Great Liverpool area record shops
Merseyside
For a city with such an incredible music history, the 2015 Liverpool
record shop scene was in a sorry state. The three key independent shops in the
city - Probe, The Musical Box and 3b Records - had 150 years of record
retailing between them. But it was time to give the long-established shops some
competition, which arrived in the shape of two excellent new shops: 81 Renshaw
Street and The Jacaranda, both housed in historic buildings that played a part
in the city’s musical past.
The city still lags behind its rival Manchester when it comes to
quantity of record shops to visit, but due to other music-based attractions,
Liverpool makes a superb weekend break for vinyl fans. My suggestion would be
to combine visiting the record shops with a trip to the British
Music Experience as well as The
Beatles Story Exhibition. If you still
need more Beatles, then there is the A Day in The Life Beatles bike tour that takes you out of the city to visit the
landmarks associated with the group. For accommodation, there is the Hard Day’s
Night hotel, or you can stay in a real Yellow Submarine, moored at the Albert
Dock. Do ensure you leave time to take a ferry across the Mersey over to
Birkenhead, to call in at Skeleton Records.
>>>>>>>>>>>
soul,
funk and electronica.
81 Renshaw Street *The record
shop owner who interviewed Paul McCartney*
81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool, L1 2SJ
0151 707 1805
81renshaw.co.uk; info@81renshaw.co.uk;
@81Renshaw
Tuesday-Sunday 12-11pm
Established 2016
Stock: Vinyl, Second-hand, Coffee, Food,
In-stores, Comedy Club and Arts Venue, Licensed.
Located in the basement of the building that
housed the offices of Bill Harry’s legendary and influential Merseybeat
magazine is 81 Renshaw Street, a store named after its famous address. Upstairs
houses a bar and venue, which hosts live music, comedy, improv theatre, musical
open mic evenings and even life drawing classes. It is also home for Neil
Tilly, the shop’s owner, who lives in the flat above.
It is a vibrant and happening place in the heart
of Liverpool's music scene that has made a big impact.
Neil has always been an entrepreneur and landed
himself in hot water when as a schoolboy with the help of his chemistry set, he
manufactured his own fireworks. Amazingly, they worked. Neil sold them at
school and then went one step further. He produced some flyers for Tilly’s
Fireworks. After handing them out at school he pasted them around town,
including on the Liverpool buses. He made one crucial error: he put his contact
details on the flyers. That curtailed his first venture.
Next, he produced Tilly’s Top 30. Each week he
would ask his classmates at school for their current favourite three records.
He would then compile a sheet with the results neatly typed out. He recalled
the excitement of having his favourite record by X-Ray Spex at No.2 in Tilly’s
Top 30 while it was only just in the Top 20 in the national chart, proving to
him that his classmates had better taste than the public.
The young entrepreneur then went on to produce
his own comic, which included music-related articles. It was his success with
this that later led to him starting his own Liverpool music magazine titled Breakout.
Upon leaving school he found work in a shipping
office. It was here that the plans for Breakout
formed. One of his work colleagues was Tim Wildy who played in a local band
called Twisted Nervz. Tim was passionate about Liverpool music and when he was
not playing gigs he was checking out other bands in the Liverpool scene. He
started introducing Neil to bands such as OMD, Echo & The Bunnymen, the
Teardrop Explodes and Wah! Heat. The music that Neil had been enjoying up until
then was by big, inaccessible acts, but in Liverpool he could not only buy the
records but could go out and see these artists playing in the city. He
concluded that Liverpool had many fine bands who were not getting the attention
they deserved.
Neil started to interview local bands and soon
had enough material for the first issue. He had no money for printing but,
luckily, the shipping office was equipped with an industrial-sized printer,
which Neil took advantage of. He printed 1,000 copies of the magazine which he
hand-stapled before delivering to record shops and venues across the city.
The magazine was an instant hit and demand was
such that he felt it was too risky to continue to use his employer’s printing
machine. Instead, he outsourced the printing to a company in Diss, Norfolk.
This arrangement involved a monthly 480-mile round trip in a van to collect the
magazine from the printers. Incredibly, despite the cost of the van hire and
petrol, it worked out far cheaper than having it printed in Liverpool.
He did have one scary moment at work when his
boss enquired about the magazine. His boss’s son was enthusing about the
magazine one evening while reading it at home. His dad noticed that the editor
was one Neil Tilly, the enthusiastic music fan who seemed to have spent a lot
of time near the company printer. Luckily, by this point Neil was no longer
using the work printer as part of his chain of production.
By issue No.6 Neil decided to leave the shipping
office and make Breakout his career.
In 1984 he added a short-lived record label. The only release on the Breakout
label was “Wise Up!” a single by the local band Foundation. The record became a
cult classic and was recently on sale on Discogs for £293. The magazine ran
till 1986, when Neil decided he needed a more stable job as by now he had
married Jan and had young children. Over the years Breakout did a fantastic job of promoting the north-west music
scene. As well as interviewing many Liverpool bands Neil also met Tears For
Fears, the Stranglers, the Damned, Steve Harley, Stuart Copeland, John Foxx,
Bill Nelson and, most famously, Paul McCartney.
The Macca meeting came about after Neil received
a phone call from Bernard Doherty, Paul’s press officer, asking if Neil could
send some back issues of Breakout to
Paul, who wanted to read them. Neil was delighted, cheekily asking “Any chance
of an interview?” Bernard laughed and Neil thought nothing more of it. A few weeks
later Bernard was on the phone again, offering him the chance to interview Paul
at Air Studios in London. Neil could not understand why an artist of his status
would choose to give his first interview in three years to a small Liverpool
magazine.
Now that Neil has had time to reflect on it, he
suspects it was down to the aftermath of John Lennon’s death, when Paul did an
interview and was upset with what was printed, feeling that what he had said
had been taken out of context. For the next three years Paul refused all other
interview requests, but evidently felt he could trust Neil, an enthusiastic,
20-year-old journalist from his home city, to report exactly what he said.
When he entered Air Studios and introduced
himself, Neil was asked to sign a document saying he must not ask any questions
about John Lennon, nor report on anything Paul might say about his fellow
Beatle, a condition he was happy to agree to. Paul walked in and greeted Neil
warmly. The initial conversation was about Liverpool, given that both came from
the same part of the city, Paul from Speke and Neil from Garston. Both had even
been regular visitors to Garston Library. Paul then brought tales of John
Lennon into the conversation. After half an hour Neil was beginning to get worried
that he was not going to have any content for his interview. So far, the
conversation had revolved around John Lennon, which he could not use, while the
story of how they both went to Garston library was hardly a scoop. Fortunately,
the conversation turned to Paul’s new album, Pipes of Peace. Neil’s interview lasted longer than an hour and he
found Paul charming. He even invited Neil and Jan to the premier of Give my Regards to Broad Street.
The next day back in Liverpool, Neil had visits
from three national newspapers, all wishing to do a feature on the young
journalist who had scooped an interview with Paul McCartney. The News of the World, the Sunday People and the Sunday Mirror
all asked him questions, then wanted a photograph. They thought it would be a
great shot for him to be holding a Beatles album. Unfortunately, Neil only
owned cassettes of the band, so the photo did not quite work. They went instead
for a picture of him looking serious while writing. The issue of Breakout featuring the interview with
Paul McCartney quickly sold out of all 20,000 copies. Neil has never used the
part of the interview where Paul spoke about John Lennon. He hopes that one day
he will be able to publish it.
There were two interviews he did that were never
used at all. The first was with one of his heroes, Andy Partridge of XTC. Neil
had decided to do no more issues as he had obtained a job with a wholesale
metals company. Soon after he took the decision he received a call from Andy
(whom he had been chasing for ages), agreeing to an interview. XTC were one of
his favourite bands, so even though he was not going to use it, he travelled
down to Swindon to interview Andy for the feature that never was. Neil recalled
he spent most of the interview answering questions from Andy about his
McCartney interview.
Ever the entrepreneur, Neil left the wholesale
metals company to start his own business, manufacturing and supplying plastic
tubing, which he called Peninsular Plastic. The business did well and in 1995
Neil launched a new magazine called Reverb.
The tag line was Scandal-Music-Theatre-Comedy-Soaps-Filth. He was years ahead
of his time, as this was a free paper, funded by adverts. The first issue, in
October 1995, featured the Charlatans, Cast and TV soap Brookside. It attracted some quality writers including ex-Melody Maker journalist Penny Kiley,
John Robb and Liverpool playwright and author Ian Salmon. Reverb only ran for nine issues but captured the culture of those
times.
Just before he closed Reverb, Neil was asked if he would interview a new five-piece girl
band Virgin Records had signed. That was the Spice Girls, another scoop that
has never seen the light of day.
In 2016 Neil took over 81 Renshaw Street. At the
time it was just a café, but he has turned it into one of the most exciting
places in the north west for fans of culture, art and music. His favourite
customer is Single Man, not a reference to his marital status, but in
recognition of the fact that he has bought three 7-inch singles nearly every
day since the shop opened. The shop has thousands of these, on offer at 40p
each or three for a £1. Single Man has always gone for the bulk deal. One day
he even bought six for £2.
The work Neil has done promoting Merseyside
music through his magazines is not dissimilar to the most famous occupant of 81
Renshaw Street, Bill Harry, a name synonymous with Liverpool music, who helped
launch The Beatles. John Lennon was one of his best friends, when both were
studying at Liverpool Art College along with Stuart Sutcliffe (original bass
player in the Beatles) and Cynthia Powell (later Lennon, John’s wife).
Frustrated by the lack of media coverage of the
Liverpool music scene, Bill started his own Mersey
Beat magazine. Based on the top floor at 81 Renshaw Street, with the help
of his girlfriend Virginia - whom he had met at the Jacaranda club (now another
Liverpool record shop) and who later became his wife - he produced and printed
5,000 copies of the first issue which hit the streets in July 1961.
It was a huge success and soon became the street
music bible for Merseyside youngsters. Thanks to Bill’s contacts with The
Beatles, the band featured heavily in Mersey
Beat. Bill was able to obtain many scoops and featured sketches by John
Lennon in the magazine. Indeed so much Beatles material featured that the
magazine was sometimes jokingly referred to as Mersey Beatles.
The magazine’s circulation grew to 75,000 and
its popularity was instrumental in moving the hub of the music industry from
London to the north west. Instead of bands routinely moving south to London,
the industry A&R men came north to Liverpool to check out and sign many of
the hundreds of bands on the scene.
Neil told me about the only time Bill had
witnessed John Lennon in tears. John kept all his sketches in a drawer on the
top floor. During the move downstairs, his sketches went missing. John was
distraught. They were never found. Nobody knows if they were stolen or thrown
out. Neil is tempted to remove the floorboards in 81 Renshaw Street just in
case they have slipped down the cracks.
In his own way, Neil Tilly has continued the
great work done by Bill Harry.
Top tip
- Find yourself a window seat in the café and look out for all the Beatles tour
groups who stop outside the shop to hear tales and take photos. Keep an eye out
on the Indian restaurant at No.83 called Indian Legend. You will see many
people having their photograph taken outside. This is because Liverpool City
Council have produced a “Walking Guide to the Beatles”. It has the background
and photos of sites around Liverpool connected with the band. Unfortunately,
instead of taking a photograph of Neil’s record shop at No.81, they took a
photo of the restaurant next door. Neil reckons it has cost him quite a few
customers as many people go there for a curry, thinking they are eating in a
building connected with the Beatles.
Defend Vinyl *The
record shop helped by the kindness of Liverpool music fans*
150, Smithdown
Road, Liverpool, L15 3JR
0151
306 7121
Monday-Saturday
11am-7pm
Established
2016
Stock:
Vinyl, Pre-owned
It was a
joy to come across a record shop whose owner has the same name as myself,
Graham Jones. There is a lot of love for this little record shop, which was
opened with the help of a crowdfunding appeal. Launched on September 30, 2016,
the fund raised £1,890 in just 28 days, with 73 people making contributions.
Graham offered incentives such as mugs, T-Shirts and an invite to the launch
party. To attend, you had to pledge £50 - the perk being you had free drinks
all night. In hindsight, Graham wonders if he made any money on that last perk,
as the party was drunk dry.
Graham has
spent most of his life either playing in bands or being unemployed but now has
found his true vocation. The shop has attracted some colourful characters such
as the Giant Nutella man who walked in with the biggest jar of Nutella Graham
had ever seen.
Giant
Nutella man: “Would you like to buy this giant jar of Nutella for £10?”
Graham:
“We are a record shop.”
Giant
Nutella man: “OK, £8?”
Graham:
“We sell records.”
Giant
Nutella man: “Boy you drive a hard bargain. Make it £6.”
Graham was
not tempted, being dubious of the spread’s origin. Graham also proved why
record shop owners would make great detectives through this real-life
conversation:
Woman:
“Have you got that record?”
Graham:
“Which one?”
Woman:
“You know, that band who are always on the radio.”
Graham:
“Can you tell me anything more about them?”
Woman:
“Yes, they are massive.”
Graham:
“Any more clues?”
Woman: “The singer is a girl with blonde hair.”
Graham”
“Blondie?”
Woman:
“Not her, a different blonde woman.”
After six
more questions the woman walked happily out of the shop, having been sold a
copy of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
Sometimes record store staff deserve a medal for patience.
The shop
was formerly a tattoo studio, so Graham has endless former clients from that
business coming in to ask for a touch-up on their last tattoo or with an idea
for a new design, somehow not noticing the tattoo shop now stocks thousands of
vinyl records. Although Defend Vinyl is a little way out of the town centre it
is worth getting the 86 or 87 buses to support Graham’s shop.
Top tip - If you are thinking of opening a record shop,
I would highly recommend you use crowdfunding. Not only does it help raise
funds for you to buy stock, it establishes a community of people who will
support you and spread the word about the shop.
Jacaranda *Referred
to as The Jack by locals*
21-23
Slater Street, Liverpool, L1 4BW
0151 708
2942
jacarandarecords@gmail.com;
@jacarandalpool
Sunday-Thursday 1pm-10pm
Friday-Saturday 10am-2am
Established
1958
Stock:
Vinyl, Pre-owned, Coffee, Cake, Licensed, Memorabilia, Venue
Spread over three floors, Jacaranda is not just a
record store, but a café and bar housed in a venue historically tied to the
Beatles. It was opened by Alan Williams, the band’s first manager who became
known as “the man who gave the Beatles away”. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and
the group’s first bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe, were regular customers and
soon started pestering Alan for a gig at the club. Taking advantage of the
situation, Alan persuaded John and Stuart to paint the basement, in return for
which the band could use it for rehearsals. Eventually he agreed to give them a
gig when house band, The Royal Caribbean Steel Band, had a Monday night off.
The Silver Beetles, as they were then called, performed their first-ever gig in
the club in May 1960, and were paid with a soft drink and a snack. Over the
next couple of years, Alan lined up dozens of gigs for the band before they
left for an ill-fated (for Alan) residency in Hamburg. After an argument over
his 10% commission for setting up the trip, he resigned, famously advising his
successor, Brian Epstein: “Don’t touch them with a f****g bargepole.” Epstein
ignored his words of wisdom.
Bands can now follow in the footsteps of The Beatles
as the basement is still rented out for rehearsal space, although offers to
paint the basement, as payment, are no longer accepted. The Jacaranda offers 10
slots a week, free of charge - a great example of supporting local music. The
club closed in 2011, but reopened after a major refurbishment in November 2014.
The venue is managed by Graham Stanley, who has a long history in the Liverpool
club scene, and the record shop is run by Danny Fitzgerald, who also compiles
world music compilations for Island Records.
The
basement, with its alcoves and wooden benches, has lots of nooks and crannies
to sit in and with a replica Beatles drum kit on the stage, it is not
dissimilar in appearance to the original Cavern. You can see live music there
from Thursday to Sunday, starting at 8pm. The ground floor is now an
atmospheric pub with a traditional wood-panelled bar and lots of Beatles
memorabilia on the walls. Check out the wooden plaque on the wall celebrating
the meeting between Alan Williams and the Beatles.
Both the
ground floor and basement have beautiful Wurlitzer jukeboxes installed, full of
7-inch singles from the 1960s and later. They are popular with customers and at
peak times you may be waiting a long time to hear your selection. Upstairs is
now home to Jacaranda records. It allows the opportunity to choose a
second-hand record from the racks to play on the vinyl record players sunk into
the tables, while sitting in
six-seater listening booths. They have a good selection of Liverpool bands on
vinyl, not forgetting local superstar, the much-missed Ken Dodd.
Coffee, cake and cocktails are served until late.
Try the Fab Four Shots or a Strawberry Fields cocktail. Pride of place goes to
an original 1948 Voice-O-Graph machine, which allows customers to cut their own
two-minute record. Looking like a phone booth, they have recently attracted
much media attention after both Jack White and Neil Young made records in them.
Young recorded his 2014 album A Letter
Home in the Voice-O-Graph at White’s Third Man studios. It is incredible
that Jacaranda still has one of these fabulous machines, making it a must-see
for visitors to Liverpool. Jacaranda is set to become a major tourist
attraction, so pay it a visit before the crowds descend on a record shop with a
unique and fascinating history.
In the
summer of 2018, Jacaranda launched a pop-up store in Seel Street. Called Phase
One, it is part-record shop, part-bar, part-live venue and part-restaurant. It
contains four listening booths built from converted garden sheds. It is another
welcome addition to a city that is transforming itself for vinyl buyers.
Kaleidoscope Records
30
Westfield Street, St Helens, Merseyside, WA1D 1QF
01744
454190
Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Established
1984
Stock:
Vinyl, Pre-owned, Tour programmes
If you are
planning a record shopping trip in Liverpool and Manchester, travel down the
A580 between the cities and stop off at Kaleidoscope Records. Greg Duggins
swapped total silence for non-stop loudness when he left his job as a librarian
to open his own record shop upstairs in St Helens Market. Business was so good
that he moved to his current location. The shop is strong on psychedelia,
classic rock and krautrock and a must visit for anybody looking to purchase
tour programmes, of which Greg has a vast selection.
1,
The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 3BX
0151
708 8815
Sunday
12.30pm-5pm
Established
1971
Stock:
Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned, 7-inch singles, T-Shirts
Only
Brian Epstein and John Peel have done more to promote music in Liverpool than
Probe Records. The shop was founded in 1971 when Geoff Davis took out a loan,
found cheap premises in Clarence Street, and filled the place with pre-owned
records. He stocked the shop with music that he liked, so along with
progressive rock he purchased new vinyl records by blues, jazz and folk
artists. On the first day of trading he took £47, but word soon spread about
this friendly record shop where you were encouraged to hang out and the
proprietors were happy to play anything you requested.
Geoff
was quick to spot trends before they became mainstream and was soon importing
rare records from America and reggae from Jamaica. This meant a weekly journey
to Liverpool’s Speke airport (now John Lennon airport) to collect the
records. He also imported music he
heard on his travels further afield, and Probe offered wide-ranging collections
of Middle Eastern and North African music, well before the term “world music”
became popular.
The
raw sound of the Ramones from New York made an instant impression on Geoff, and
provided an early introduction to punk rock. In 1976, with the help of his then
wife Annie, Geoff moved Probe Records to a more central location at Button
Street, just off Mathew Street and less than a minute’s walk from the
celebrated nightclub Eric’s. The club, run by Geoff’s friend Roger Eagle, and
Probe Records became the hub of a vibrant local music scene that gave birth to
scores of Liverpool bands. With the punk movement taking off, Probe became a
meeting place where the new music could be listened to and talked about.
The
shop also became an unlikely tourist trap as people took a detour to gawp at
the brightly dressed crowd with their Mohican hair-dos gathered around the
entrance. During this period record shops were springing up all over the
country to cater for fans of the punk rock movement. The people who worked
behind the counter at Probe included Julian Cope of the Teardrop Explodes, Pete
Wylie of Wah!, Paul Rutherford of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and, most famously,
the late
Pete Burns who found fame as the singer with Dead Or Alive.
In
1981 Geoff set up his own record label, Probe Plus. The first release was a
self-titled EP by local band Ex Post Facto. Geoff was soon inundated with bands
wishing to release records on his label. He recalled the day Nigel Blackwell,
the frontman of Half Man Half Biscuit, came into the shop with his demo tape.
Geoff looked at the back of the cassette and it was full of tracks such as “The
Len Ganley Stance” and “Venus in Flares”. “If the songs are half as good as the
titles, we'll do it,” he told Nigel. They were, and it was the beginning of a
successful partnership that is still going strong today.
After
receiving a test pressing of the Half Man Half Biscuit album, John Peel rang
Geoff to tell him that the group was brilliant and to book them for the first
of 12 sessions that they would record for his radio show over the next few
years. Peel described them as “the best band in the land”. Their debut album Back in the DHSS became the best-selling
independent album of 1986, while their single “Trumpton Riots” was the
best-selling independent single. If you enjoy whimsical lyrics and have not
heard HMHB, you are missing out. As well as having the band on his label, Geoff
also manages them and introduces them at gigs.
In
1986 the Probe business split up, with Geoff taking the record label and Annie
the shop. In the early 1990s Annie relocated Probe to Slater Street, and once
again the shop found itself in the right place at the right time. Probe was now
just around the corner from Cream, which was to become one of the most famous
nightclubs in the dance scene.
In
August 2010 Probe moved again, to its current premises at The Bluecoat on
School Lane. The Bluecoat is an
established creative centre for modern art and music, and also the oldest
extant building in Liverpool city centre - and grade one listed to boot, hence
no signage on the exterior. I strongly recommend a visit. Probe is not just a
record shop but part of Liverpool’s cultural history. Beautifully designed by
Annie, the shop now has a whitewashed interior with art on the wall. Above the
entrance is an arched window, where you can often see music fans having their
photo taken. Annie still runs Probe with her long-serving members of staff Bob
Parker and John Atherton.
Top tip - Steve Harman and Nick Dawes are two amateur
cyclists who set up The Half Man Half Bike Kit Place Name Challenge. They
have resolved to visit every British place name mentioned in a Half Man Half
Biscuit lyric. They have been doing it for five years and, so far, have visited
115 places. They only have another 224 to go. Keep up with their progress at
halfmanhalfbikekit.com.
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.
www.thevinylrevivalfilm.com
It is available on DVD and can also be
watched on Vimeo
@Revival_Vinyl
For film screenings and talks contact Graham
at graham@lastshopstanding.co.uk
Over 100 record shop articles
on this blog - Check them out
The stories of record shops can be heard each week in The
Vinyl Revival Record Shop Podcast.
Also available
on Spotify
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