Record shops in London, UK

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Nesolagus
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Record shops in London, UK

Post by Nesolagus »

Looking for advice on record shops in London that carry used stuff. Pretty much any genre. But noisey preferred.

Where i'm from there are a few good shops. But the good stuff (used) is often gone within seconds online or very fast from the racks.

Book shops recommendations and other places to visit also welcome.
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33033
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by 33033 »

One of the places I did go to was Reckless Records on London which had a small section for noise/industrial. Lots of good stuff there. Some rare noise stuff as well for higher prices. Had an alright tape section too, but mainly metal and grindcore tapes.

All Ages is good but it’s primarily punk. Chatted with the owner and he doesn’t really do noise or anything but you might want to take a look. Super nice guy/shop.

Wanted to make to Cafe OTO but didn’t get the chance. Looks awesome though.

Also worth checking out, imo, is the Hunterian Museum. Go in blind. Just find the address and read nothing else.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by MuhSteve »

I would try Flashback in Islington, also Record & Tape (although now I think it is called Music & Video exchange) in Notting Hill Gate is worth a visit. There are also branches in Camden and SoHo. Reckless Records is in SoHo too ... Cafe OTO is worth a visit .. they sell beer too! Win Win.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by adult human »

MuhSteve wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 8:57 am I would try Flashback in Islington
They have other branches too, though I understand Islington is the big one. I have only been to the Shoreditch one but was pretty impressed with the selection of noisey and experimental things. Walked out with way more than I intended to, anyway.

Second Cafe OTO.

I think you're highly unlikely to find anywhere that has a really dedicated NOISE presence, however. Sad to think that we used to have stuff like Second Layer and Electric Knife that would be at the very top of this list if you'd have been asking a few years ago. The idea of walking into a brick and mortar shop in London and walking out with material from Tourette, Bloodyminded and The Rita is just non-existent now. If you wanted this experience you'd need to go to Hastings on one of the days that Pressing Matters is open. Entirely doable from London but it's a whole day out, really. Worth it for the surreal, fucked up magic of Hastings.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by Nesolagus »

Thanks! I'm aware of most of them and will check them out for sure. But didn't know which Flashback had the best. Might not have time for all three so your comments helped.

Special thanks for the Museum . I broke your advice and read a line or two about it. Not sure it's up my alley, but a very interesting recommendation. Might go anyway.

I never paid Second Layer a vist but did order from them online. Sad to see a place like that go.

Pressing Matters was on my radar but boss would not be in for the time. Unfortunately i'm not sure i have a whole day to spare this time with some plans already set. Had originally thought about PM/Hastings and Beachy Head one day. Anything else in Hastings you recommend? I'm thinking of the "magic of Hastings".

Again, thanks to all for the interesting comments and recommendations.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by MuhSteve »

Wow & Flutter in Hastings is worth a visit. Are you sure Steve isn't about, he would open for you (Pressing Matters) if you were visiting 'out of hours' etc. There are great s/hand record shops in Bexhill-On-Sea and Eastbourne (a short drive to Beachy Head), it really is with the effort and day out. Hastings ... Tibet drinks in The Crown.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by MuhSteve »

[quote="adult human" post_id=7984 time=1684428623 user_id=103]
[quote=MuhSteve post_id=7982 time=1684414639 user_id=337]
I would try Flashback in Islington
[/quote]

They have other branches too, though I understand Islington is the big one. I have only been to the Shoreditch one but was pretty impressed with the selection of noisey and experimental things. Walked out with way more than I intended to, anyway.

Always the way
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by adult human »

Nesolagus wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 4:59 pm
Pressing Matters was on my radar but boss would not be in for the time. Unfortunately i'm not sure i have a whole day to spare this time with some plans already set. Had originally thought about PM/Hastings and Beachy Head one day. Anything else in Hastings you recommend? I'm thinking of the "magic of Hastings".
It might be Steve isn't at the shop but it would be open. I'm sure the opening hours are listed on whatever online presence the place has. Agree with MuhSteve about Wow & Flutter too, worth a look. Yeah, you can often see David Tibet taking up a large table to himself during a busy weekend lunchtime poring over a stack of books like a daft cunt.

In terms of the magic of Hastings, I suppose you have to understand that the place truly embodies a very powerful, weird energy unique to Sussex and shit seaside towns. Really this is simply the result of Sussex being historically full of lunatics and lots of interesting things coming in and out via the sea, but it's also a lot to do with how slow gentrification has been there due to the relatively shit transport between there and Brighton or London. Not to say there isn't enough expensive coffee, craft beer, artisan bakeries and, well, record shops to constitute a good bit of middle class ruin but that stuff is absolutely wedged right in there amidst all the smack ridden chaos you'd expect of a badly maintained town that exists on summer tourism. It's very hard to describe really. You just feel it when you're there. The way that everything looks about 15 or 20 years behind anywhere else in the UK. The way the lurid seafront drips with 1970s faded UK beach glory. The way that everything is faded, fucked, in disrepair or the consequence of a strange, not fully formed idea. Everything being built into and alongside a giant hill. Shopfronts with a4 posters in comic sans boasting that they sell Faygo and Butane gas canisters. The bit near the crown where someone's garage window reveals 3 terrifying mannequins dressed in santa claus outfits. The anti-covid vaccine posters dotted around town insisting grass and ginger cures cancer. The posters next to those that tell you not to believe it and give you the address and photo of the guy who put them up. The old town is beautiful too, just really nice and picturesque. Some good places to drink there and up by where Steve's shop is.

Another important point is that where in London or places like Brighton you have a youthful subculture that is kind of cynically cool and connected to hip things, I think Hastings is a place where genuine outcasts and dweebs hang tough together because they have to. People who are actually off on their own outsider thing and not just dressing like it. They do not get to prat about in town doing tik tok vids and trying on well observed fashions or identities. Last time I was there there was a punk rock weekend in some central venue and the streets were flooded with real deal 16 year old dorks in denim and patches and mohawks and it actually seemed like it was what that stuff was meant to be like. Tasteless freaks listening to absolute shite and getting wrecked on sickening flavoured vodka and cider rather than beautiful boys born in nice neighbourhoods buying vintage slacks and Void patches via eBay and forming hyper focused genre music tribute bands to some sub-sub-sub classification of punk rock they weren't born in the same time or country as. No Singing in cockney accents about street violence or class war youve never experienced in Hastings. I wound up at a fucking open mic comedy night in some pub and it seemed like it was all just the one group of loser maters who grew up there getting up and absolutely bombing all night. One of them was a Juggalo in all the Psychopathic Records gear. I saw him the next day on a Palestine solidarity stand in town, in different Psychopathic records gear. You probably need to go to the True Crime museum too - a kind of low budget london dungeons style thing that begins with a bit of local gruesome history but quickly runs out of things to say about that so winds up just showing you cabinets of prison weapons and large lo-res photos of celebrity mugshots.

I don't know if this sells it but it's one of my favourite places in the world. I try to visit often in the sunny weather when things actually happen outside of Thur-Sun. Me and the Mrs like to do a holiday there for a couple of nights in a cheap, dilapidated hotel on the seafront. I dunno if any of this is a sell. Steve's shop is more than enough reason to go. But the genuinely broken eccentricity of the place in a country so totally monotone and commercially homogenous is, to me, a source of something very precious.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

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Any adult bookstores in London that would still carry old magazines? I know Rambooks but it is open only on Tuesdays and Fridays (I will arrive on Friday and leave Tuesday morning). Mainly interested in '90s magazines like Club International, Score, Swank, Fox, Big Ones, etc and also those sturdy smaller magazines like Pleasure, Busen, Lesbian Love and such.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by APPLE »

moozz wrote: Mon May 22, 2023 2:06 pm Any adult bookstores in London that would still carry old magazines? I know Rambooks but it is open only on Tuesdays and Fridays (I will arrive on Friday and leave Tuesday morning). Mainly interested in '90s magazines like Club International, Score, Swank, Fox, Big Ones, etc and also those sturdy smaller magazines like Pleasure, Busen, Lesbian Love and such.
I would think that Soho still has several of these places. I couldn't give you names of specific shops or tell you about those titles though.

Music Video Exchange, Flashback and Reckless are all in Soho too.

All Ages in Camden may turn up some second hand noise - I found some Turgid Animal 7" in there.
World of Echo in East London sell used records but I haven't visited to comment further.

Since the thread got into various seaside towns on the south coast, I will mention Brighton. It's an hours train ride from central London.

I have had really good luck finding noise and other underground music in Rarekind. Definitely worth looking through.

In Wax Factor I have found old industrial records fairly often (CD section is better for finding the odd noise and experimental album).

Snooper's Paradise have mountains of old vinyl. You could look for hours and find nothing. But once I found a Stockhausen LP for £3 (and once a Death 'human'' first press for the same price). So you never know. Resident Records is literally opposite (and has an 'out there' section) but doesn't carry used records.

All of those are within 5 minutes walk from the central train station.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by Nesolagus »

I did visit Reckless, Sister Ray across the street, Cafe OTO, Record & Tape (Notting Hill Gate), Flashback (Islington) and some other. Left without a single quid spent on media. Was close at Reckless but decided not to.

Nothing outside of London this time unfortunately.

Thx to adult human for the Hastings story! And to everyone for the rec.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

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APPLE wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 12:51 pm Snooper's Paradise have mountains of old vinyl. You could look for hours and find nothing.
@adult human still I never got round to ripping and uploading that spoken word 7" about photocopiers i found that time :0

Record shop situation here in London is indeed pretty poor these days. Still find the occasional 2nd hand thing, got an Incapacitants CD at the one in Greenwich recently and found Gero 'More Shit EP' at Reckless a while back
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by adult human »

Cementimental wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:41 am
APPLE wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 12:51 pm Snooper's Paradise have mountains of old vinyl. You could look for hours and find nothing.
@adult human still I never got round to ripping and uploading that spoken word 7" about photocopiers i found that time
There’s still time. Though I suppose it may not work as well as audio alone. Demands to be experienced as a complete object.
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Re: Record shops in London, UK

Post by MuhSteve »

[quote=Nesolagus post_id=8243 time=1686687272 user_id=602]
I did visit Reckless, Sister Ray across the street, Cafe OTO, Record & Tape (Notting Hill Gate), Flashback (Islington) and some other. Left without a single quid spent on media. Was close at Reckless but decided not to.

Nothing outside of London this time unfortunately.

Thx to adult human for the Hastings story! And to everyone for the rec.
[/quote]

So, you didn't buy any records, CDs or cassettes?
Are you niche ?
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