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Posted

DARLINGHURST AND GLEBE : Recycled Records?

I was just discussing one of my favourite LPs with another inmate, Holger Czukey's On The Way To The Peak of Normal, when I remembered where I got it , back in 1984- a business in Sydney with one store in the first block of Glebe Point Rd and another at Taylor Square (location, location, location!). I think it was called recycled records , it was run by a husband and wife team. I mainly went to the Darlinghurst one. Once he got to know me he put me on to various things- and this was one of them. It was recorded on all valve gear,  (connie Plank's Studio) but  i didnt know what that was when I bought the album. Sadly the couple broke up and I think the store went under. As they say, Divorce is no way to make money.

 

That was just when "perfect sound forever "  was coming in too- you know discs that you could play tennis with and they would keep playing.

 

 

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Posted

My vote would go to the original "Impact Records" store in Canberra (with the Klipsch Belle's hanging from the roof and all the store staff looking like they are cast members of Spinal Tap or Dead Heads.  Was an awesome store right in the middle of Civic in Canberra.

 

For the more civilised set there was "Abels" in Manuka.  Something usually sophisticated, minimalist and interesting being played on Michael Brown's spherical concrete Audiosphere's with the Coral Flat 5 series 2 full range 5 inch drivers (Michael also worked at the store).  

 

Was great to get the left brain, right brain catered for with both of the above options.  Both stores dearly missed.

 

LPG

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Posted (edited)

In the 90's I used to go to Aeroplane Records in a basement on Victoria St in Hobart run by a chap called Len (if I'm not mistaken).

Sadly Len has passed on few years ago and his business is now run by others at a market stall.

I do miss Len and the basement, especially now that I've returned to Hobart.

 

https://www.themercury.com.au/entertainment/local-music-legend-charles-linley-lin-stanton-has-died-aged-74/news-story/963c918a36df07f3d0288c0f1d1abd2c

Edited by YCC
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Posted
On 12/3/2024 at 11:40 PM, Lansche plasma guy said:

My vote would go to the original "Impact Records" store in Canberra (with the Klipsch Belle's hanging from the roof and all the store staff looking like they are cast members of Spinal Tap or Dead Heads.  Was an awesome store right in the middle of Civic in Canberra.

 

For the more civilised set there was "Abels" in Manuka.  Something usually sophisticated, minimalist and interesting being played on Michael Brown's spherical concrete Audiosphere's with the Coral Flat 5 series 2 full range 5 inch drivers (Michael also worked at the store).  

 

Was great to get the left brain, right brain catered for with both of the above options.  Both stores dearly missed

Yes impact was great, I love your description of the staff. The Original store was down the far (east) end of civic near the alternative cinema, now it’s the casino end. Later they moved to the huge premises in Civic central. 
They sold that business to JB hifi I think, and, according to a recent news article they moved to Potts Point ( Sydney;) but are no longer in business 

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Posted (edited)

In the late 70's and 1980's, Grenfell Records on Grenfell Street in Adelaide. was fantastic especially for English and American folk records. I recall that Stefan Grossman's entire Kicking Mule catalogue was available for instance as was a rather large collection of John Fahey's Takoma Records. Jazz was also well catered for although I had zero interest at that time. Strangely, there never seemed to be any other customers in there on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Prices were similar to all record prices back then notwithstanding that these were nearly all imports. Those were the days! $5.95 for many years, then $8.95, then later, $12.95.

Edited by Bisguittin
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Posted

World Album Imports
Hampton St Hampton in Vic
was started by a mate of mine then later sold the business to Gill Mathews(Billy Thorpe+ The Aztecs)
when my mate had it he had Amcron Electrostatic Speakers and crown pre power system set up in the shop for sample listening
bought heaps of import albums from him and also when Gill took over,Ross Wilsons wife (She's  a Bop Girl)Pat worked there for quite a while,was good to have people behind the counter that were into music as much as yourself
Fond Memories🎼 
 

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Posted (edited)

 

 

Wonderful memories, l still have the albums l bought from World Album imports!

Mobile Fidelity Abbey road,  Aja, Dark Side Of The Moon and lot of  Japanese pressings- it helped me restart collecting records again after l looked what I had after a long hiatus with CD and family distractions!

Guy l remember was young and mentioned he had Krell or ME amps in his home system from memory (?)

That was around 80 -81 🤔

Edited by evil c
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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, evil c said:

 

 

Wonderful memories, l still have the albums l bought from World Album imports!

Mobile Fidelity Abbey road,  Aja, Dark Side Of The Moon and lot of  Japanese pressings- it helped me restart collecting records again after l looked what I had after a long hiatus with CD and family distractions!

Guy l remember was young and mentioned he had Krell or ME amps in his home system from memory (?)

That was around 80 -81 🤔

 may have been John cant remember his last name,was in the shop one Saturday about closing time John invited myself and a mate that was with me back to his house in Hampton for a bit of a session,he had not that long been back from the Middle East on Holidays well the drive back to the Red Brick(Chelsea Hotel)in my HR Prem down Beach Road was like flying a 707,different days back then,
i do remember that one of the shipments when my mate had the shop was held by customs and from memory he was fined for importing contraband into the country,customs would randomly check the boxes of Vinyl and one they checked had either Bob Marley or Peter Tosh with Marihuana leaves on the cover,:clover:  they also kept the album's.

Edited by ray4410
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Posted

Wards record store, Blacktown NSW.

Way back in the 70s.

Four booths to listen on headphones.

Fabulous, listen before you buy.

Posted

Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane was the place to get alternative and indie vinyl in the 70s and 80s. Always had the best Japan (the band) imports from the UK and ... Japan (the country). 

 

Still going strong and run by the same owner Warwick Vere!

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Posted

Still brings a tear to my eye when this place closed in Perth, the thing that attracted you to the shop was the storefront window that you couldn't see through, just had album covers in the windows  so you couldn't actually see inside the store...

  

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Posted

Mrs. Yates at Spit Junction, Mosman , NSW

maybe also called Spit Junction Records, mid 60’s  ( but not by us people in the know).

School days. We used to hang around here listening to music. We could not understand how this woman who seemed old and wrinkly knew so much about current releases.

Posted
On 12/03/2024 at 11:40 PM, Lansche plasma guy said:

My vote would go to the original "Impact Records" store in Canberra (with the Klipsch Belle's hanging from the roof and all the store staff looking like they are cast members of Spinal Tap or Dead Heads.  Was an awesome store right in the middle of Civic in Canberra.

 

For the more civilised set there was "Abels" in Manuka.  Something usually sophisticated, minimalist and interesting being played on Michael Brown's spherical concrete Audiosphere's with the Coral Flat 5 series 2 full range 5 inch drivers (Michael also worked at the store).  

 

Was great to get the left brain, right brain catered for with both of the above options.  Both stores dearly missed.

 

LPG

I think Abels is the one I used to go into in '79-'80 when I was in school up the road. The Audiosphere's made a big impression.

My favorite one in Melbourne was Pipe Imported Records in the Cathedral Arcade. A mecca for imported LP's, I got a lot of Klaus Schultz and stuff from Conny Plank's studio from there.

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Posted

Are we talking LPs second-hand and library collections here? We are. Here are the record stores that accounted for much of my spare time and cash in Sydney for several decades!

 

Slightly off topic, but in the zone is/was the US Information Service Record Library in Margaret St, Sydney; all through the 60s I visited there after school to borrow Ella & Louis, Charles Mingus (including his solo piano album), Bill Evans, Miles Davis and such, from the huge collection. These were premium recordings, often the double gatefolds, and an enduring introduction to the Great American songbook. Wot fun.

 

My local library at Mona Vale also had many thousands of professionally cleaned LP treasures (eg a very large Lyrita catalogue and many EMI/Deccas and European labels). O happy day when they shifted to CDs and sold most of the collection for a pittance (eg all the Bach cantatas (Harnoncourt/Leonhardt) on Telefunken pristine vinyl for $50).

 

The Pitt St Mall had the Angus & Robertsons record division (or the shop next door?...can't recall) with prime LP recordings and imports very often on sale in the early 1980s. Sometimes I could barely carry all those purchases home on the bus.

 

I also fondly recall the vast repository of second hand records at Ashwoods in Pitt St, Sydney:

Ashwood’s was also a popular music store which, in 1951, turned over about 10,000 records each week. The shop relocated in 1987 from Pitt Street to Castlereagh Street, before its final move to 129 York Street as Ashwood’s Music and Books. One customer recalled:

"When it was full of records all jumbled up with only rudimentary order, so to shop at Ashwoods was to search deeply through the history of recorded music. The records all had the trademark round edged square price stickers and the price scrawled in pencil on the record itself, perhaps to stop any price tag switching. The store had a spiral staircase leading up to a less-used upper level, most of the action happened downstairs among the men (and it is usually men) flipping through records."

[From 'Sydney Bookshops', by Joan Lawrence & Richard Blair]

 

Not forgetting:

Bob Gould’s Third World Bookshop opened at 35 Goulburn Street in 1967. In the 1970s he moved across the road; he also had a Third World Bookshop at Woollahra. Robert (Bob) Stephen Gould (1937-2011) was a political activist and book dealer. In all, he opened 12 bookshops, including the Pitt Street Bargain Co. and the Book Arcade in Leichhardt piled high with books: always his shop style. In 1989 he opened Gould’s Book Arcade at the city end of King Street, Newtown, with shelves crammed and books piled along the floors. [From 'Sydney Bookshops', by Joan Lawrence & Richard Blair]

Bob's LP stash was a huge, chaotic, motley collection of towering and teetering records covered in dust BUT you could often find real gems there...eg Johnny Hartman US pressing, and any amount of original Aussie rock.

 

Of course there were many other smaller places specialising in exotica or niche LPs, and the 2MBS-FM Record Fair reigned supreme in the 1980s and 1990s after the onset (?onslaught) of the CD. [Even your average op shop/Vinnies might have some ffss/ffrr Deccas, or whole mini quality collections, landed entire in a box after some poor sod's recent demise.] Happy memories of satisfying those collecting urges for reasonable cost. Then 2MBS-FM itself started selling their outstanding LP collection! Halloo, hallay, O frabjous day...

 

Brickbat: even today I am still encountering the infuriating el cheapo LP price stickers that festoon many a vintage cover. No amount of coaxing will ever remove the sticker without also taking some of the cover with it! Grrr (sound of muffled profanities)😡 [I have been waiting a long time to use that emoji]

 

I rarely buy new LPs these days because I am a born again streamer when it comes to new music. When I do, I confess I use the US or Aussie audiophile online services. Having said that, the remasterings from Analogue Productions and Music Matters (to name a couple of producers) are outstanding.

 

Who could possibly be a fan of the crappy LP product you see in some places that amount to nothing more that a poor vinyl copy of an inferior digitised recording?? I am not. 

 

I understand why new record stores are not actually viable as they were in the past. I'm just pleased that the tradition continues in an altered form--hopefully with the emphasis on quality. But the current prices! Bring me my smelling salts....

 

When I play an old LP treasure to a young family member they just cannot believe the sonic quality. My mission continues, even though now I am now the old sod with too many LPs (all of which I can't listen before the 'final session' starts). Stop me before I start reminiscing again.

 

 

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Posted
On 13/03/2024 at 7:45 AM, YCC said:

In the 90's I used to go to Aeroplane Records in a basement on Victoria St in Hobart run by a chap called Len (if I'm not mistaken).

Sadly Len has passed on few years ago and his business is now run by others at a market stall.

I do miss Len and the basement, especially now that I've returned to Hobart.

 

https://www.themercury.com.au/entertainment/local-music-legend-charles-linley-lin-stanton-has-died-aged-74/news-story/963c918a36df07f3d0288c0f1d1abd2c

Oh Wow - I used to go there too ...................loved it there 😀

 

He used to also have all these old issues of magazines - Rolling Stone etc and I used to buy them all if they had Madonna in them 😊

 

That is the first time I ever saw  coloured vinyl too - he had  Madonna's True Blue album on blue vinyl which was a collectors piece back then and so expensive,  I was of the CD era by the time I had my own money to spend so I passed on it but I remember holding it in my hands to this day & admiring it.

 

But I did buy from there a sealed copy of Madonna's "Erotica" single from her Sex Book - he had a copy of that and I was so happy as it was super rare (you could only get it if you bought the book which I never could afford either) it is a different *naughtier* version to the album and standard single release.

 

Nice memories ...............thanks for sharing.................

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Posted
On 17/03/2024 at 4:47 PM, Dystoria said:

Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane was the place to get alternative and indie vinyl in the 70s and 80s. Always had the best Japan (the band) imports from the UK and ... Japan (the country). 

 

Still going strong and run by the same owner Warwick Vere!

When I lived in Hobart in the 90s, I used to ring them and they would tell me what new Madonna CDs they had in stock - DJ mixes and any bootlegs and post them to me ..........and now I live on the Gold Coast I will pop in and visit if I get up that way too.

Still a great store!!

 

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Posted
15 minutes ago, April Snow said:

When I lived in Hobart in the 90s, I used to ring them and they would tell me what new Madonna CDs they had in stock - DJ mixes and any bootlegs and post them to me ..........and now I live on the Gold Coast I will pop in and visit if I get up that way too.

Still a great store!!

 

Yeah, Warwick is a champion. He would lend me a cd or two to listen to (in the 80s). I hope Warwick isn't reading this but I still haven't returned Ian McCulloch's Candleland. Swings and roundabouts!

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Posted

More a question - is The Record Exchange in Brisbane still going? If so, is it still mostly a complete disaster inside?

 

As a teenager in the 90s it led me down so me wonderful pathways.

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Posted
48 minutes ago, TheBlackDisc said:

More a question - is The Record Exchange in Brisbane still going? If so, is it still mostly a complete disaster inside?

 

As a teenager in the 90s it led me down so me wonderful pathways.

Yeah, it was chaos. A pile of vinyl to sift through though.

 

The other indie record store was Skinny's. More goth and industrial for my liking - had quite the cult following.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Dystoria said:

Yeah, it was chaos. A pile of vinyl to sift through though.

 

The other indie record store was Skinny's. More goth and industrial for my liking - had quite the cult following.


Agreed - Skinny’s was awesome too, often a debate amongst mates as to which completely subjective aspect made one or the other (or rocking horse) the best.

 

At least we all agreed it was not HMV!

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Posted
19 minutes ago, TheBlackDisc said:


Agreed - Skinny’s was awesome too, often a debate amongst mates as to which completely subjective aspect made one or the other (or rocking horse) the best.

 

At least we all agreed it was not HMV!

HMV, omg! 😂

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Posted
17 hours ago, TheBlackDisc said:


Agreed - Skinny’s was awesome too, often a debate amongst mates as to which completely subjective aspect made one or the other (or rocking horse) the best.

 

At least we all agreed it was not HMV!

The guys that ran Skinny's now have Sonic Sherpa at Stones Corner. I believe it is one of the owners of Skinny's

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Posted
1 minute ago, NoCoder said:

The guys that ran Skinny's now have Sonic Sherpa at Stones Corner. I believe it is one of the owners of Skinny's


My teenage years were in Brissy, but moved back Melbourne in 2001ish - but will check it out if I’m ever back.

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Posted

My go to in Brisbane in the 80’s & early 90’s was Kent Records - run by none other than Clarke Kent (I’m not kidding). I did prefer it to Rocking Horse (though didn’t mind Rocking Horse either but they had a smaller store back in the day).

 

Kent Records was in a basement down a set of stairs - now some sort of a sex shop. To Rocking Horse’s credit - they’re still going…. Not sure what ever became of Clarke.

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