Great Record Shops - Record Collector in Sheffield

Record Collector                *Customer gives Public Enemy a lift to an arena gig*

233-235 Fulwood Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 3BA

01142 668493

recordcollectorsheffield.co.uk; recordcollector.1978@yahoo.co.uk; @RCSheffield

Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm

Established 1978

Stock: Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned, In-stores

Barry Everard is the music man of Sheffield, responsible for giving many bands a helping hand in the early days of their fledgling careers. Def Leppard, ABC, Human League, Pulp, Richard Hawley, Comsat Angels and Gomez are just some of them. Music suggested by Barry was used in Sheffield’s most famous film, The Full Monty.

Barry has had his ups and downs over the last few years. He has found it increasingly difficult to make a reasonable profit, and many times has felt it is time to call it a day. Then he gets a regular customer coming up, giving him a big hug, saying how much he loves the shop and making him promise never to close it. Moments like that have persuaded him to carry on serving the good people of Sheffield.

“It’s more than just making a living,” Barry says. “It’s a calling, it’s something we’re almost driven to do, and we feel a deep responsibility of doing the job right.” Even so,

Barry insists that shoppers must understand that record shops are not charities. He bemoans the fact that so many people come into the shop, check their mobile, then tell him that the app they have got shows they can buy the same CD 48p cheaper from an online retailer. Barry has thousands of items that he is selling cheaper, though it can be difficult to convince people that the internet is not always the better option. Amazon has done a fantastic job of giving the impression that it cannot be beaten on price.

Barry has a saying which he bases his business practices on:

Prices are vanity

Margins for sanity

Prices for show

Margins are dough.

To survive today, record shops must have a presence online. Record Collector is doing great business, selling collectable vinyl online. What’s more, the resurgence of vinyl has had new customers beating a path to its door, so much so that the shop is now taking more money on vinyl than CDs.

Another change has been the return of students. Sheffield is a university city and for many years the students were the core customers for Barry.  When downloading came along, students embraced the new technology and the numbers buying physical product from him dwindled to a trickle. Now the students are back, shopping in the store for vinyl.

Barry is having a great time recommending records for students who now shop there. Nothing beats introducing somebody to an artist, and the next time they come into the shop, they say that artist is fantastic and ask what else you have by them. Vinyl customers are less price-sensitive than people who buy CDs and are prepared to pay for what has become a premium, collectable product.

The shop has provided many moments of record store humour. 

Spot the difference - Top real Record Collector Sheffield - This photo The Record Shop Amersham

A customer purchases a record by the Specials. The next day he brings it back, complaining that he didn’t receive his gift as promised by the sticker on the album bearing the legend “includes ‘Free Nelson Mandela’.”

Another disgruntled customer brings back “Le Peur”, a record by the famous French rock star Johnny Hallyday, demanding a refund because he is “singing in froggie”.

One of Barry’s regular customers, a Roxy Music fan called Robin, was hospitalized after suffering a brain haemorrhage. As he started coming out of the coma, one of the doctors revived him by patting his face and asking him “What’s your name?”

“Virginia Plain,” Robin responded, quoting the lyrical sign-off from the end of Roxy Music’s first hit. “Oh dear, he thinks he’s Virginia Wade,” one of the nurses said. Robin has since made a full recovery.

Barry is surprised that some people in Sheffield get confused between a classic soul singer and a type of crumpet. Twice in his retailing career he has been asked for records by Wilson Pikelet.

The shop celebrated its 33-and-a-third birthday recently. Two of Sheffield’s favourite sons, Richard Hawley and Martin Simpson, both sang at an unforgettable party to celebrate the occasion.

Another celebrity, Johnny Marr, came into the shop and brought a pile of vinyl albums to the counter.  “Are you Barry?” he asked. “Yes I am,” Barry replied. “I understand you are something of a legend in these parts,” Johnny said. For Barry, it is moments like that which make the constant struggle to keep going worthwhile.

Record Collector became the scene of a story that has passed into popular folklore, when Barry pulled off a coup by arranging for American rap crew Public Enemy to do an in-store signing before their gig supporting the Prodigy at Sheffield Arena in November 2015. Arriving somewhat later than expected at the shop to find a large crowd waiting to greet them, the band were happy to chat and sign copies of the new album, but were far from finished when their taxi arrived to pick them up at 6pm. When they eventually emerged from the shop to set off for the gig, the taxi had disappeared.

With the band due on stage at 7.30 there was no time to waste. Barry asked local photographer Kevin Wells, who had been among the fans who had come to get his CD signed, if he could give the band a lift to Sheffield Arena. With Chuck D in the passenger seat and Flava Fav together with two of the band’s crew crammed in the back of his Ford Focus, Kevin set off. Although the traffic was bad, Kevin knew all the short cuts, so they were making good time. Even so, the band’s phones were constantly ringing with cries of “Where the hell are you?” among the more printable enquiries from the other end.

Kevin put on a CD of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and was amazed to discover that Public Enemy were fans of the song. As the voices rose to an operatic crescendo, he found himself living a Wayne’s World moment for real with Public Enemy headbanging and singing along to the song - a sight that he will never forget seeing in his rear-view mirror.

Lewis Hamilton would have been impressed by Kevin’s driving. They reached Sheffield Arena in less than 20 minutes, only to be stopped by a security guard who didn’t believe that Public Enemy would turn up to their own show crammed in to the back of a Ford Focus. The rappers were eventually let through and, thanks to Kevin, they made it on to the stage just in time. They invited him to be their guest of honour for the evening, but Kevin had another gig of his own to go to that night – he was due to take photos of Scouting For Girls at another venue.

The story was dramatised in an episode of the Sky Arts TV series Urban Myths, in which the Life on Mars star Philip Glenister played the part of Kevin in a comic re-telling of the tale.

 

 Barry was invited to the Albert Hall to the first performance by Mike Oldfield of his Orchestral Tubular Bells. During this period Mike was notorious for not showing up due to stage fright. If this happened Steve Hillage was there as a stand in. Barry found himself hanging around with Steve and found himself as his unofficial minder. Needless to say this was a night when Mike Oldfield didn’t turn up and Steve was informed that he would be performing. Steve Hillage and Gong had played a free concert outside Virgin Records only a few weeks before. The two recognised one another from this and somehow Barry found himself delegated to get Steve, complete with Fender Stratocaster, to the stage door. Barry will never forget arguing with an over zealous Royal Albert Hall commissionnaire who was trying to evict this long bearded rock star with the tea cosy hat and rainbow striped jumper. Barry was trying to explain to him that Steve was to be star of the show but the commissionaire was insisting that Mike Oldfield was the star and was doing his utmost to get the pair thrown out. Luckily common sense prevailed and Steve Hillage with the help of Barry saved the day.

Another gig that Barry recalled having trouble with was when the German Krautrock band Faust played the City Hall in Sheffield. Faust drilling a huge concrete block with a pneumatic drill punctuated the performance. This was truly art. Twenty minutes later the majority of the band left the stage just leaving the bass player and drummer along with a stage littered with lumps of concrete. After another ten minutes the bass player left leaving the drummer alone. After a 10-minute drum solo the drummer stopped. He didn’t leave the stage. Littered around the stage were several TV sets and he sat on his stool watching the TV whist the crowd who were wondering what the hell was going on sat there patient but confused. This was art and they wanted to enjoy it somehow. After a while the manager of the City Hall put the lights on and took to the stage. A portly man in his 60s he clearly felt that Faust were taking advantage of their audience and told everybody to go home. The crowd was incensed by his requests to leave and the louder he bellowed at them to evacuate the venue the louder the crowd booed and jeered.


Eventually he gave up and as some gesture of respect to their audience, Faust came back on and played a few more numbers amongst the rubble, with all the charisma and enthusiasm of disinterested workers returning from a long tea break.

To this day Barry is still a big attendee of gigs, going to at least two a week. A gig even more memorable than the Faust performance was when he was the only David Bowie fan at a David Bowie gig. In March 1972 Sheffield University held their Union Ball. Over the course of the day over 20 bands were to play at 10 different venues.

David Bowie whose career was then in a bit of a lull even though he had achieved a number 1 single with Space Oddity was due to go on at 1.30 in the morning. As a fan, Barry expected the venue to be full but when he entered the room he found that the only people in attendance were the barman and 4 male lecturers who were chatting up 4 young female students very loudly. Barry couldn’t understand why nobody was there. Perhaps other acts were appearing at the same time or more likely after a day of drinking most students had crashed out. So David Bowie with his brand new band The Spiders from Mars took to the stage to play to just 10 people. Throughout the first few numbers the lecturers carried on chatting up the students much to the annoyance of David Bowie. Eventually he stopped the gig and glared at the lecturers and told them if they didn’t shut up he was going home.

David carried on and more people started ambling in and by the end the crowd must have doubled to all of twenty people. I guess those lecturers and students today tell the tale of how they attended a concert by David Bowie with only 20 people in attendance. Probably forgetting to add that they spent the whole performance chatting.

Barry is happy to offer words of wisdom based on his 40 years of experience selling vinyl:

“The best bit of advice I can give any new record shop is to trust your own judgement. I am called Record Collector as that is what I am. The shop is an extension of what was once a hobby. I always believed in vinyl and over the years amassed vast quantities of it as I was convinced that in years to come my hunches would pay off. What I did not see coming was the internet. That turned many of my vinyl hunches that cost me pennies, extremely profitable.

In the early 1970s, David Bowie’s self-titled first album on Deram could be found as deletions in Woolworths for 49p. I bought every copy I saw. The electronics retailer Tandy started stocking records for a while. Somehow, they would obtain RCA deletions which they would clear out at 29p. I would take quantity of anything interesting.

I was in South Wales and called into a shop in Swansea on the day of release of the limited-edition LP Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth from local rockers Man. I knew only 1,000 had been pressed, yet this shop seemed to have about half the stock. I bought a box lot for £1 each.

In Sheffield we had a motor parts dealer selling deleted and overstock vinyl. A lot of it was on John Peel’s Dandelion record label. Artists such as Gene Vincent, Kevin Coyne and Clifford T. Ward were on sale for 29p. I bought as much as I could. A few weeks later they cleared out what was left for 15p. It was time to have a second bite of the cherry.

Many vinyl fans in Manchester will recall Global Records. They were housed in a huge warehouse and would import vinyl from the USA. Prices were between 29p and 79p and you could pick up artists such as Neil Young, Frank Zappa, 13^th Floor Elevators and thousands more. I was one of their best customers so would often be offered even lower prices.

Of course, you always think about the one that got away as opposed to the hundreds of brilliant deals I did. For me it was when Global offered me 200 Electric Prunes albums at 15p. At the time I was struggling for storage space so politely declined. I still cringe whenever I see copies being sold over the internet and the prices they are being sold for.

Then there was the day I lost a million – or, more accurately, failed to take advantage of an opportunity that would have made me a £1 million. I remember a day wasted checking out the branches of London’s Harlequin Records. Every bargain rack in every store was full of this record featuring a cover where the band members’ heads had been superimposed onto cats’ bodies painted by a nine-year-old. Well over 1,000 copies at 50p each. No wonder that didn’t sell, I thought, and left the lot. So, it seems, did everyone else. The title? Pussy Plays by 1960s psychedelic band Pussy. Value now? £1,000 each.

I was certain that one day picture discs would be highly collectable. Record companies would give away vast quantities to chart return shops so, as these shops had not paid any money for them, they would clear them out for around 50p. I would tour these shops each week buying what I thought would become collectable. It turned out to be a shrewd move as that 50p stock often sells for between £25 and £50.

Always put your customers first. Whatever bargains I bought I would always display in the shop and I would store any surplus in the belief it would one day be collectable. In the days of record store carnage that you highlighted in your first book, it was the vinyl that I had bought all those years ago that kept me going through those difficult times.

Don’t just rely on the record companies for your stock. I have bought off record libraries, radio stations, businesses closing, wholesalers, etc. When you see clearance and sale lists being emailed to you, don’t delete. Have a look and think, is there anything on this list that one day will be collectable?

This is how Record Collector has kept going through the tough times and thrived in the good. You can do it too if you go with your gut feeling.”

One of the joys of visiting Record Collector is that Barry is a great raconteur and is always happy to have a chat and tell you some of his fabulous anecdotes, but please visit before it is too late. After 40 years of selling vinyl, retirement beckons for this retailing veteran. Before he closes the doors for the last time, it would be nice to think that his contribution to Sheffield music might be recognised by the music industry, the city of Sheffield and the country itself.  

This piece is taken from the book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen

Over 220 independent record shops featured in The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen

The books of Graham Jones are available in record shops or online. The latest book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops that Made it Happen has been turned in to a film. It has just been released on DVD and is available in record shops or online. Distributed by Proper Music.

Each week I record The Vinyl Revival Record Shop Podcast. It contains lots of funny tales from the crazy world of record retailing. It is also available on Spotify.

Twitter: @Revival_Vinyl

My blog has over 100 features on record shops and vinyl.

grahamjonesvinylrevival.blogspot.com

For film screenings and talks contact Graham. 

As the person who has visited more record shops than any other human, I often get asked my advice on buying turntables. I always say do not purchase a budget model. What is the point of buying one that costs the price of a few albums? The sound will not do the recordings justice. For a long time, I have recommended Rega Turntables as they are superb quality at great prices. They got more brownie points for sponsoring 'Record Store Day' and manufacturing limited editions just for record shops.