of things i would have picked up had i had the money back in january.

Lots of Shameless and Arrow DVDs for £3 and a few of the excellent Arrow Blu-Rays for £6 in the Halloween sale.

Also lots of BFI DVDs and Blu-Rays cheaper than on Amazon

oh cool - those arrow blu-ray packages are great, i'll need to nip down to fopp and see if i can pick up a few i haven't already snagged

Back to the original statement..

I have to say, that "Close to the noise floor" looks like an excellent compilation, and eBay has it for £22 or thereabouts, but I have one massive backlog, so if I saw it in fopp for a tenner, then yeah. Otherwise, I can wait..

Was gonna say (well, I did but it didn't save)

I did make it to Fopp in Covgrdn last week, drove right in and parked nearby (just to show I still got it)..

I got the bfi remaster of Psychomania, you may have seen the thread revive recently (UNDEAD THREAD!! .. ahem)

Anyhow, the price ticket was "£12, or two for £25". How does that work?

Shin Godzilla (2016 Japanese reboot) on DVD for a fiver (2 DVDs, Japanese and English versions, not sure how different they are beyond the audio)

Lady Snowblood for £6, 2 films in both DVD and Blu-ray formats.

(Saved me about 4 quid over Amazon prices)

End of a landmark

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47130390

Saved

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47177001

Anyone clocked if the Oxford branch is open/has been saved?

(Oh, it's still closed).

Is something happening to Fopp/HMV? I've been in recently twice and there was like 5 new releases they didn't have which are definitely out now. Like Arrow, Second Run, 88 Films stuff that they usually get. Have some labels said theyre not really benefitting from stores anymore. Feels ominous to me.

Yes

I should have mentioned I've heard about the many store closures but it seems like there might be extra troubles when they seem to not be getting some new releases you could normally rely on.

The store closures are due to massive financial troubles. Lack of money, credit and staff can affect a shop's ability to order new stock.

They weren't getting any new stock while they were between owners. And now I think their new owner is generally more invested in vinyl than blu-ray or DVD or CD. Shame they never seem to have sales on Indicator product, or Eureka/MOC.

Westfield branch of HMV has been left exactly as it was when it closed the day before HMV went into administration. All the stock is still sitting there on the shop floor and there are screens still on at the back, some playing videos. So weird. It’s possible the new owners are negotiating with the landlord so they can reopen the branch at some point, but dudes: mind that electricity bill.