I did a double take walking down Church Street this lunchtime. There now stands a pile of rubble where the bookstall and ramshackle old Church Street Records once ‘stood’ in its own lopsided, weatherbeaten way.
In its place will be some new market stalls which, to be fair, is infinitely preferable to more flats or an extension for T**co. Apparently all the existing stall holders have been offered a new spot too. It sounds like the bookstall will be back, but there is no mention of whether Church St Records’ owner has taken them up on the offer or decided to call it quits. If I were a betting man I would say they probably won’t be racking up the Clive Dunn LPs and shop soiled copies of Candy Flip’s second single in a shiny new stall in a few months time, but if anyone knows different let us know!
You can still read our notes on the strange little place, and Graham Jones recalls the unique sales technique of Church Street Records ‘staff’ in the article he kindly wrote for us which is here:
But lets not get all dewy eyed and nostalgic. As I passed the site I was actually carrying some new tunes purchased up the road in the Northern Quarter where trade in recorded sound (to people of all ages!) was brisk. It wasn’t free downloading, Amazon, Ebay, the general meltdown of the music industry or even T**co that finished Church Street Records off..they survived all that. It was a Bulldozer wot done it.
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