Sunday 27 February 2011

Secondhand Record Shops #8 : Plymouth












When I first moved down here to the South-West every town and city seemed to have a choice of secondhand vinyl stores. Bristol, Exeter, Barnstaple, Truro, Taunton, Brixham ... slowly they are all dwindling away. Plymouth. Ten years ago Plymouth had three fine secondhand record shops including a Record & Tape Exchange ... the only one outside of London. Now sadly gone.
Plymouth does have one of the finest secondhand vinyl shops left in the South-West though. "Really Good Records" situated in the Bretonside Bus Station. "Really Good" used to be situated near the University but re-development has brought it into the City Centre.
Here there is a huge choice of 12" vinyl with each genre clearly categorized. Large amounts in the "Punk/New Wave" and "Post-Punk" and "Industrial/EBM" sections. "Goth", "New Romantics", "Manchester" and "Indie - 1980's - 1990's" all have their own sections too. Great for browsing. There's also lots of Jazz, 70's flared stuff and Avant-Garde to have a go at. Big shop, big selection. I shall make visiting to Plymouth a must on the calendar.
Pricing seems fair with most vinyl costing between £3 and £10. I found a Fiat Lux White Label 12" of "Aqua Vitae" and the Wavis O' Shave LP, both mint and bargainously priced. The shop owner also cleaned my records on some "Ronco Automatic" record cleaning device and I got to keep the PVC protective sleeves at no extra cost. Good Man!
There are 7"'s by the counter, but after the huge selection of 12"'s / LP's the amount is a tad disappointing. There's also unsorted boxes to go through, but I unfortunately didn't have the time.
If in the area I thoroughly recommend Plymouth as a stop over. There's also the Barbican / Marina area full of secondhand book shops and antique / junk shops that have boxes of records.

Pictures:
1: Really Good Records in Bretonside Bus Station.
2: Really Good Records in Bretonside Bus Station with mandatory tramp.
3: Oscar, Isabel and Myself in the Barbican celebrating my Wavis O' Shave LP purchase.
4: Wavis O' Shave "Anna Ford's Bum" LP. (Anti-Pop Records).


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