Flipping Vinyl: A Lunch Hour Look in to London's Vintage Vinyl Bins
Lunch breaks aren't just for eating...unless you use them to gobble up the best of London's vintage vinyl.
I have recently discovered that there are almost one dozen vintage vinyl shops near my office in London. I work off of Oxford Street, near Soho. I went for a stroll the other day and realised that I was smack dab in the middle of my London Record Shop Search map (find it here)!
This is dangerous for many reasons. In the next few months I see three things happening as a result of my lunch break discovery...I will get skinnier, my wallet will get lighter and my vinyl collection will get much fatter. The other problem I see is that I will have to come up with excuses as to why my lunch hour has turned into a lunch hours.
Damn the problems! I have mass vinyl at my fingertips!
I am going to use this post as a photo album for my lunchtime vinyl hunt exploits. The album will keep updating as I send pics frm my iphone (via the PicPosterous app). I'll update the comments so that you can see when new vinyl haunts have been properly hunted.
To kick things off, let me tell you a bit about what I saw today:
The first shop I stopped in was"On the Beat". This shop has been alive and owned by the same guy for 31+ years! He not only had the coolest old vinyl, but he was playing great tunes...RL Burnside was blaring out from the shop into the streets when I approached the shop. He had all kinds of old Melody Maker, Creem, Rolling Stone original copies hanging on the wall; tons of artifacts and souvenirs, framed, autographed pictures; many racks of obscure, bootleg and special release vinyl.
I need more time in this shop. Too much to take in just thirty minutes. I found a gem here though: an original pressing of Bob Dylan & The Band's, "Basement Tapes". There'll be good rocking at my place tonight for sure.
The second shop I stopped in was "JB's Records". JB's was a bit smaller, certainly did not lack in volume of cool vinyl. The shop itself has been there for almost 30 years; the current owner has had it for the last ten.
Here I picked up two classics from two fave acts:
- Booker T. & The MGs: "Green Onions"
- Keith Richards: "Talk is Cheap" (first solo album)
Stay tuned for more vinyl bin flipping fun...
- Posted from Camden Town, United Kingdom
Comments (5)
He wins the award for most adjectives, superlatives and grandiose statements crammed into one sentence.
I can't decide if I like them or if they ruin the sweet simplicity of the music of the Basement Tapes.
Nice new gig locale, Juddster. I started my UK working life in Soho, too. Famous for, among other things, being the birth place of cholera (see the John Snow pub and the nearby water pump culprit). And of course, the first Stones gig in 62 at The Marquee.
I can see some self-imposed lunch-at-desk sessions on your horizon, mate. Ignore the calls from the vinyl bins or your bank manager will lock you up!
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