london record shops

[DaveSmalls]

Hello folks

off to London next weekend to see Mike Pickering and Todd Terry. Anyone recommend any record shops for new or 2nd hand stuff? I no BM Soho is still going but there must be a few in London still?

thanks

 

[djperkins]

I can't point specific shops out..I'm well out of date..but the Eastend was always good, there was Pauls For Music and Total Music in Bethnall Green...and the Roman Road had at least 1 good record shop, with the recent increase in the popularity of vinyl, I reckon there will be more flea stalls for vinyl aswell, on market day of course.

Out of the tube station , under the big bridge thats infront of you, another 50 yards on the right...is Total Music
Out of the tune station , looking at the bridge, turn left and stay on the left hand side of the street, after 2 mins of residential, you'll come to a row of shops...Pauls was the 3rd or so along.

 

[Jiglo]

Soul & Dance Exchange (MVE) in Notting Hill is about the best I know of for crate digging. Had some good sessions in there over the years. I picked up about 40-50 records including more mainstream electro spares and 80 boogie tunes there the other weekend and a few other bits and pieces from the 20p bins in the basement and didn't have a lot of time to browse the upstairs normal prices bit, but found a record I wanted to buy there too almost straight away.

I also tried the MVE on Berwick street, Soho. I was disappointed to find the downstairs bit was closed there though until further notice and the upstairs bit was nothing special. Sister Ray (on the same street) was closed on the sunday, but Revival (also on the same street) looked really promising at first, but wasn't great value, so I left empty handed, especially as I already had a big stash of tunes to cart home from the previous day in Soul & Dance.

It looks like there's plenty of shops still open there anyway. This looks like a fairly recent list of places to try Top Ten Record Shops In London | Londonist

Seems to be quite a few others too, but unless you live there it's finding the time to visit them all, or taking a few risks and hoping you get lucky as you can have good days and bad days in any given shop.

 

[Art Awreet]

I would agree with Jiglo's MVE recommendation in Notting Hill. They have loads of tunes (so lots of time needed for sifting!) in the basement and sometimes you come across a gem that is rare. Also the other thing to bear in mind is that MVE has always priced tunes on the London scene, so many rarer italo and Euro tunes would have probably gone straight to the bargain basement even though they may have gone for a lot in Manchester. Additionally rare tunes which a a bit worn can often end up going for a song. There used to be a MVE in Camden as well which I used to frequent. Wonder if that is still there?? Reckless records in Islington has now shut unfortunately...

 

[Jiglo]

Aye, had a great spell at Camden MVE myself long ago while I was working in Camden, but last year I spent 2 or 3 hours digging there and found pretty much nothing but crap. I also remembered striking lucky on some good stalls at the Stables Market in Camden too when I did a job there there, but I couldn't find them last year when I looked again.

The Camden MVE has also closed now though, so i've heard.

 

[DaveSmalls]

thanks for your help guys, certainly enough to go on there, should keep me busy and hopefully i will unearth some gems!!