V1.5 - 9 September 1994
This is a guide to specialist dance music record shops and shops with
better than average
dance music sections in London. The majority of these are in the West End,
although there are
also listings for other popular locations like Camden and Notting Hill.
This guide was compiled by Stephen Hebditch with contributions from
subscribers to the
UK-Dance Mailing List. Further recommendations of shops for inclusion,
comments about your
experiences with individual shops or corrections to current listings are
welcomed. These should
be sent to steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk.
Future revisions of this guide can be obtained on the World Wide Web at
<http://www.tecc.co.uk/public/tqm/uk-dance/features/shops.html> or by mail
by writing to
`listserv@tqmcomms.co.uk' with a message body that starts with the line
`get uk-dance
london-shops'.
Copyright (C) 1994 Stephen Hebditch and contributors as indicated. This
document may be
freely distributed provided it is done so in whole, no alterations are made
and you don't attempt
to charge for it.
Ambient Soho
4 Berwick St, Soho, London, W1.
Tel / Fax: 071 437 0521.
Specialisation: All forms of ambient on vinyl and CD with
some techno.
Ambient Soho has recently moved into the old Quaff shop just
next-door to its previous
location in the back of Sohi Soho. It stocks a growing range
of ambient releases on both
vinyl and CD, including pre-releases and some imports others
don't get. As well as the
more horizontal tracks it also carries a selection of pure
and experimental techno. DJ
Rockitt and his assistants are generally happy to play
anything you ask - just ask for a
particular style and they'll do their best. However, prices
are a little more expensive than
some of the competition.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Black Market Records
25 D'Arblay St, Soho, London, W1V 3FH.
Tel: 071 287 1932. Fax: 071 494 1303.
Specialisation: Underground house and garage upstairs,
hardcore and jungle in the
basement.
Lots of sounds but very packed with young kids - especially
on Saturday. Not too bad
service but only as a last resort if trying to find a
particular track.
<cgneil@amoco.com>
I've been in there three times and every time got so fed up
of trying to attract attention or
put up with staff generally giving me knowing "let's humour
him" looks because I'm
shock! horror! over 30 and have a moustache (very
unfashionable) that I've refused to
go back in. I know they have a high reputation that's
worldwide for stocking the `right'
records but I've actually found they're the worst for
attitude (well, they're close to `Catch
A Groove' - put it that way). Maybe things have changed over
the last year?
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
What is all this slagging-off that Black Market keeps
getting? I've never had any bad
attitude in there, although I frequent the `Hardcore Hell'
basement as Steve H calls it.
Nicky is always very generous with his sandwiches and coffee
and always ready to have
a chat about da tunes. I agree about the sound level
though... not for the faint hearted. If
only they could ban all the leetle kiddy ravers who only go
down for the latest batch of
flyers!
<dom@sound.demon.co.uk>
Mr Bongo
47 Lexington St, Soho, London, W1.
Tel: 071 287 1887. Fax: 071 439 1828.
Specialisation: Jazzy beats, funk, old skool and hip hop.
Cheapo Cheapo Records
53 Rupert St, Soho, London, W1V 7HN.
Tel: 071 437 8272.
Specialisation: 70s / 80s back catalogue.
Choci's Chewns
The Basement, 9-12 St Annes Court, Soho, London, W1V 3AX.
Tel / Fax: 071 434 3097.
Specialisation: Gabber, trance, acid, techno.
I discovered this last week and it's excellent, although a
bit pricey. Choci's Chewns is in
St Anne's Court which is in the usual Soho area - a modern
little alley of shops off
Wardour Street. They specialise mainly in techno (lots of
Eye-Q stuff) but had some
Euro too. Mr Choci himself spins the records and mixes them
in live. He's a complete
and utter loony and it's well entertaining. There's a
separate set-up (two turntables,
mixer, amp, headphones) for DJ's to check out stuff
themselves and the whole shop is
basically a big dance floor with Boss 801s set up to play
stuff through down by the
counter at one end of the floor. Very clean, very modern
(it's obviously only just been
decorated and opened) and very spacious.
When I went early Friday evening the place was empty but I
can imagine that if the place
is busy it turns into a big party. With just three of us
there Choci's continual whoops and
manic dancing made us feel like we were at a party. Great
fun! Choci takes the trouble to
find out what sort of stuff you're into (He concluded that I
was into `Gorgonzola' - you can
guess what that meant!) and then tries to mix appropriate
stuff in. You get quick one
minute snatches of each song and then he moves onto the next.
Worth going in there
and just standing around for half an hour to hear what's new.
Easily the most fun visit to
a record shop I've ever had. Highly recommended.
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
City Sounds
8 Proctor St, London, Bloomsbury, London, WC1 6NX.
Tel: 071 405 5454.
Specialisation: Garage, swing, soul, jazz, mainly US imports.
Their records are a bit overpriced in my opinion, but they
have some good tunes under
the desk (who hasn't?). If you can stand faking a Finnish
accent, tell them you're a friend
of DJ Alex and they'll give you discount (honestly!).
<f1sami@uta.fi>
Daddy Kool Music
9 Berwick St, London, Soho, London, W1V 3RG.
Tel: 071 437 3535. Fax: 071 409 0869.
Specialisation: Reggae, ragga, dancehall, ska.
Downtown Records
94 Dean St, Soho, London, W1V 5RB.
Tel: 071 494 0208. Fax: 071 494 0210.
Specialisation: New York house and garage.
Until Spring 1994 this shop was known as Catch-A-Groove.
However it's now changed
ownership, apparently due to some financial problems.
Although a little spartan in its
selection at first, the shop is now picking up and has plans
to expand into a new club
venue.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Even worse attitude than Black Market. Always packed
three-deep at the front desk,
music so loud a megaphone wouldn't get you heard (and if
you're not `a regular' they'll
just ignore you). They seem to specialise in American New
York style Garage and those
into that sort of stuff really rate the place. I hate it!
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Funny that people say Catch-A-Groove is even more
attitudesome than Black Market as
I've always been treated well there. It is a bit hard to get
to the desk to ask for anything
as it's almost always packed, but once I managed that I got
all the info I needed.
<f1sami@uta.fi>
Fat Cat Records
13 Monmouth St, Covent Garden, London, WC2.
Tel: 071 379 8275. Fax: 071-497-1359.
Specialisation: Techno, hard trance, ambient.
It's a small basement shop / room but the staff are very
helpful no matter what you're
into. They've got two 1200s and also a deck on the counter to
listen to choons on. You
can happily get a whole stack 'o' choons and listen to them
at your hearts content. For
techno I don't know anywhere better, they are also quite good
for house. I am mostly into
techno and I don't shop anywhere else in London.
<neilg@argonaut.com>
Good selection of the latest club sounds. I've stood and
listened to Alex Knight mixing
and just bought anything I liked. It seems to work like that
in there although there is
another deck with headphones on the counter. A bit of an
elitist attitude though i.e. if
you're not a DJ they tend to try to ignore you - I just jump
right in and ask for what I want
which seems to work.
<cgneil@amoco.com>
Flying Records
Kensington Market, Kensington High St, London, W8 5ED.
Tel: 071 938 4407. Fax: 071 938 4409.
Specialisation: General dance music store, mostly house oriented.
Groove Records
Unit 10, The Arches, Off Villiers St, London, WC2.
Tel: 071 930 8707 / Fax: 071 497 0975.
Specialisation: Funk, Jazz, Soul.
Hand Spun Records
45 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, W11.
Tel: 071 229 0644.
Specialisation: Hip Hop, soul, jazz, swing.
HMV
150 Oxford St, London, W1.
Specialisation: General music store.
Claims to be the world's largest record store. The singles
department has specialist 12"
vinyl sections for techno / trance, street soul and US
imports, but with a more
mainstream selection and lagging behind the specialist
stores. For albums the choice is
now almost all on CD, with sections for dance, rap, reggae on
the ground floor and an
excellent well-stocked jazz section downstairs in the basement.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Honest Jon's Records
278 Portobello Road, London, Notting Hill, W10 5TE.
Tel: 081 969 9822.
Specialisation: soul, rap, acid jazz and rare groove.
Jam Records
First Floor, London Pavillion, Piccadilly Circus, London, W1.
Tel: 071 287 5822.
Specialisation: Rare jazz, soul, funk, fusion, Brazil.
Lucky Spin Records
103 Holloway Road, London, N7
Tel: 071 609 3033. Fax: 071 609 3034.
Specialisation: Hardcore and jungle.
More Than Music
43 Endell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2.
Specialisation: House, soul, jazzy grooves, second-hand vinyl.
Quaff Records
2 Silver Place, Soho, London, W1R 3LL.
Tel: 071 287 0705. Fax: 071 434 1788.
Specialisation: Underground house, garage.
I've only tried Quaff a few times. If you can attract
someone's attention they're pretty
helpful.
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Plenty of records & bad attitude - I've never asked them to
play anything.
<cgneil@amoco.com>
Quaff are not what they used to be, as they seem to cater
mostly for DJs these days (i.e.
the back room is stocked full of goodies). Their bargain bin
is the best in Soho though.
<f1sami@uta.fi>
Reckless Records
30 Berwick St, Soho, London, W1.
Tel: 071 437 4271.
Specialisation: second-hand vinyl and CDs.
Fast-moving 12" dance section with some recent promos.
Generally extremely pricey
and if it's not on the shelves the staff don't usually want
to know.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk> <f1sami@uta.fi>
Red Records
500 Brixton Road, Brixton, London, SW9.
Tel: 071 274 4476.
Specialisation: soul, reggae, hip hop, garage, R&B and imports.
Rhythm Records
281 Camden High St, Camden, London, NW1 7BX.
Tel: 071 267 0123.
Specialisation: Hip hop, aciz jazz, funk, rare groove, soul,
fusion.
Rockin' Sarah
12 Berwick St, Soho, W1V 3RG.
Tel: 071 494 1081. Fax: 071 409 0869.
Specialisation: Soul, jazz, funk, rare groove, especially
deletions and cut-outs.
Rough Trade
16 Neals Yard, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9DP.
Tel: 071 240 0105.
Specialisation: indie-oriented techno, trance and ambient.
Mostly same selection as Notting Hill but the people they
employ aren't generally as
knowledgable.
<cgneil@amoco.com>
Rough Trade
130 Talbot Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1JA.
Tel: 071 229 8541.
Specialisation: Indie-oriented techno, trance and ambient.
This is my local shop and covers indie, US imports, punk,
thrash dance etc. The dance
section is reasonably complete for albums a lot of R&S some
FAX, plenty of weird
ambient shit and not bad on recent 12". However, they don't
have much hard to find stuff.
They are often a bit cheaper than central shops. Not a bad CD
section. They will play
anything you want (even a huge pile if no-one else is in the
shop) and don't care if you
buy nothing. I get most stuff from here due to the
friendliness. They even have the cricket
on if there is any.
<cgneil@amoco.com>
Section 5
121 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3.
Tel: 071 351 6853. Fax: 071 481 8673.
Specialisation: hardcore and jungle.
Steve Lyall (Lucky Spin founder) and Rob Playford (Moving
Shadow) have joined forces
to form Section 5 at the old Lucky Spin shop. On sale are the
latest promos, whites and
imports plus a full range of merchandise, current rave tapes,
event tickets and videos. An
international mail order service is available. To join their
mailing list send an SAE to the
address above.
Being a Monday afternoon, Section 5 was not that busy, a
couple of people at the
counter and a few flyer collectors standing around. DJ
Younghead was behind the
counter mixing the tunes displayed on the back wall. After a
couple of minutes listening
to what was playing, I was asked if there was anything I
would like to hear. There was no
pressure to buy, and all queries I had were answered
politely, without the usual
condescending approach adopted by a lot of the London
specialist shops. After about
an hour of listening to various new releases, Steve came over
and asked where we had
come from, had we been before and if there was anything else
we wanted to hear, etc.
After giving him my address for his mailing list, I bought a
selection of tunes and left very
impressed with what I had seen.
<cs93dnk@brunel.ac.uk>
Selectadisc
34 Berwick St, Soho, London, W1V 3RF.
Tel: 071 734 3297.
Specialisation: Mainly indie but also some mainstream dance
and specialist album
sections for techno, trance, ambient, house, reggae, etc.
Selectadisc has pretensions to be an HMV or Virgin, carrying
similar stock to their
smaller stores but with more of an indie slant (it's a member
of The Chain With No
Name) and with prices considerably cheaper. For dance singles
it's pretty useless
unless they're carried by one of the big distributors.
However, it carries a reasonable
selection of back catalogue albums and the occasional import
- particularly on CD - that
doesn't surface elsewhere.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Sister Ray
94 Berwick St, Soho, London, W1V 3PP.
Tel: 071 287 8385. Fax: 071 287 1087.
Specialisation: Indie-oriented techno, trance, ambient,
industrial, Richard James, Orb,
Fax.
Their techno / trance / ambient side has been slowly
improving over the past year.
However, they're still best on stuff that's distributed via
the traditional indie channels (i.e.
RTM / Pinnacle and Revolver / APT) rather than the dance
channels. Most of the albums
I review come from there cuz they're almost always the
cheapest in London - UK CDs
typically go for UKP 10.99 / 11.99. Neil who runs it knows
his stuff and there's another
guy who's helpful on the techno side. They're not really into
playing you stackfulls of
singles though. Lots of Aphex / Rephlex back catalogue, Orb
and KLF rarities and a
good stock of German CDs - usually first in London with the
new Fax releases. They also
do international mail order.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Soul Jazz Records
12 Ingestre Place, Soho, London, W1R 3LP. Tel / Fax: 071 494 2004.
Specialisation: Rare jazz, fusion, funk, soul, soundtracks.
Tag Records
5 Rupert Court, Soho, London, W1V 7FE.
Tel: 071 434 0029. Fax: 071 434 0489.
Specialisation: General dance store.
A fairly new arrival on the scene, Tag seems to be growing in
popularity. Reasonably
friendly service in a fairly small shop stocked with a good
range of most of the current
dance releases, both domestic and import.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Time Is Right
27 Goldhawk Road, London, W12.
Tel: 071 837 6623.
Specialisation: Dance back-catalogue alongside general dance shop.
Tower Records
1 Piccadilly Circus, London, W1.
Specialisation: General music store.
This is Tower's flagship UK store. Dance music is all
downstairs in the basement.
Despite a recent advertising campaign boasting of how good
they now are for dance -
"daily deliveries of XL, Warp, Guerilla, R&S, Suburban Base,
Moving Shadow, Strictly
Rhythm, Production House to name but a few" - the selection
isn't that good and isn't
well maintained. Dance singles are now just about the only
vinyl in the store with albums
only now available on CD. Generally Tower is best for
mainstream US back catalogue,
stocking a number of specialities the other big stores don't
carry. For European releases
you're better shopping elsewhere.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Trax Records
55 Greek St, Soho, London, W1V 5LR.
Tel: 071 734 0795.
Specialisation: European dance imports.
My main source of vinyl. They get some promos too. Don't go
on a Saturday though.
They used to specialise as a gay-run High Energy / Euro store
and Saturday is when the
gay crowd flock down in droves to buy their one record of the
week - it gets chaotic.
Fridays about 5pm are my favourite time. They have decks and
headphones for the
regulars to listen to stuff but the decks aren't 1210s :-( I
find the attitude of certain staff
there extremely intimidating but they get stuff the others
don't because Richard, the
owner, makes monthly trips to Germany, Italy and Belgium and
seems to find stuff that
never comes in on the usual vans. Ask for Craig or Richard -
they're friendly and they'll
sort you out. They're both there on Friday afternoons.
Thursday is the day to avoid I think
because neither of them are there then.
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Unity Records
47 Beak St, Soho, W1.
Tel: 071 734 2746. Fax: 071 494 0589.
Specialisation: Room 1: Techno, Euro, House; Room 2: Hip Hop,
Swing, Soul, Garage;
Upstairs: clothing.
They have two Technics on the counter and do mixes as people
hand the records they
want to hear over (no separate decks for the punters to use)
but often seem more into
showing off their mixing or cueing up the tracks they like
than serving the customers. But
compared to the rest (yeah, I find most of 'em have real
attitude problems) they're
above-average. Their prices are extortionately high though.
<primax@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Yeah, generally expensive and completely uninterested in
selling anything.
<dom@sound.demon.co.uk>
Having once been a regular here (twice weekly), they did once
have appeal. But they
have dealt me a few too many bad vibes, so my custom now goes
elsewhere. Although,
once my face was known, they were a bit more responsive. The
basement is cool for
picking up latest boxed tape sets, record bags, clothes, etc.
Very expensive, at five
pounds fifty for a UK twelve.
<cs93dnk@brunel.ac.uk>
Vinyl Solution
231 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LT.
Tel: 071 792 9791. Fax: 071 792 9824.
Specialisation: Collectors on ground floor, dance in basement.
Virgin Megastore
Oxford St, London, W1.
Specialisation: General store.
The original London Megastore. Big singles section with both
vinyl and CD singles plus
specialist sections for US and European imports - though
these seem to be almost all
R&S, Harthouse, Eye-Q and Djax. The selection of dance albums
has grown recently,
with new sections for house and techno alongside the previous
soul, rap and reggae.
Imports of both singles and albums come in sporadically -
suddenly a large bunch of
new stuff will arrive which then doesn't change for a month.
The purchasing policy of the
buyers generally seems to have become more erratic in recent
years. Although every
now and again they pick up on some interesting stock that's
been left languishing in a
warehouse somewhere in the world, they tend to have
surprising omissions of even
current UK material.
<steveh@tqmcomms.co.uk>
Wyld Pytch Records
55 Lexington St, Soho, London, W1R 4HL.
Tel: 071 434 3472. Fax: 071 287 1403.
Specialisation: Rap, swing, ragga, soul, house, deletions.
Zoom Records
The Basement, Company Store, 162 Camden High St, Camden, NW1.
Tel: 071 267 4479. Fax: 071 485 0789.
Specialisation: General dance store.
Chris Golya
School of Art, Design & Media
University of Portsmouth
I would tell you that music is the expression of emotion
And that politics is merely the decoy of perception.
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy