Selectadisc timeline
1966 - Brian Selby opens the first Selectadisc as a stall in Mansfield market.
1969 - Selectadisc relocates, moving to Arkwright Street, The Meadows, Nottingham.
1970s - The store relocates to the centre of town on the site of the current Royal Centre.
1980 - Selectadisc moves to its current location in Market Street.
2009 - The store announces it's to close at the end of March.
I hear so many stories and anecdotes from people about how many hours of their lives they spent thumbing through vinyl in the store I thought it would be a good opportunity to collect some of these stories together....... peoples memories of what is an iconic shop in Nottingham, one which people travelled from far and wide for the little grey bag and a new piece of alternative music to immerse ones self in.
I spent an afternoon with the guys in the shop taking some shots of the daily patter in Selectadisc and the people for whom it holds so much affinity, you can view these @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/axeman3uk/sets/72157614807766918/.
As well as the memories if you have any photos you want to share please post them with your stories.
Selectadisc........ the people..... the place and the memories.
It is over to you now................ your stories and memories.
Edd Cunningham shows some of the great music he's bought from Selectadisc over the years......
My tribute: A small collection of the CD's I have purchased from Selectadisc over the years. Many have become, and still are, favorites of mine.
To me, this presented the fact that music taste has stayed largely the same for the past 5 years or so.
(Click on Ed's pic to view his other photos)
My final clutch of jems from Sleccy.....
My final (unless I get tempted back in again over the next week!) clutch of quality gems and top tunes from Selectadisc Nottingham........ a real mixed bag!
1. Various Artists - Mind Rocker (13 disc set of 60's US punk garage psych)
2. Scott 4 & Magic Car - European Punks LP
3. Ocean Colour Scene - North Atlantic Drift
4. Phil May & The Fallen Angels - Fallen Angels (Pretty Things spin out)
5. Downliners Sect - Sect Maniax ('76 reformation of band split in '68)
6. Scott 4 - Works Project LP
7. Various Artists - Mop Top Pop (Collection of 60's UK beat stuff incl Kinks, Hi-Fi's Soul Agents)
8. Buffalo Tom - Besides (US indie band from '90s onwards)
9. The Crooks - Just Released (classic late '70's mod revival)
10. Aerosmith - Live Bootleg (no introduction needed!)
11. Boo Radleys - Find The Way Out (best retrospective of all thier greats)
12. Billy Nicholls - Forevers No Time At All (anthology)
13. The Cure - The Cure (still as good as ever)
Let's here some more of your memories, over to you.....................
Andrew Eberlin says:
ReplyDeleteThat is terrible news.
I grew up in Nottingham and bought my very first records in Selectadisc many years ago. It all started with ACDC when I was 11, but by the time I was 14, I started buying New Order, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and Talking Heads records. With my limited pocket money, their second hand records enabled me to start a music collection that has grown to obscene levels now.
I also remember when they had Space Invader machines downstairs. A group of us used to go there during our lunch break from school and spend our pocket money on shooting down space ships.
With Jimmy Sirrell dying recently, what great institutions are left in Nottingham? Maybe Rock City?
Rozmund Beefweight says:
ReplyDeleteI was gutted when I heard that Selectadisc was to close, growing up in Nottingham there was two things I used to look forward to. The weekly youthclub up at the local sports centre, and Saturday afternoons in Selectadisc.
For me it was more than just a shop, it was an integral part of the social scene for an image conscious teenager, it was where a great many friendships were made, and adolescent relationships broken!
It was during these years that the medium of vinyl started to die out, but rather than lie down and take it, Selectadisc had developed an almost cult following that sustained.
I am absolutely gutted that this iconic symbol of many peoples saturdays is being killed off.
Posted 19 minutes ago. ( permalink )
melodysparks - Chris says:
ReplyDeleteI only have vague memories of seaching through the racks of LPs in the early to middle 80s
Yeah, I'm gutted too.Can't say that it was a place I frequented personally but I have lots of younger friends who were keen shoppers there. I did go in once to look for an old jazz record for a play and was delighted that they had it in stock. Real shame to lose another bit of independent shopping choice in Nottingham.Nice blog.
ReplyDeleteI spent hours at Selecta - spent many lunchtimes and Saturdays at the Goldsmith Street shop sitting on the big sofa listening to all the new music. In those days I used to buy 3 or 4 albums a week and occasionally the odd second hand one must have spent a fortune in there. Just round the corner was Jack Brentnalls where I nought my first guitar. Selectadisc will be missed and I just hope they can keep it running somehow.
ReplyDeleteGoing in Selectadisc and expanding my music taste certainly inspired me to dabble with a couple of instruments, I did own a drum kit and was reasonable (sure the neighbours agreed ;-) and tried the guitar but was never talented enough to translate my love of music into anything meaningful, all respect to Pete as I do anyone who can play an instrument.
ReplyDeleteI shall just be happy being a music lover!
jason blackwell says:
ReplyDeleteI have always visited the shop everytime Im in nottingham for over 20years,loved spending hours and my first pay packets in there.And if you ever heard something on john peel you would know selectadisc would have it by the end of the week. great shop with great memories
I used to go to the branches on Goldsmith Street & Bridalsmithgate in the 1980's. I used to buy tapes & they always had a good selection. Then they moved to Market Street & had the 2 shops. The one at the bottom was great for second hand stuff & 12" promos for a quid, or new chart singles for 50p. Also used to like to go to Way Ahead on St James' Street, and of course Arcade Records. Kevin used to run a great shop where he could get import CD's quickly & quite cheaply & have great bargains generally.
ReplyDeleteMiss them all & now the big S. Hopefully Fopp will stay open, otherwise all we've got is HMV. Looks like the Internet & E'bay have won again.
jp
ReplyDeletei worked for jim for four years and he was a great manager, passionate, respectful and of course knowledgeable. jim and phil bembridge are the reason i have been working in entertainment for 23 years. it was a great place to work and every day i looked forward to working there. here's to jim, basil,dickie,phil,chopper christie,tracey , norwich dave and the tramp who used to sit by the door keeping us company on the evening shift
Chris Edwards
ReplyDeleteI worked in the Bridlesmith Gate singles department of Selectadisc as a student during the late '70s. It was the only place you be sure to get backcatalog music - the stock was phenomenal and the other staff really knew their stuff - Mel even knew the catalogue numbers of every Motown single by heart!You also got to hear something other than radio playlists when you went into the shop, which greatly enriched the experience.Sorry to see it falling victim to online shopping - you still can't beat flicking through real CDs and vinyl. Best wishes for the future Jim.
ady hibbert
ReplyDeletesince i was maybe 16 i bought all my vinyl from selectadisc, ranging from elo to floyd or tangerine dream. saturdays wont be the same ever again in notts. what better way to spend ya time , going to selectadisc for your fave cd/ dvd and going to a pub and having a few pints whilst looking at the stuff you bought. greatly greatly missed .bless you all
Rosie
ReplyDeleteAnyone else remember the the shop on Arkwright St? Spent many a happy hour searching through the vinyl on Saturdays.
D-Kav says:
ReplyDeleteI went in on Saturday and bought my last CD, a promo of Modern Way by the Kaiser Chiefs (50p)
Whilst buying my Dad a Buddy Holly cd I'd not seen anywhere else for his birthday the other day I picked up another gem, an old Izzy Stradlin album from 2001....... that's what great about Selectadisc nomatter how many times you went in you could always find a gem.
ReplyDeleteThe Rhythm Addict says:-
ReplyDeleteAnyone else ever suffer from cramp after going through every single rack looking for the bargains that were seemingly scattered at random throughout?
It was just me then!
cosygreeneyes says:
ReplyDeleteMy first purchase from Selectadisc was in 1968 when me and a friend bought Harry J Allstars "The Liquidator" and The Upsetters "Return of Django" from the original shop on Arkwright Street in the Meadows.
While I was at Trent Polytechnic I spent many a lunchtime in the shop on Goldsmith Street which was knocked down to make way for the Royal Centre.
Has the London shop also closed that appears on the cover of Oasis's "( What's The Story) Morning Glory?..........................S
Andrew Eberlin said:
ReplyDeleteGreat photo.
Thanks for sharing this bad news and taking all these iconic photos. Selectadisc was a big part of my growing up. Without it, I may not have enjoyed so many years of listening to such great indie music.
Story in the Guardian on March 13th 2009 by Mike Atkinson:
ReplyDeleteSleccy's vinyl countdownMike Atkinson on the rise and fall of Selectadisc, a much-loved institution in Nottingham since 1966
Mike Atkinson The Guardian, Friday 13 March 2009 Article historyEvery city deserves a great record shop: as hang-out for the cognoscenti, learning centre for the novitiate, and focal point for the local scene. Since 1966, Nottingham's music lovers have congregated in Selectadisc - a much-loved institution, widely regarded as one of the country's best. Two weeks ago, to general gasps of dismay, the store announced it would close at the end of March. Although we knew times were hard for independent music retailers, few imagined that good old "Sleccy", of all places, would go under. Then again, how many of us were still pushing money over its counter on a regular basis? As with so many revered institutions, we had taken it for granted for too long.
Selectadisc began life as a market stall, before moving to tiny, condemned premises - with cheap rent to match - on the edge of Nottingham. Before long, owner Brian Selby spotted an opportunity to corner the market in Northern Soul rarities. Opening a "soul cellar" below the main shop, he traded in US imports and UK repressings, offering unmatchable bargains to Midlands soul fans - including a young Pete Waterman, who travelled up frequently from Coventry. A mail-order business followed, along with a record label (Black Magic), which licensed reissues of Northern Soul floor-fillers. Its biggest release, Papa Oom Mow Mow by the Sharonettes, briefly grazed the top 30 in 1975.
By the early 1980s, Selectadisc had graduated to the city centre. In late 1983, Selby bought a dilapidated reggae club in the old Lace Market, relaunching it as the Garage: a hip alternative to the chrome-plated, smart-dress-enforced pick-up joints of the day. Needing someone to play records in the upstairs bar on opening night, Selby press-ganged a young Selectadisc sales assistant called Graeme Park, at under a day's notice. Park's 25-year reputation as an international house DJ was founded at the Garage. Two years ahead of the 1988 "Summer of Love", he spearheaded the introduction of Chicago house into the UK, before graduating to the Hacienda in Manchester. "If it wasn't for Selectadisc, I would never have become a DJ", he says today.
The club's success fed back into the shop, which soon opened a dedicated singles store. Where soul DJs had once cursed Selectadisc for undercutting the value of their rarities, hordes of aspiring bedroom DJs were now flicking through its racks of 12in vinyl - a format the store never abandoned.
"I've always stuck with vinyl," says the current store manager, Jim Cooke. "During the 1990s, I remember going down and talking to people at Warner Brothers when I was trying to get a load of John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus reissued. They just thought: you're a fucking idiot from the sticks. And I proved them wrong. I've talked to EMI, and got Morrissey and Blur albums repressed. I also did a lot of work with Gordon Montgomery, who owned Fopp. The two of us used to work together in getting things reissued."
Ironically, the Nottingham opening of Fopp in 2001 marked the beginning of the end for Selectadisc. Hoovering up the "50-quid bloke" market, Fopp effectively beat Selectadisc at its oldest game: sourcing and discounting overstocks, deletions and cheap imports. When Fopp went into administration in 2007, Selectadisc's profits briefly bounced back up, only to slump again when the Nottingham Fopp was one of six stores in the chain reopened by HMV.
For 18 months, Sleccy soldiered on, "more as a social service than as a normally functioning business", as current owner Phil Barton admits. But squeezed between the defecting 50-quidsters, the convenience of online retailers, and the general decline of recorded music sales, it was living on borrowed time. Now that time has been called, the punters have come flooding back - but you'll still struggle to find anyone in there under the age of 30.
"I had two kids, two weeks ago, come into me", says Cooke. "They were doing a business studies course at the local university. One of them said, 'Why is your shop geared to classic rock like Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull?' I said, 'When did you last buy a CD?' And he said, 'Six years ago.' So I said, 'Well, there's your fucking answer, mate.'"
Andrew Saxton
ReplyDeleteI am really saddened at the loss of Nottingham's best record shop. If Forest were away, I always used to be in there on Saturdays. V much hoping it can continue, but their attitude to new technology holds warnings for us all.
James Spackman
ReplyDeleteSad to hear its closing , been going in there for 25 years .Bought my first CD (secondhand) from there 20 years ago.I hope something can be done to keep the name alive.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTrevor Welsh
ReplyDeleteGreat loss.....now leaves only Picadilly Records (Manc), Sister Ray & Rough Trade(both Lon) left...Where are the other great record shops?
martin weselby
ReplyDeletei rememeber the stall on mansfield market place on saturdays back in the early 70's, with brian - and have great happy memories thumbing thru the racks n racks of albums during my lunch hour away from woolies- we spent so much time there my mate n i that we never got the chance for any lunch!But always with a stack of vynil lp's and fairly empty pockets! And i frequented the store when it was on goldsmith st [i believe?]... always a relaible source for that difficult to obtain cd, and as a lover of 70's rock, it was always an eye opener to see cd versions of albums that you'd thought never would see the light of day on disc. sadly... this pleasure and indeed, priviledge will be no more...thanks guys, your service was tops, and hope you'll seek alternative vocations very soon...R.I.P....
A shopper from Arizona - visited the store on a trip 10 years ago - wonderful home for music - our independent stores here saved by interest in vinyl
ReplyDeletejust heard about this. I used to work at Way Ahead, that was my first initiation onto Nottingham record shops when it was on Hurts Yard. I worked at the St James Street shop. Later I moved on to shopping at Selectadisc, I remember hearing The Stupids for the first time at the branch on Bridlesmith Gate, buying Surfer rosa on tape (!) after seeing The Pixies and My Bloody Valentine a night or so before, the same with Fugazi. Used to see Dicky (did a column for MRR) on the same bus on a Saturday morning as we went to work at our respective shops. Selectadisc was my major port of call, I bought and sold countless records during the 10 years or so I shopped there. Such a shame that another wonderful institution has shut its doors permanently.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem our beloved Sleccy is to re-open under the same name but new management.
ReplyDeleteOnly time will tell if it has the same feel and appeal, but best wishes to the new owners.
Jim Cooke's worldwide knowledge has maintained Selectadisc's credibility for years. I remmeber being next to Noel Edmunds in the Goldsmith store; he asked me whether I should buy Judie Tzuke or The Jones girl. I've been with Judie for 30+ years since; great, Selectadisc and the foudations of many a hogweeds meeting of minds. Stephen Hall sends his best wishes to all thew team, however late.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem our beloved Sleccy is to re-open under the same name but new management.
ReplyDeleteBut it hasn't - has it?
Indeed still waiting, rumour has it it will open with a coffee area / cafe???
ReplyDeleteWait and see......
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