Those were the days, etc…from the very wonderful flashbak.
Here’s a record shop that would have had bags…
http://flashbak.com/british-record-store-bags-1960-1990-35773/
And then there was the bag…
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Hi Mike, here’s an example from Glasgow, late 1970s…
Spent a ton of money there in the ’70s on Ramones imports and other great stuff. Fantastic little shop. Future Texas guitarist used to work there, doing his best James Dean moody expression.
I can go further back than that Fitter but I have no photographic evidence. Original Listen bag was a white poly with a paper “Listen” sticker a la the above typo, then there was the Frank Zappa bag – a pic of Uncle Frank with the slogan “Frankly Cheaper”.
I was looking for a picture of the “Frankly cheaper” bag – couldn’t find one anywhere…..
…and another, also from Glasgow…..I’m told that there is now a Starbucks where Bloggs used to be…..
Part of the then Listen empire which sadly crumbled after Punk Rock.
There is more info on Listen and loads of other record shops on the British Record Store Archive website.
http://www.britishrecordshoparchive.org/listen1.html
This is where I used to buy my records when I was student in Plymouth in the mid-1980s.
It was owned by Jeff Barrett who went on to start Heavenly Recordings.
Back in January 1963 at 24 Market Avenue was Pete Russell’s Hot Record Store which survived right up to 1987. Pete himself died just recently. Here’s an obit.
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Hi-fi-stereos-78s-jazz/story-14100645-detail/story.html
I went all misty-eyed when I spotted the Vibes bag on that website. I worked on the outskirts for seven years and went into their shop almost every day. They were a chart shop and often sold promo copies and special releases when given them, at much reduced prices.
Graham Jones tells a funny story about one of the assistants from Vibes in his Last Shop Standing book. The guy looked like Robert Plant and knew it. Hopeless as a rep though.
It’s a fantastic website, but be warned – you could spend half your life looking at it.
I found it at Bruce’s…… regularly every Saturday!
https://thelocalrecordshop.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/ebayscans036.jpg?w=830
A similar/companion site to get lost in:
http://www.britishrecordshoparchive.org/berkshire.html
Selectadisc in Nottingham….. *low moan of unfulfillable desire*
Spoiled me for other record shops it did.
I’ve still got a Selectadisc bag, kept as a souvenir when I moved from Nottingham. Can’t bring myself to get rid of it.
Mmmmm…. silvery……
I don’t know how to post images but if I could it would be a bag from Reddingtons Rare Records in Birmingham. No defunct but the scene of many a long hour spent thumbing through the records on a Saturday in the early 1980s for me.
We may well have rubbed shoulders! It went online years ago but he finally sold up last year.
There may well have been three of us then! When Danny Reddington’s shop was by the underpass to Moor Street station I would pause on my way home from work to rifle through the boxes of LPs on the trestle table outside and found many, many bargains there.
Listen Records, Butts Centre, Reading.
Independent shop and victim of the Pinnacle/Rough Trade distribution problems
Bag was Black (none more Black) & Gold – just right for the leading Hard Rock/Import retailer in this sleepy Berkshire Town.
Bought my first album, with my own money in this shop – a snotty 12 year old brandishing 4 £1 notes for a copy of Number Of The Beast surrounded by Long Haired Greasers whol looked like they were born in the clothes they stood in. I’m sure most of them actually lived there!)
http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t490/Rigid_Digit/listenrecordsbag_zps2n8gxbhp.jpg
I’ve a pre-silver selectadisc bag and a space invader way ahead one. From the dark ages, it feels like. Now where did I put them…?
Selectadisc bags used to be orange, and made of paper, back in 1973 when I first came to Nottingham. I must have had hundreds over the years – none remain however.
No bags, but my round of record shops in Dublin in the early 70s was Dolphin Discs in Liffey St, then round the corner into Henry St for Rediffusion, quick pop into Eason’s on O’Connell St, then across the bridge to Tara, just left on the quay. Bought loads of LPs there, absolutely no idea anymore what the bags even looked like. Later, having moved there as a student, discovered the Dandelion Market. Cool place, not just for records.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A416PeuCEAImoRy.jpg:thumb
This is where I used to work.
I hope this works…
So this is a naked man with some plastic bags.
Sooo glad this is cropped.