** Please note this review was for the original shop on Bury Old Road – Endless are now at a new location which we’re advised is bigger and brighter! ***
I’m South Manchester born and bred so the northern reaches of our fair city can be something of a foreign field to me. Needless to say the “top” end of Oldham St is often as far north as I get. However, after a number of good tip-offs I decided to dust down my ‘Saver Seven’ and head up Prestwich way. The town has it’s own interesting musical heritage – home to the legendary Mark E.Smith from The Fall, birthplace of 10cc’s Godley & Creme, and (somewhat bizarrely) in the early 80s Nico, the Velvet Underground’s ‘Femme Fatale’, settled here.
After some confusion between Bury New and Old road I found Endless Music snugly sat in Prestwich town centre (or the Village as the locals prefer to call it). Now, I have been told I can be prone to exaggeration (Surely not?!! – Ed) but seriously our kid, this is one of the best record shops I have dug in for years.
There can, at times, be a subtle hint of pretentiousness in the whole South Manchester music thing. I mean that Chorlton/Didsbury/Withington beards n’ Acid Folk vibe, of which I am wholly guilty of contributing to sometimes. Let me tell you people this place is solid, down to earth Manchester in all the wonderful ways we seem to sometimes deny on the South side. I got a warm and friendly welcome straight away and, after 15 minutes of chat, a coffee and the story of the shop. In that time a number of other punters came in and the place was alive with music, conversation and good humour. That reminded me of the time I used to attend all those concerts in the U.S. Interestingly within 30 minutes another well known digger had appeared in the shop, one of the “regulars” and a vinyl aficionado….
Endless Music was opened by Mike in 2000 and currently has around 10,000 albums, 10,000 12″s and over 35,000 7″s, at a very rough estimate. Mike himself is a singer and possesses a valid songwriter agreement. All genres are covered from Rock, Pop and Soul through to Disco, Soundtracks, 60s, 70s, Reggae, Northern, Jazz, Spoken Word, TV and Film, Rarities, Picture Discs and many more. I didn’t actually see any CDs but they may have been lurking in a corner. The main room is heaving with racks upon racks of albums and the back room is where you will find the 7″s and where I spent 2 hours digging and playing.
The prices are very good and the guys will generally do a deal if you’re buying a bag full and why wouldn’t you?. Their motto is “shift it” so there is little preciousness regarding holding on to stuff or getting rid of “rarities” at a top price….However this attitude is also matched with a pure love for all forms of music and together it’s a pretty unbeatable attitude.
I only had 2 hours to spare, which actually after a couple of phone calls stretched to 3, but even then I didn’t really begin to touch the edges of this vinyl Utopia. Boxes of the latest arrivals were winking at me as I left and man I know that elusive Patsy Ray 7″ was in one of them.
Endless Music is highly recommended and a real crate-diggers paradise. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in here then give up! The stock, the atmosphere and the geniality of Mike and the gang makes Endless a new stop on my regulars route. Bang on our kid!!
