Does anyone still shop at HMV?

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The rest of you lot will also be old someday. If you are lucky.

― henry s, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Oh I guess i'm old too. (34) Just not old enough to remember record shops opening in Glasgow.
I did buy Madness 7"s from Woolies in Hamilton when i was about 7 or 8 before we moved to Prestwick(via EK again)

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

"All I can say about the Virgin Megastore in Tottenham Court Road is that it acts as a useful shortcut if you want to avoid the crowds around the tube station entrance.

Marcello Carlin on Thursday, 15 March 2007 16:45 (13 minutes ago)"

I popped in there t'other week to use the handy free toilets in the basement (the other useful aspect of the Megastore, besides the tube-crowd-avoidance aspect) and I was really surprised to see that the whole basement area (apart from the crappy cafe bit) has now been let out to some musical instrument shop! Looks like they too are in a (deservedly) dire situation, too!

― M Carty, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

One too many too's at the end there, but you get my meaning.

― M Carty, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

It's only a matter of time till the basement's blocked off and sold to a budget clothing store, accessible only from Oxford Street. Then they'll close the top floor (jazz and classical). Give it 5 years, Virgin and HMV shops won't exist any more, you mark my words.

Is this the thread for a CD's vs. downloads discussion, or are there millions of them elsewhere on ILM already?

― Matt #2, Thursday, 15 March 2007 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

Probably loads but you may as well do it here

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 15 March 2007 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

an RIP thread always pops up when a beloved record shop shutters it's doors...

― henry s, Thursday, 15 March 2007 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

"i just got a £20 hmv voucher. but where oh where can i spend it?! :("

Waterstones.

― jed_, Thursday, 15 March 2007 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

And of course LOUIS to thread.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 18 March 2007 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

YEAH I KNOW

fucking Biffy Clyro-recommending floor-manager FUCK YOU

― unfished business, Sunday, 18 March 2007 01:53 (nineteen years ago)

Now you and marcello have some hate in common!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 18 March 2007 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

Town I live in, town I went to school in and record shop I work in all mentioned on this thread. Too close to home, ilm. Too close.

― jim, Sunday, 18 March 2007 02:26 (nineteen years ago)

marcello and i share quite a lot, we're two of the bigger pulp fans on this site for a start!

― unfished business, Sunday, 18 March 2007 02:37 (nineteen years ago)

has anyone ever seen you two together in a room at the same time?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

Doing what?

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:13 (nineteen years ago)

Listening to Pulp probably.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

I was in Muswell Hill on Saturday. One of the Cancer Research shops (strangely, there are two there) has a cassette of Thick As A Brick with the tape completely snapped and mangled. A bargain at £1 I think you'll agree, though clearly I did not take advantage of the generous offer.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:19 (nineteen years ago)

BUT IT'S FOR A GOOD CAUSE!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

SO IS 500 BASTARD MILES BY THE BASTARD PROCLAIMERS FEATURING PETER BASTARD KAY AND BASTARD LITTLE BRITAIN!!!!!!!!

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't heard that.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

I'll email you it

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

One of the Muswell Hill Cancer Research shops has had a copy of Paranoid by the Dickies in the window for ages, I wouldn't mind having that single, but it's £5! And sitting in the window for months is hardly likely to do it much good. That shop is always overpriced for vinyl though - they must price everything as if it's mint. The Oxfam round the corner is usually better priced but only has your usual charity shop rubbish unfortunately. I've got some good stuff for v cheap from the shop round by Sainsburys but I forget what charity that is!

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

North London Hospice

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

That's it, I thought it was North London something. They do 7"s for 50p and LPs for £1-2 there.

I got an early Pavement flexi from the Sue Ryder shop for 20p a couple of years ago, but they haven't had anything much since then.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

Sue Ryder shops are as a rule pretty rubbish for music. Best ones are in Crouch End and Euston.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't been in once for YEARS. Maybe I should pop in next time i'm down just incase there's something good.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Oh my good lord Marcello is RIGHT about the Oxford Street HMV!!! I went on a massive CD bender yesterday, starting at Piccadilly Circus (nothing was bought there owing to the disgraceful paucity of goodies at both HMV and Virgin), continued down Berwick Street (a little more fruitful), and finished at the Oxford Street HMV, which was some kinda Holy Grail. Jeez, it's an ENTIRELY different store to the other branches I've been to (excepting the prices). They have a quite absurd, exhaustive selection, including, for the first time in any store, independent or mainstream, FOETUS records. Yay!

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:51 (nineteen years ago)

This will show you my age (yet again) but I can remember much of my initial excitement about coming down to London in the eighties being down to things like going into the old WH Smith shop at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street and finding Foetus records in their racks. You wouldn't get that happening now.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

They have a pretty decent 7" section at Oxford St HMV. That's about the only thing I find it good for though, yeah they have a lot of stuff that's hard to find at average record stores but the prices are too high, I'd rather just get it from Amazon or Ebay. Or Sister Ray if they have it.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

Sister Ray is awesome, but VERY expensive. Except for the odd 'special offer', which is why I was able to buy Clearlake's latest album for 2.99 yesterday. Not listened to it yet; apparently Marcello is a fan, though, so...

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

Sister Ray has the Rough Trade disease of categoryitis. Maybe they do have the Scars CD buried in there somewhere under Post-Punk or Post-Punk Funk or Post-Funk Punk or Pre-Funk Punk Skunk Junk but, you know, A TO FUCKING Z AND THAT SHOULD BE THE END OF IT.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

Sister Ray's not expensive

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

... I mean the old Selectadisc

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

huh, well, I guess it seems expensive because of the higgledy-piggledy categorisation system (agreed, Marcello, it SUCKS big-time), which you'd expect to find at a cheap second-hand place, along with the CD-less cases. With '12.99' on them. It would be a much, much greater world we live in if everything there cost 7 or 8 quid.

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

The old Our Price in Hamilton used to stock Foetus cd's and tapes.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:14 (nineteen years ago)

I think I got a Foetus CD in a sale in that Oxford St. HMV - Jesus, what a disappointment, played it once

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

I got into Godflesh and The God Machine when that Our Price got the cd's in.
Infact most of my 18-25 years music was got via either that shop or Impulse or Missing Records in Glasgow.
Moving from Prestwick back to Lanarkshire at 18 then was just perfect.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

What some of the general Oxfam shops do is: find out how much an LP is worth, and price it accordingly.

Without checking the condition...

Mark G on Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:26 (1 week ago)

Not so - we do know what we're doing! (unlike some charity shops I admit) But then I work in one of the specialist books and music shop. We've just had a fantastic donation of 50s crooner stuff - maybe not everyone's cup of tea but it is original copies of early Andy Williams etc. Come to the Glasgow Victoria Road branch and lap it up!
There's always interesting stuff cropping up. This morning, while rummaging in the back shop, we found a Lene Lovitch cigarette case cassingle on Stiff, a bunch of vintage Elvis and Cliff. And a few weeks ago we got a bunch of Decca Dusty Springfield singles. Nice. Also,
Gavin Bryars LP - near mint! Roll up, roll up!

I've actually picked up some bargains in Oxfam music before. Kevin Ayers' Whatevershebringswesing for £3.99. Said it the vinyl was "scuffed". It's fine. Far from mint but it plays smoothly. Should be worth at least a tenner (£20 mint).

Relics (overpriced kitsch bric a brac and antiques store) in Glasgow is worth a gander as they don't give a fig about 7"s. So I got the Rutles picture sleeve Cheese & Onions/I Must Be In Love for £1. (I'll need to look it up but is probably worth a couple of quid more.) Their album pricing is highly inconsistent. They'll sell a gubbed Beatles album for £30 but a near mint original Capitol pressing of Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billy Joe for £4! (It's worth £18 mint). Result!

― Stew, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

But what is the truth behind the common perception that charity shop staff cherry pick the best of whatever comes in and just leaves out racks of Arrested Development and Mark Owen?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

*Coughs quietly*

Oxfam has a rule that if you want to buy something that's donated someone else in the shop must price it for you, so you can't just pick up something expensive and price it for a quid and buy it yourself.

But yeah, once I was working in the West Hampstead branch and someone donated a load of old punk/post punk records, that someone priced at 20p each and I immediately snapped the lot up for less than £2 - including a couple on Raw Records, "Bend and Flush" by the Pork Dukes, Rezillos, Saints etc. I'd always rifle through the music because we didn't usually sell records in that store, they'd get sent straight to Marylebone as we didn't have room.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Obviously we do get first dibs cos we're sorting the stuff, but as Colonel Poo says, you have to get a colleague to price it for you.
I doubt most volunteers could afford the expensive stuff anyway - best to leave it out for someone with money to burn.

― Stew, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

It's all a racket.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

But in a good cause

― Tom D., Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

Stew: I take your point totally! The local OxMus shop is excellent in this regard.

However, yr common/garden OxClosBricBrac shop, previously that'd sell "all LPs 50p" now ring up someone and/or check a valuation book without checking the condition...

And that BritHeartFound shop, forgetaboutit!

― Mark G, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

BritHeartFound shops are GREbT!

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Not the one in RG1

― Mark G, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

It's not like the back store is full of mint copies of The Heliocentric World of Sun Ra Vols 1-2 or Al Bowly 78s...

It's pretty much what you'd expect of any second hand store in Glasgow - lots of Jim Reeves, crap early 90s house 12"s, and numerous Rod Stewart and Simple Minds albums. With the odd decent, but hardly valuable thing in between.

― Stew, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

Ah yes, I forgot about the Jim Reeves factor.

There are several charity shops in London I could name whose back stores are full of mint copies of limited-edition hand-painted Saturn releases...

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

Where's sydney and fran and anna? Shops aren't complete without that in Scotland.
Max Bygraves and Des O'Connor elsewhere of course.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

I did mention Mr Devine some way up this thread. Arguably bigger in Hamilton and Bellshill than Glasgow as such.

Fran and Anna, though, bloody hell...

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

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