Record Shops - a misspent youth

Your favourite days out round Leeds
volvojack
Posts: 1471
Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re:

Post by volvojack »

tilly wrote:Caron wrote: tilly. Pity you're not nearer to me as I'd let mine go to a good home. Too heavy and fragile to post up to Leeds though. My 78's aren't RnR though. I've an original Ink Spots and Platters (I think) lol.     Hi Caron Thanks for the offer the Platters now that takes me back to a time i will never forget.I remember when Rock Around The Clock came out we had never seen anything like it we were dancing in the aisles i was only fourteen or fifteen at the time, the bad old days i must have missed them.


Not prying as to where anyone lives but though I was born and bred in Leeds I now live in Gloucester in the West Country (just off the M.5 ) so if the records were on my route when I visit Leeds to see my family I would willingly transport them. My normal route is M.5. to M.42. to M.1 to Leeds. Can also go M.5. to M.62 to Leeds (slightly longer)
So if this is any use contact me, if not just a TA. will suffice. Regards Jack Daly, (Ex Beeston)

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by jim »

volvojack wrote:
jim wrote:
volvojack wrote:Many years ago there was a record store just above the Scala Cinema in Albion Place.
That would be Hartleys, on the corner of Albion Place and Lands Lane.
I am surprised at that Jim, the girlfriends who worked for that company worked if I recall correctly in either Queen Victoria St or maybe near the Market as we used to meet them outside Sillers pram shop, corner of Vicar Lane and KIng Edward St.
( Never had occasion to go inside that shop in those innocent days)
My mistake, the shop on the corner of Albion Place and Lands Lane was Barkers, and I have amended my post accordingly. Hartleys was apparently at 79 Vicar Lane, and the shop on Queen Victoria Street was Kitchens. Kitchens also had a general music shop on King Edward Street, from where I bought my first two instruments.

volvojack
Posts: 1471
Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by volvojack »

Hi. JIm.
Your mention of Kitchens reminds me of when I hired a Double Bass from them. I was a singer with two brothers who played piano and drums. we got a gig at the Fforde Greene on a Saturday night I could not play the Bass but the Landlord said as he was paying for a trio he wanted three instruments. We got though a very hectic evening but on the Sunday afternoon as I listened to the music on the radio I decided to have a practice with the Bass. after some time my fingers got tired and so I propped the Bass against the chair and then sat down . Big mistake the Bass slid sideways and hit the cooker. the neck snapped off and I was left with wood and wire.
I did not sleep at all that night and went to the shop in the morning dreading what they would say. I explained that this was in the back of the van broken , fearing the worst. He said "Oh its nothing, we will put it in a Vice and reglue it, give me 25/- £1.25. now that was it. Such Relief. Still Happy Days.

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by jim »

I had a similar experience volvojack. I was gaily driving back home down York Road after a gig, with the cased instrument on the rack at the back of my scooter. There was a crashing sound from behind, and, to my horror I saw the case lying in the road in the middle of "drunks rush hour". I had forgotten to tie the case on with the elastic straps! Luckily all the following traffic managed to avoid it, but when I got home found the instrument unplayable. Worried out of my mind (another gig due the following night) I took it to Scheerers (their shop was then on Skinner Lane), and "Sotty" fixed it the same day, and the shop charged the tremendous sum of thirty bob. That was worth a fair bit more in the 1960s than it is now, but I was still relieved to get away so lightly. Needless to say I never made the same mistake again.

volvojack
Posts: 1471
Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by volvojack »

jim wrote:I had a similar experience volvojack. I was gaily driving back home down York Road after a gig, with the cased instrument on the rack at the back of my scooter. There was a crashing sound from behind, and, to my horror I saw the case lying in the road in the middle of "drunks rush hour". I had forgotten to tie the case on with the elastic straps! Luckily all the following traffic managed to avoid it, but when I got home found the instrument unplayable. Worried out of my mind (another gig due the following night) I took it to Scheerers (their shop was then on Skinner Lane), and "Sotty" fixed it the same day, and the shop charged the tremendous sum of thirty bob. That was worth a fair bit more in the 1960s than it is now, but I was still relieved to get away so lightly. Needless to say I never made the same mistake again.







Jim
Your mention of Scheerers music shop also reminds me that one night in the White Horse on York Road I watched an act called "Johnny Echo" who had this Italian sound system, very neat , the speakers packed away together and the unit itself folded away. In those heady early 1960s when I saw one in their shop They were in North St. by Stamford St Post Office and when I saw this same music system I had to get one on the weekly ( I worked opposite at Modern Floorcovering Co. Carpet shop)
Though I used it for a couple of years I could never get it to sound like the one that had impressed me earlier.

volvojack
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Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re:

Post by volvojack »

Trojan wrote:[Next door one way was Carling and Wright's TV shop. The other was a Wimpy Bar . They had their bread cakes delivered early in the morning and left outside the back door. One Morning she went out to clean her wigs and found scores of dead rats lined up in the back yard. The Council rat catchers had been. The story was that rats in their many thousands used to range up and down Briggate and the Headrow in the middle of the night.I haven't had a "Wimpy" since she told me that.Well it's said that you're never more than 10ft from a rat, but you seldom see them. That's why I always think the "winter of discontent" photo of a rat on top of a pile of rubbish must have been a set up by the press
In 1957 I had just left the R.A.F. and had four weeks paid leave. a pal of mine who worked in the Leeds Wholesale Market, bottom of the present market in Kirkgate got me to come and work mornings down there. as it was summer and the place to be was the Lunchtime Mecca plus the hours were 6am. to 12.30. I started down there. one of our jobs was to take wooden crates on an electric trolley / bogie to the very large storeroom under the Slaughter house which was between the Market and the Bus Station. the entrance was round by the Bus Station via a long slope. when we opened the door very quietly and hit the electric switch there would be scores of rats running in all directions. we never went in there without a sweeping brush or stick and never closed the door with us inside. Apart from the attraction of all the blood etc. up in the Slaughterhouse just across the way in Cross York Street there was a row of Butchers wholesale stores. when I visit leeds nowadays and look at those Apartments in that area I think to myself If the Tenants only had seen what it was like 50 odd years ago.
I saw a post where Rats were referred to as Long Tails and a Monkey is referred to as a Jasper........I know this is a Gypsy usage and they are very superstitious, considering it very bad luck to use the proper name.

Apologies if I have posted this some time and also from deviating slightly from the Thread.

Trimphoner
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed 17 Feb, 2016 4:22 pm

Re: Re:

Post by Trimphoner »

Trimphoner wrote:
oldleedsman wrote:Wasn't Virgin first on Queen Victoria Street, when it was a proper street? Same side as Bodleam used to be. Upstairs in Virgin they had a large seated area by the window with comfy cushions and headphones so you could listen to lps.Vallances had an unusual selection downstairs and had listening booths from the 60s.I also used to go to Project Records in Harehills where they sold second hand records. There was a 2nd hand place in the Grand Arcade halfway up on the left - anyone remember its name? Boots used to have a good bargain rack.

My memory of Virgin Records Leeds is that it was on the corner of Kirkgate / Fish Street (see attached pic for recent image) and that it was Scene and Heard that was on King Edward Street. Unless Virgin was located somewhere else circa 1976, which is my earliest memory of the shop. Image
Mid seventies................

Image

Trimphoner
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed 17 Feb, 2016 4:22 pm

Re: Re:

Post by Trimphoner »

Trimphoner wrote:
Trimphoner wrote:
oldleedsman wrote:Wasn't Virgin first on Queen Victoria Street, when it was a proper street? Same side as Bodleam used to be. Upstairs in Virgin they had a large seated area by the window with comfy cushions and headphones so you could listen to lps.Vallances had an unusual selection downstairs and had listening booths from the 60s.I also used to go to Project Records in Harehills where they sold second hand records. There was a 2nd hand place in the Grand Arcade halfway up on the left - anyone remember its name? Boots used to have a good bargain rack.

My memory of Virgin Records Leeds is that it was on the corner of Kirkgate / Fish Street (see attached pic for recent image) and that it was Scene and Heard that was on King Edward Street. Unless Virgin was located somewhere else circa 1976, which is my earliest memory of the shop. Image
Mid seventies................

Image

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by jim »

Sorry Trimphoner, your memory is playing you false. Scene and Heard, run by Lennie Lyons was definitely on Kirkgate. It was about half way between Briggate and Vicar Lane, on the north side. Lennie dealt with the pop and top twenty material on the ground floor, and my friend DF looked after the jazz, blues, world music, and more esoteric rock material in the basement. I spent many dinner times from work down there, as DF kept me informed about new releases of stuff I was into, and played me things I didn't know about to broaden my tastes. He later ran his own record shop in the Grand Arcade, Melgary Music. The first Virgin shop was on King Edward (or just possibly Queen Victoria) Street on the north side near the Briggate end.

hyperioncantlogin
Posts: 50
Joined: Sat 28 Nov, 2015 9:26 pm

Re: Record Shops - a misspent youth

Post by hyperioncantlogin »

No 10 Kirkgate (fatso's) was never a Virgin store.In the 70's up to the "1990's according to leodis" it was a shop called Northern Fur's.Cant anybody recall the window getting damaged by animal liberation or similar group.However Virgin Records moved to briggate opposite M&S.At that time there was a bit of scare about the IRA unattended bags left in shops,so when you entered Virgin Records with a bag you had to hand it over and pick it up when you left the store

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