The Right Spectacle for £3 - And record stores in general..

[DrJ]

FOPP on the Tottenham Court Road in London were selling this for £3 yesterday. They had many, many, many copies for sale, however it's still £20 on their website. They also have many out of date versions of the back catalogue for sale: Original MLAR & TJL, 1993 versions of B&C, etc...

Maybe this should go in the Annex but I really find little joy in record stores anymore. The thrill of the chase that was part of putting a record collection together has gone and the mixture of prices is off -putting. Example: Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series one came out on DVD for the first time this week with the shops stocking it at £16-20 for a 2-dvd set, however the Virgin Megastore was selling a 7 dvd boxset of all the Monty Python movies for £15. I think this sends out the wrong message completely and puts people off buying anything. Any thoughts...

DrJ

[mood swung]

The last time I bought something in an actual record store was when TDM came out and we were on our way to Nashvegas to see Nick Lowe at the Belcourt. The pricing is ridiculous - we were in Target last week and season one of My Name is Earl was $20. Over at the mall store, it was $34.99, where they are trying to pay mall rent with record sales. It has taken a lot of the charm out of buying. I guess eBay is filling that hole for me.

and, yes, this belongs here because Elvis is guilty of those greedy little "special edition" releases ruining the record buying experience.

[pophead2k]

I still love visiting small, independent stores. The one in my neighborhood has very reasonable pricing ($3-$4 less than a mall outlet) and has a great selection of interesting groups and artists. Plus the guy will order anything for you. I could care less for shopping for music at big retail outlets, but the small stores, rare as they are, are still a source of pleasure.

[BlueChair]

I could spend hours at places like Sonic Boom or Sam The Record Man here in Toronto. But what ends up happening more often than not is that I buy something I had no intention of buying when I walked in the door. I think that's the beauty of a really good record store... finding those hidden gems. And I find that stores that are large enough always have some good deals, even if other stuff is priced unreasonably. You'll find the same thing on Amazon, really...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Good to see you again, Dr J, and thanks for the heads up. I've been waiting for TRS to be £3 before buying! I love Fopp.

[ReadyToHearTheWorst]

I find the layout of some stores v. offputting.

The Virgin MegaStore hereabouts has taken to filing everything by price, and then not even alphabetically. That's OK if you just wanna browse, but trying to find something specific is too much trouble.

They're also giving more and more space to phones/ipods/games etc that music seems an afterthought.

Gimme a decent independant any day.

[martinfoyle]

I still love visiting small, independent stores. The one in my neighborhood has very reasonable pricing ($3-$4 less than a mall outlet) and has a great selection of interesting groups and artists. Plus the guy will order anything for you. I could care less for shopping for music at big retail outlets, but the small stores, rare as they are, are still a source of pleasure.

I couldn't agree more. These days when I'm in town I qickly flit through Tower and HWV in case they've any deals going (e.g. got the 'Heads Fear of Music re-issue for €9.99 in Tower yesterday) but spend much more time in places like Spindizzy ( got that great Hebden/Reid Tongues album there yesterday as well btw), City Discs and Freebird. Brian in the latter will gladly order anything, I often hold off on getting a big new release, lke the recent Ry Cooder album, until he gets it in. These stores also have great 2nd hand sections as well. Long may they survive.

[DrJ]

A funky old vinyl shop will always have its charm. Last year, as a reaction to the virtual nature of my record collection (26,000 tracks on a 250Gb drive) I set up a 1980's Sony Hi-Fi with a great turntable and returded to buying albums in vinyl again. Stocking up on favourites from second hand shops was fun and it seemed to be the best way to take in At War With The Mystics.

However new releases and things I would have splurged on when they came out seems to be a waste of time because the path from items moving from the front of the store to being discounted has become very short. The pricing in stores makes it hard to take them seriously.

DrJ

[Otis Westinghouse]

Fopp Cambridge had no Right Spectacles, and in fact the useless Saturday Girl serving me didn't seem to have ever heard of EC, so Fopp lose some points there.

[verbal gymnastics]

That reminds me of when I went to HMV in Bluewater to try and buy the 7" vinyl of Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution). The girl looked at me blankly and said it was a strange title. I said it was a ballad and she just looked blankly at me

These youngsters eh? No sense of humour. Probably on drugs. I blame that Tony Blair myself. Tony Blair? Tony bloody-liar I say (goes on forever )

[Otis Westinghouse]

Perhaps she thought you were asking if she wanted to tear off her own head?

[Deportee]

I remember buying Dexter Gordon LPs dirt cheap from a stall in in DeCourcy's market in Byres Road in Glasgow in the mid-80s. The guy moved to a shop in Byres Road - can't remember what the original name was, but it was rebranded as FOPP. It was always good for a bargain and IMHO it's great that it's moved south of the border. You'll find stuff in FOPP in Bath and Bristol that you can't find in HMV or Virgin. As far as I understand the stores outside of Glasgow are a franchise, so each manager will choose their own stock. Current bargains are Graham Parker live on King Biscuit and the 2nd Lowgold album both at £1! Sorry if this sounds like an ad but I've not got any connection apart from the money I've spent in there! If there's nothing in particular I want, I have a rule that I must buy something by someone not already in my collection at not more than £7.

However, I agree that it has something of a corporate feel to it nowadays, but there's not many of the independents left nowadays for a good browse. Swordfish in Birmingham, Lost in Music in Glasgow, Spin in Newcastle, but they are run by/for ageing hippies like myself!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Good to have a rule in Fopp. I am sometimes scared by my lack of them. Interesting if each store can have different offers, and so what you see on their website may not be what you pay in the store?

[bambooneedle]

You've gotta push the thrift.

[marc w]

Unfortunatley Gordon, who founded Fopp, sold his soul to the devil a while ago and fopp is now owned by ex-HMV people trying to get back at their old bosses. The buying is all centralized and managers only have an influence over the number of copies of items and not what they sell. Fopp are now going the way of all the others, I'm afraid.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Oh dear, and I've been such a fan. Disaffected (former) employee?

[marc w]

No just a punter who's sorry to see them turn into all the others. They now have 100 odd stores in the UK and just seem hell bent into rivalling HMV. Problem is, they'll just end up being a clone of the kind of place the original stores were such a great alternative to. Sad.

[DrJ]

Yeah, about 3-4 years ago, Fopp took some money off venture capitalists to expand and now they're getting bigger and bigger. They took over the majority of Music Zone stores that went bust in the UK recently and in the course of a week did something crazy like double their number of outlets from 75 to 150.

Anyway, was in Fopp Covent Garden yesterday and got the Juliet Letters Rhino rerelease for £5. Result. I was very touched when re-reading the "Original 1992 Sleevenote" that our hero had removed any mention of Cait. Classy.

DrJ

[Otis Westinghouse]

Never did buy it back in the day, but on Amazon for all of £2, so I thought 'why not?'