record shopping in london

xpost with Koogy - I need to look up whatcha talkin' about...

Of course, all of this is silly talk, as demonstrated by my dithering over whether to bulk up my M&S lunch to £2.30 by buying some crisps. Difficult decision, but the overdraft can just suck it up - they're handcooked, you muppets.

Has anyone been to the clearance sale at Rough Trade, Neals Yard? If so, any good bargains to be had?

Rough Trade West now has a second hand vinyl basement. Don't fucking bother, the prices are ludicrous, go to Intoxica instead (which is what I just did).

whenever i'm in the area i go into rough trade east with the best of vinyl intentions, and invariably leave empty handed. fuck right off with your £20+ lps.

Can never work out how RT get away with charging what they do (for everything, not just vinyl) and not going bust.

I knew it was going to be a waste of time when I saw the bargain bin was £5.

They were charging £20+ for records you can easily find for £5.

where are the best places for second hand vinyl nowadays? i quite like kristina but it's a bit on the expensive side itself, albeit generally not for things that you're going to find with ease elsewhere, but most of my vinyl purchasing ends up happening in the kingsland road oxfam.

Rough-trade used vinyl basement is a joke.. Even the 'sale' section in the main shop is overpriced...

Walk a bit further up and check out Honest Jons for cheap new vinyl..

I have been enjoying going to the main Notting Hill Record & Tape Exchange, unfashionably enough. I am mostly buying really cheap second hand 70s country vinyl these days, which as far as I can tell no-one else in the world cares about.

South-East London record hunting safari can be rewarding once in a while - I am putting this here even though I realise most of you won't consider these to be London at all. BUT:

- Rolling Records by West Wickham station is expensive but has quite a surprising selection of 70s stuff, and there always seems to be a soul record there I can't resist.

- Wanted Music in Beckenham is a proper, old-fashioned record store like they used to be - there's always something I want to buy and the dirty cheap section in the front of the shop does me proud.

I'm going to Notting Hill MVE this lunchtime as I leave this job tomorrow (at Kensington High St). They seem to have slowed down the price reduction thing, at least it seems I don't go in for a couple of months and everything I had my eye on is the same price.

Ach, missed yer.

So, MVE Camden is shut. kind of saw it coming, reducing the stock pretty quickly. Sad to see it go, when I lived in Kentish Town I the cheap CDs and Vinyl used to really cheer me up. On another tip can Rough Trade East get any worse? It's like they don't know what to do with the shop at all, and it's so expensive. Sad really when I think about how the Covent Garden shop shaped my musical tastes about 10 years ago.

It's like they don't know what to do with the shop at all

do you mean in terms of their stock? it has felt to me like they're trying to cover everything and the result is having a really random or shallow collection of stuff. it makes going with specific things in mind feel pointless. and yeah, then if you do find something it's like £18 for a single lp.

I was interested to note that the Clarks concession in RT East had gone last time I was in (I don't go very often anymore because I no longer work in the area). Assuming they are trying to turn the place into a kind of Alternative Selfridges with lots of concessions, Clarks always seemed a strange fit, but then it's not clear to me who the good fit would be.

I wouldn't be amazed to see the cafe part growing in proportion to the record shop part, getting more booze in, getting more involved in the "night-time economy" and less dependent on selling records.

The Gap started as a record shop.

Yeah, I'm moving out of the area, workwise, so making my last easy visits to MVE, RTE, Intox etc.

The Gap started as a record shop.

I had no idea! Did they stop selling records early on in their history?

(Also hi Tracer, we need to meet for a beer soon.)

xp yeah I did all those before I stopped working in Kensington - ah as documented on this very thread in fact.

Now I work in Battersea where there are no record shops at all. Probably just as well really, can't afford any at the moment.

where is actually still good? i brought my decks over from dublin recently, first time in 4.5 years being able to play vinyl

i mean for pretty much any type of music... not just house/techno.

I miss stumbling across random places, like Stevie's Sounds or that clammy, labyrinthine shop in Rupert St or the inexplicable punk music shop that sprung up off Bayham St in Camden.

You mean "Cheapos" in Rupert Street? When did that shut and why wasn't I informed at the time?

I don't think anywhere's amazing, really. I still enjoy trawling the dear old Record and Tape Exchanges, Honest Jon's is pretty good but could be cheaper, I quite like Flashback on Essex Road (and I am sure there is good stuff in Haggle but I can't stand being in the place). Wanted in Beckenham, as mentioned above, is a good old-fashioned record shop. the Soul Jazz shop in Soho is always good for a browse. Past those, most places seem to think they're doing you a favour by charging you £18 for an LP.

Oh I like the really skrunky soul / reggae shop down that side-road in Dalston, but I can't remember what it's called.

What makes me craziest is the prices most Oxfams charge for their records, but that's another story entirely.

xpost Cheapos went a couple of years back. My wife certainly wasn't sorry to see it go. I was in two minds.

Yep, It's been shut - I think - for at least a couple of years, I didn't venture in there too often cause it was reeeeealy cramped, I loved the fact that the further into the shop you ventured the more random it became with huge piles of promos stacked up holus bolus.

X -Post

The people who run Kristina records in Dalston seem like they have their hearts in the right place but it all seems a bit... curated. I miss big random piles of stuff to search through.

Some of the people who worked in Cheapos were genuinely dreadful, is the other thing.

That's what I loved about Stevie's (or was it Steve's) that random 3 for a tenner CD crates. with loads of random shit that they didn't care about or know how to price.

I think Cheapo's carried the wretchedness of Rupert St and it's denizens right inside.

It was a shame to lose Second Layer but at least you can still pick up records from the owner in person if you order online.

How is Rat Records in Camberwell?

Any other off the beaten track recommendation for picking up second-hand vinyl?

I'll offer up Alan's Records in East Finchley: http://www.alansrecords.com/page2.html

I love that place.

Haggle is worth a visit heard good things about Rat but never been in

Agree on the curated feeling of Kristina though that might be because they're kind of new

Rat's alright; I wouldn't make a trip specially (but then I live not to far away). They tend to price sensibly, which is a blessed relief.

I've never been to Alan's! Maybe I will.

Last rites time for what used to be DADA in Chiswick. It briefly shut in the early summer for a few weeks then reopened (officially nameless) just to clear as much stock as possible. Now discounting. As soon as they've got rid of as much as they can, will be closing for good.

Just went to Flashback. They've got a new, rather good new vinyl section. I picked up that Uncle Acid LP, plus a Pavement record.

went west for the first time earlier this week and it puts the east and centre to SHAME, intoxica has a really interesting selection (seems that it's on the verge of closing down, though), and honest jons, shiiit i could've spent thousands there without even touching the reggae and funk, which i wasn't expecting. i had to force myself to stop looking because i'd already gone way over the budget i'd set myself. (forgot that rough trade west was around there too, but i imagine they just bring the tone of the area down.)

while central i also bought a couple of records from sister ray and they seriously oversell their vinyl gradings. which i guess is pretty evident when their grubby dog-eared sleeves are apparently near mind.

As well as being awesome, Honest Jon's is also cheaper than everyone else for most of the stuff they stock.

yeah, having the usual london prices in mind was making everything that much more tempting.

sorry to hear abt intoxica's impending demise, gd shop gd ppl

Is anywhere selling new vinyl for reasonable prices these days? I spoke to someone at Rough Trade and he gave me the impression that the labels set the prices (£35 for the new Paul Weller LP!) and that even he thought that new vinyl prices had gotten crazy, squeezing a small constituency of affluent fanboys. It seems to vary depending on label/genre/artist but even the Hot Chip album, which I really want, is north of £20 which is silly to me.

Flashback in Crouch End sells new vinyl albums for £14.99. Not ideal, but at the moment it's probably as cheap as you're going to find.

Didn't know about Intoxica! It IS a shame but let's face it, in this day and age nobody can afford the prices they were asking, except maybe Paul Weller.

Because the LP is the 'deluxe' edition, the CD the cheapie, and the d/l the 'workingmans' format,

the pricing dictates itself.

Although, the last time LPs were sold en-masse, the quality of the pressing(s) were cut to the bone to allow a 'healthy' profit (I remember how bad the "Different Class" pressing used to be)

I'm not so sure about the pricing dictating itself. I look in half these shops and think: I'm not paying YOUR rent (which with these inflated prices is essentially what you're doing; cf. Amazon etc.).

Clarifying: "The pricing dictates itself" as in "what the market can stand"...

e.g. I bought a nice Kinks box set of "Pye albums", fashioned so that each disc was a 'facsimile' of the album's release somewhere in the world (Sweden, UK, spain, yadda etc), and it was priced usually around £25 or so.

Compare that to the recent "mono" box set, ostensibly the same albums but a 'nicer' box, a booklet and other things, and people were prepared to pay £64

It's like the Savages; the people who buy their new 12" won't be their fans, but Al Murray Pub Landlord types who will try to flog it for £300 on eBay one hour later.

That's the depressing thing - witness the price of the Massive Attack vs Burial 12" now. Mostly snapped up by hustlers.