# Share your memories of Tower Records, HMV, Virgin Megastore, and other CD stores!



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Today as downloaded like 10-11 albums via iTunes at the Harmon's supermarket I thought about how "tragic" that online classical music stores could be gotten in the most mundane of places-- the supermarket. However that isn't a bad thing as I can access virtually classical music CD/album without having to special order (which I still do once in awhile at Barnes and Noble locally downtown). Any album instantly pretty much!

Also with iTunes making the process of converting CD's into digital files nearly obsolete, I feel that it would be imperative to share my memories of having worked in the classical music department at the Philadelphia HMV upstairs during 1997-1998 which was an awesome experience.

It wasn't a very good paying job but I really enjoyed it because I got a chance to work with kids who attended Curtis institute of Music. It was a chance to share my love of classical music recordings ranging from Yo-Yo Ma (who I used to appreciate more back then but now I'm more of a huge Jacqueline du Pre fan) to S. Richter to Horowitz. It was the place I got to learn that Hilary Hahn first existed.

Also I would visit a lot to Tower Records and make special trips via the NJ Transit up to NYC just to find that rare CD recording, particularly the offbeat opera recording like Rake's Progress, etc. I also just miss seeing all those huge a-- box sets where there was a display of the Phillips Complete Mozart Edition where I could physically see the hundred plus CD in a very large display case. Wow.

I don't get that sense with iTunes but it's still cool to watch the download bar as I get an album I guess .

By the way, the classical CD music store isn't dead. We still have the most wonderful Academy Records which is in some ways cooler than Tower Records.

http://www.academy-records.com/









R.I.P.









Please share your memories of any classical music CD store (not virtual) or vinyl shop, etc.


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## ToneDeaf&Senile (May 20, 2010)

I miss the days when one could enter a brick-and-mortar record store and find row after row of disks devoted to a single composer, with all but his or her most obscure works available in multiple interpretations. I was lucky to have been stationed it Southern California back when most Tower Records branches maintained larges separate rooms or an entire floor devoted exclusively to classic. One store (I believe it was on Sunset Blvd, but might be misremembering) kept its classical department in a separate building from everything else. The staff in that store and a few others tended to be knowledgeable about what they carried. There were of course a number of other stores with huge classical departments, but their names elude me.

I was stationed in Japan during the late 1980s. Some excellent record stores there. Many boasted comprehensive video sections with all sorts of classical video (on the now obsolete Laserdisc format) including much that never made it to the States. I could kick myself for not buying more of those. (My Laserdisc player still works!, though its remote gave up the ghost years ago, making access to some special functions impossible.)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Yes, the days I could go into a Tower Records, enter the classical room (a big one!) and ask for a recommendation, and get one immediately -- usually a good one! Times have changed a bit.

BTW for a replacement Laserdisc remote, you might try one of several sites -- I recently bought a replacement remote here...

http://www.remotes.com/


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Yes, the days I could go into a Tower Records, enter the classical room (a big one!) and ask for a recommendation, and get one immediately -- usually a good one! Times have changed a bit.


Ironically I remember burning out a complete day shopping just at the Tower Records in Lower Manhattan. It was an exhausting experience by the time that my stepdad and I hit up the dinner plates somewhere in NYC before heading back rather late to Philadelphia.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

How about Licorice Pizza and Sam Goode?

Tower was best though. Separate room or store, Sunset, for classical.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Itullian said:


> How about Licorice Pizza and Sam Goode?
> 
> Tower was best though. Separate room or store, Sunset, for classical.


We still have a FYE here but I don't ever go there. All of my classical CD's are procured via Amazon or Barnes and Noble for me or my stepdad. Digital downloading is predominantly my forte.


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

There was Sound Warehouse too. Even Best Buy used to have a separate room for Classical Music.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Itullian said:


> How about Licorice Pizza and Sam Goode?
> 
> Tower was best though. Separate room or store, Sunset, for classical.


I used to go to all of them. In NYC we had Korvettes, Virgin, Tower Records, Sam Goody, etc.
So much fun to browse. Miss those great days.

As a kid, I always made pilgrimages to Korvettes in downtown Brooklyn. They surprisingly had a very nice selection of classical music. I felt at home there.
It's no longer in business.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

albertfallickwang said:


> We still have a FYE here but I don't ever go there. All of my classical CD's are procured via Amazon or Barnes and Noble for me or my stepdad. Digital downloading is predominantly my forte.


A cautious question: Are you downloading from Amazon as MP3s and then converting to a lossless format? If so, it seems to me you'd get exactly the same sound but with a much larger file size...


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

KenOC said:


> A cautious question: Are you downloading from Amazon as MP3s and then converting to a lossless format? If so, it seems to me you'd get exactly the same sound but with a much larger file size...


Nope... I am converting strictly only my CDs to Apple Lossless and albums I don't have on CD are downloaded in AAC format from iTunes. Sometimes I have both the CD and iTunes version.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Meh -- don't miss 'em. Tower flopped in the early 2000s in Toronto. HMV lasted much longer but towards the end, they were simply selling cheap t-shirts.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Morimur said:


> Meh -- don't miss 'em. Tower flopped in the early 2000s in Toronto. HMV lasted much longer but towards the end, they were simply selling cheap t-shirts.


I have wonderful memories of Tower Records in downtown Toronto. It was huge and very well organized. (The only time I was out of the country before.)


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Tower Records? I gather you're talking about a music store? I entered the thread thinking it was the Tower Records label.

Around Detroit we had Harmony House record store. That is long gone. Miss the days of such stores, but at least I still have Dearborn Music to brows the aisles of.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Tower Records? I gather you're talking about a music store? I entered the thread thinking it was the Tower Records label.
> 
> Around Detroit we had Harmony House record store. That is long gone. Miss the days of such stores, but at least I still have Dearborn Music to brows the aisles of.


LOL... sorry I meant this Tower Records: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Records


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

It seems like there is a demand for not so much the ability to buy music (since we now get almost any of it much easier) but for the social / cultural experience of the shopping. 

I've often dreamed of opening something like "Classical Cafe" to try to fill that social gap. But the experience of discovery, or of finding something that one had heard of and looked for in store after store without finding until one day... 

I'm not sure music will be a retail commodity much longer. What happens when all the music is on something like Spotify and we just listen to whatever we want whenever we want without having to own anything? Perhaps there is some glamor that we'll never recover.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

science said:


> It seems like there is a demand for not so much the ability to buy music (since we now get almost any of it much easier) but for the social / cultural experience of the shopping.
> 
> I've often dreamed of opening something like "Classical Cafe" to try to fill that social gap. But the experience of discovery, or of finding something that one had heard of and looked for in store after store without finding until one day...
> 
> I'm not sure music will be a retail commodity much longer. What happens when all the music is on something like Spotify and we just listen to whatever we want whenever we want without having to own anything? Perhaps there is some glamor that we'll never recover.


Plus it was cool to meet new people hanging out at Academy Records or HMV, etc. Can't really do that as easily on Facebook or iTunes.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

albertfallickwang said:


> Plus it was cool to meet new people hanging out at Academy Records or HMV, etc. Can't really do that as easily on Facebook or iTunes.


Right. There needs to be a place to actually meet the people. Even a message board isn't enough.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Florestan said:


> Tower Records? I gather you're talking about a music store? I entered the thread thinking it was the Tower Records label.
> 
> Around Detroit we had Harmony House record store. That is long gone. Miss the days of such stores, but at least I still have Dearborn Music to brows the aisles of.


Yes. A HUGE record store. You could browse there for hours.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

science said:


> Right. There needs to be a place to actually meet the people. Even a message board isn't enough.


The closest that I have gotten is our monthly Salt Lake Classical Music Society meetings that Ben, Powell, and I host.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Personally, I enjoy shopping for CDs on-line or adding them to my Amazon wish list. If you wanna socialize, go to a coffee shop or used book store. Technology is morphing us into a socially awkward society (this is mostly true of younger generations) but what can one do? It is what is.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Was never fond of my local branch of HMV - the staff were often sneery 'we've got better taste than you' types, the music they blared out was often terrible and, to cap it all, I was once rudely apprehended outside the store by one of their security staff on a suspicion of theft. It transpired that the bar code on my purchase didn't register properly but there was no apology forthcoming from anyone for the embarrassment of being stared at in the street while being accosted by a black-suited Vinnie Jones wannabe.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Here's a famous place I used to enjoy rummaging around in for records.










Inside










If you couldn't find something, you just asked this guy.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

starthrower said:


> Here's a famous place I used to enjoy rummaging around in for records.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Very cool.......................


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I still clearly remember my first two opera CD purchases: the Carlo Rizzi _La Cenerentola_ at a Tower Records in Alexandria, Virginia in 1998 and the Richard Bonynge _Rigoletto_ at a Borders in Alexandria the following year. Going to Tower in Washington, DC was always a special and exciting occasion; they seemed to have _everything_ there. Yeah, in a way I do miss those days, though to be honest I appreciate the fact that I can now buy CDs online for a fraction of the retail price.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> I still clearly remember my first two opera CD purchases: the Carlo Rizzi _La Cenerentola_ at a Tower Records in Alexandria, Virginia in 1998 and the Richard Bonynge _Rigoletto_ at a Borders in Alexandria the following year. Going to Tower in Washington, DC was always a special and exciting occasion; they seemed to have _everything_ there. Yeah, in a way I do miss those days, though to be honest I appreciate the fact that I can now buy CDs online for a fraction of the retail price.


Speaking of cost, I live near DC where even the damned used bookstores are expensive. Cheap used books are things I miss about Toronto.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

science said:


> What happens when all the music is on something like Spotify and we just listen to whatever we want whenever we want without having to own anything?


Didn't it already happen years ago? :lol: Maybe not every last performance of every work... but I repeatedly ask myself why I bother to buy anything anymore. I think I'm still getting better audio quality from CDs through my hifi system (please, let's not get started on that, okay  ), so that makes it worthwhile. And I feel it is much more relaxing to put on a disc and sit back in the chair than to stoop over the keyboard cueing track after track, and then often just skipping over and sampling, instead of really listening.

Yes, I can recall spending hours in Sam the Record Man. They had a special glassed-in room all in wood for classical enthusiasts, with hifi listening stations. Then, there was A&B Sound, with the whole mezzanine floor devoted to classical. Let's not forget the specialty classical stores, Fidelio and the French Horn. Then there was Tramps, a mega used record store, with four locations locally, that had classics galore, and they used to trade 2 for 1  Or, flying to Paris to visit the Virgin Megastore on l'Avenue des Champs-Élysées. And off I'd trot to visit all five or so locations of FNAC  No, I couldn't get enough. I loved Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus in the Friedrichstraße in Berlin, for those special items that Saturn and WOM didn't carry. And then, they even opened a Virgin Megastore in Vancouver! But it was already coming to a close. I am surprised that Sikora and Magic Flute in Vancouver have survived! I need to get out there again.

But, back to the present. Prices used to be $25-$29 for a DG album. Now, they can be ordered, shipping included, for $10-$18. There were few deals then. Now, the fairer sellers and wholesalers on Amazon often offer new recordings for under $5... and I mean highly desirable recordings, not budget albums. And the selection today includes everything that is available; then, one had to fly around the world and visit local shops weekly in a vain effort to see the full selection.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

For me Spotify is cool for only previewing the music but I would never just rent my music out. I believe in ownership.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2014)

The loss of Tower Records is still too painful to talk about. I feel as if I've lost a family member.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Kontrapunctus said:


> It's still too painful to talk about. I feel as if I've lost a family member.


I agree... it is very painful to discuss for me too.


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## PeteW (Dec 20, 2014)

science said:


> It seems like there is a demand for not so much the ability to buy music (since we now get almost any of it much easier) but for the social / cultural experience of the shopping.
> 
> I've often dreamed of opening something like "Classical Cafe" to try to fill that social gap. But the experience of discovery, or of finding something that one had heard of and looked for in store after store without finding until one day...
> 
> I'm not sure music will be a retail commodity much longer. What happens when all the music is on something like Spotify and we just listen to whatever we want whenever we want without having to own anything? Perhaps there is some glamor that we'll never recover.


Classical Cafe - like it! Sounds like there's a lot of us out there missing the CD and vinyl shopping experience.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

I can't count the times I walked into a record store and there was some great music playing and I ended up buying it. I love still browsing record/cd stores, the few that are left. 

I tried buying and downloading music from the net but it was a deeply unsatisfying event. It felt like I was getting nothing real for my money. Also it didn't give me an exuse to go into town.

I remember when Tower Records opened in London at Picadilly Circus. Massive it was. I still have some of the large prints they were giving away. The Classical section was great. I could spend all day in there alone.CD was just starting and I bought a Genesis CD which was in a sort of bubble pack, vertically with the cd open. I used to by the CD catalogue which came out every three months and was practically a pamphlet! Not a lot of classical CD's at the time. Heady days!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

For me, it was Tower Records when it was all LP's - then later CD's.

Thing is, about the right kind of shop like Tower, _the personnel were extremely knowledgeable_ about both the rep and the sundry available recordings of that rep.

When younger, my developing taste was very well-directed, and I very well-served, by clerks in these stores. They surmised from what I was buying my current comprehensions and tastes, and more often than not, were ready with a suggestion of a piece or composer which I was 'ready for,' -- at just the right moment where it would take.

These clerks functioned in the same way a wonderful librarian did (does) in that they were very aware of what you were 'into,' and could direct you to both more of the same, and very cannily lead you to the edge of adventure of something new to you which would 'take.'

Tower folded in what, early 2000 or so. *There is not really any substitute for this developed over time highly personal interaction between client and well-informed clerk, no software designed to say "You might also like" could ever be so perfectly tailored to an individual.* In those youthful years of acquiring recordings, no software could have or would have determined from my purchase pattern of modern and contemporary only, that, for example, "You might like Carl Neilsen's Symphony No.5." Well -- it was the electrifying recording w Bernstein and the NYPhil, and I did like it more than a little!

Though I am now well past any real need of such directive help, I rue its loss for any of those beginning to learn about and acquire classical recordings.

Later, I found the collective hipster staff of Reckless records a collective trove of information, too, on a par with the collective canniness of those antiquarians who staff the Antique Road Show style shows.

It is not, then, "the shopping experience" nor really so much a browse flipping through what was in the store that is missed as much as that personal interaction with others who knew music and the recordings so well.

*Along with the premise of the OP -- how many younger people today have any idea of what was The Schwann Catalogue, or what a treasure of a resource (monthly publication) that was? *


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

PetrB said:


> For me, it was Tower Records when it was all LP's - then later CD's.
> 
> Thing is, about the right kind of shop like Tower, _the personnel were extremely knowledgeable_ about both the rep and the sundry available recordings of that rep.


Exactly. One time I walked in and asked if they had any sacred music by Thomas Weelkes, and the salesclerk, without batting an eye, brought me right to it. I complemented her on her knowledge of classical music, and she replied dryly, "I should be. I was a music major." (Apparently she thought her degree should have gotten her somewhere else.)

We had a semi-famous salesclerk at the Tower by Vanderbilt University named Igor. He graduated from a conservatory in Russia, but there was some problem with his credentials transferring over, so the only job he could get at the time was with Tower. All us classical geeks loved him. I used to pop in just to talk to him.

Then there was the clerk who introduced me to Arvo Part. He was shuffling through his paperwork and at the same time telling me the finer points of this composer.

They always had specials during holidays. I remember blowing off a Fourth of July gathering just so I could drive down to Tower to get Leonhardt's Brandenberg Concertos at a discounted price.

They used to have musicians come in and perform. They even once had the conductor of the Nashville Symphony signing CDs, which was cool.

It was sad when they closed. I've wondered where all those orange-haired salesclerks ended up. I'm sure when they lost their day jobs, a thousand garage bands had to break up.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Manxfeeder said:


> Exactly. One time I walked in and asked if they had any sacred music by Thomas Weelkes, and the salesclerk, without batting an eye, brought me right to it. I complemented her on her knowledge of classical music, and she replied dryly, "I should be. I was a music major." (Apparently she thought her degree should have gotten her somewhere else.)
> 
> We had a semi-famous salesclerk at the Tower by Vanderbilt University named Igor. He graduated from a conservatory in Russia, but there was some problem with his credentials transferring over, so the only job he could get at the time was with Tower. All us classical geeks loved him. I used to pop in just to talk to him.
> 
> ...


Wow, I used to be an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt and I do remember that Tower Records located on West End Avenue. It was the first major music store I visited and their classical section was incredible to me apart from visits to the Blair School of Music.

Too bad I didn't know Igor there. I attended Vandy in 1994-1997 so I don't know whether we would have been in the same time frame.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I remember with great pleasure trips to London that included happy hours browsing in HMV on Oxford Street and then later Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus.
In Leeds we had a small classical record shop run by two very knowledgable guys, who inspected the LP's before you paid for them. They had a great stock and would happily recommend stuff.
BUT if memory serves me right when CD's came out I was paying £10 ($15) each and that peaked at about £15 by the late eighties. Tower Records etc failed because people were not prepared to pay enough to keep them profitable.
We are all benefitting from the vast range at the tip of your finger at prices that seem too good to be true. The same technology gives me this forum, and I get to interact with you lot
I think on balance I prefer it like this


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

albertfallickwang said:


> Too bad I didn't know Igor there. I attended Vandy in 1994-1997 so I don't know whether we would have been in the same time frame.


Igor was there within that time frame. He was only there for a few months, unfortunately.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Haydn man said:


> I remember with great pleasure trips to London that included happy hours browsing in HMV on Oxford Street and then later Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus.
> In Leeds we had a small classical record shop run by two very knowledgable guys, who inspected the LP's before you paid for them. They had a great stock and would happily recommend stuff.
> BUT if memory serves me right when CD's came out I was paying £10 ($15) each and that peaked at about £15 by the late eighties. Tower Records etc failed because people were not prepared to pay enough to keep them profitable.
> We are all benefitting from the vast range at the tip of your finger at prices that seem too good to be true. The same technology gives me this forum, and I get to interact with you lot
> I think on balance I prefer it like this


Indeed, and the competitive pricing on iTunes and Amazon mp3 didn't help either with Tower Records or HMV.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

During 1980s I lived in Chicago near north lakefront area called Lincoln Park, this is the Tower Records on Belden & Clark St within walking distance of where I lived, Tower occupied entire 2nd floor of this large complex, grand entrance by escalator from street level lobby. The store had insanely late hours almost never closed........

Within a few blocks along Clark Street were several boutique stereo shops to help you constantly spend money upgrading your home stereo as well..........


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

In the early 1980s I went to Los Angeles to job interview for a couple weeks and almost every night I would swing down to Sunset Strip where this famous Tower Records is, about a block away is Whiskey a go go where I saw a couple bands play. Every night the streets/sidewalks were so full of people partying traffic was almost stopped and Tower Records parking lot was an outdoor party every night, those were the days.......for rock music this is like a historical landmark


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

DarkAngel said:


> In the early 1980s I went to Los Angeles to job interview for a couple weeks and almost every night I would swing down to Sunset Strip where this famous Tower Records is, about a block away is Whiskey a go go where I saw a couple bands play. Every night the streets/sidewalks were so full of people partying traffic was almost stopped and Tower Records parking lot was an outdoor party every night, those were the days.......


I used to go there every few months for their great selection. I was in the top purchasers list as during one visit I spent over 700 dollars there.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

DarkAngel said:


> In the early 1980s I went to Los Angeles to job interview for a couple weeks and almost every night I would swing down to Sunset Strip where this famous Tower Records is, about a block away is Whiskey a go go where I saw a couple bands play. Every night the streets/sidewalks were so full of people partying traffic was almost stopped and Tower Records parking lot was an outdoor party every night, those were the days.......for rock music this is like a historical landmark


I went in there once. I remember the awe I felt at the selection. I was in Ontario, and the record stores there were so limited, I felt like I was in Xanadu.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

DarkAngel said:


> In the early 1980s I went to Los Angeles to job interview for a couple weeks and almost every night I would swing down to Sunset Strip where this famous Tower Records is, about a block away is Whiskey a go go where I saw a couple bands play. Every night the streets/sidewalks were so full of people partying traffic was almost stopped and Tower Records parking lot was an outdoor party every night, those were the days.......for rock music this is like a historical landmark


And it was ALLLLLLL classical. The rest of the genres were across the street in another store!!!!


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> ....I am surprised that *Sikora* and *Magic Flute* in Vancouver have survived! I need to get out there again....


"Flute" was dead in January 2007. Sikora's business model had to change, and for several years it's been mostly used CDs and LPs, with new comprising maybe twenty percent of what it once was.

For a twenty year period I was a hunter 'n gatherer throughout brick 'n mortar North America. I did little when travelling the rest of the world. I know it's blasphemy to some, then and now, but I had more important and pleasurable things to do. Golf being one. No regrets.

Many of us kidded about h & g'ing as raison d'etre. Truer for some, than others. I always did it as fast as i could. I was a hit 'n run h&g'er. A hobbyist, if you will. It was great filler-time.

Throughout, I always dreamed of something like Amazon Marketplace...the opportunity to get my hands on those elusive CDs. The dream came true much faster than I imagined. All-in-all, I have to agree with Haydn man. I like today's balance.:tiphat:


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> I still clearly remember my first two opera CD purchases: the Carlo Rizzi _La Cenerentola_ at a Tower Records in Alexandria, Virginia in 1998 and the Richard Bonynge _Rigoletto_ at a Borders in Alexandria the following year. Going to Tower in Washington, DC was always a special and exciting occasion; they seemed to have _everything_ there. Yeah, in a way I do miss those days, though to be honest I appreciate the fact that I can now buy CDs online for a fraction of the retail price.


I used to frequent the DC and the Rockville MD branches where I would sit down after work and read the latest editions of Gramophone or Opera News or Fanfare. It was a nice escape. After the reading, I would then browse around and pick up a few albums here and there. The selections were not as good as the one in Manhattan (around 72nd street and 7th Ave. then it moved to 66th St.), but I like the atmosphere. There was also a bit of a snobbery courtesy of some of the staff members, and some folks were not into "I want to meet you" type, but there were interactions I do miss today.


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

In the late 1970s and early 1980s I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where there were always at least three shops with good selections of classical music: Discount Records at State and Liberty; Liberty Music a block away on Liberty; and the University Cellar, the student-run bookstore which was first in the Michigan Union, then on Liberty a block further down from Liberty Music. After I left, the Borders Book Shop (the *original* Borders!) moved into a vacated department store and added music and videos, and Tower Records moved in on South University.

During and after graduate school, whenever I visited a "big city" I shopped for LPs/cassettes/CDs (depending on the era) at whatever big store was available, usually a Tower Records.

New York: Tower Records on West 4th and at Lincoln Center; and J&R Music World on Park Row.
Boston (Cambridge): The Harvard Coop and Tower Records, on Harvard Square.
San Francisco: Tower Records near Fisherman's Wharf.
Chicago: Rose Records in the Loop on Wabash, next to the "L" tracks, which some point became a Tower Records.
Washington DC: Tower Records near Pennsylvania Ave. in Foggy Bottom.
Atlanta: Tower Records and Borders
Charleston SC: Millennium Music
Charlotte NC: Borders

Of course, those are all gone now.

Also on trips abroad:

London: the HMV store on Oxford St.
Düsseldorf: Zweitausendeins (great bargains!)
Helsinki: Fazer Music


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

This trend to streaming music is why whenever I plan to visit my hometown of NYC ever again that I will frequent Academy Records without any qualms whatsoever.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Due to talk about brick and mortar stores, I thought that it would be good to resurrect this thread .


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Wow Albert, you sure know how to hurt a guy. This thread makes me so sad not to be able to while away the time browsing through huge piles of discs and looking at magazines. The Tower store that was a block from the Chicago SO had an amazing
inventory. I would run there at intermission during concerts and browse. Whenever I had a meeting in the Loop I would budget extra hours (and cash) for a visit. Sigh.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Sorry to make you sad, Triplets. I'm sad too although honestly iTunes has really helped quite a bit . Lots of obscure stuff featured through them.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

When I was a bit younger I fondly remember taking the subway train to the Lincoln Center area to visit Tower Records and browse there for hours.

There was also a department store called Korvettes in New York City for a while and they had a surprisingly nice selection of classical recordings. I used to visit the one in Brooklyn regularly. A shame it didn't survive.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

We still have Tower Records in Dublin, a good classical section still, too. It was a better shop when it was on Wicklow Street, but they moved it to Dawson Street, across from my favourite bookshop, Hodges and Figgis, and I thought I'd be in some sort of heaven, but I don't like the layout of the new Tower Records, so I'm kinda like, meh! Which is unfair on them, I know. I've bought most of my classical CDs there, and some boxsets. Mainly I get the boxsets on play.com, but Tower Records would be where I'd first suss them out. They have a big Naxos section too, plus DVDs. I'll go in tomorrow and apologise for being so sulky that they moved...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I used to like going to Andy's Records and Oakshotts in Worcester - sadly both have been gone for some years.


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## Admiral (Dec 27, 2014)

Unfortunately, I seemed to always run into the classical snobs at my local stores; all of which are now closed. You had to brace yourself for any interaction with them.

I never bought anything off of Amazon until last winter. I think I've since bought close to 1000 CDs in about the last 18 months. I don't like it as much as brick and mortar, but that's my best option right now.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

hpowders said:


> When I was a bit younger I fondly remember taking the subway train to the Lincoln Center area to visit Tower Records and browse there for hours.
> 
> There was also a department store called Korvettes in New York City for a while and they had a surprisingly nice selection of classical recordings. I used to visit the one in Brooklyn regularly. A shame it didn't survive.


I bought a lot of records from Korvettes in Detroit.


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## ddavewes (Dec 7, 2014)

I also started out buying at E.J. Korvette's in the Detroit area. Surprisingly good selection and frequent sales.

In college, I shopped at the East Lansing Discount Records. One knowledgeable classical staffer and you'd wait all year for their storewide sale.

I used to frequent the Rose Records on Wabash in Chicago. Massive supply of LPs in the pre-CD days. I got a few LPs signed by George Solti there in the 70's. One day, I noticed another gentleman in an overcoat browsing through CDs next to me. I looked up and noticed it was Neeme Jarvi, who was in town guest conducting the CSO that week. Nice guy! We exchanged record recommendations.

Now, the B&M action is in used recordings. Chicago has the Reckless Records chain, which has a quite deep supply of classical CDs.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I once tripped over a crack in the sidewalk outside a Tower Records store in Manhattan.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I once tripped over a crack in the sidewalk outside a Tower Records store in Manhattan.


according to lore, stepping on a crack is bad luck .


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## Admiral (Dec 27, 2014)

ddavewes said:


> I also started out buying at E.J. Korvette's in the Detroit area. Surprisingly good selection and frequent sales.
> 
> In college, I shopped at the East Lansing Discount Records. One knowledgeable classical staffer and you'd wait all year for their storewide sale.
> 
> ...


I used to see Neeme at Harmony House Classical on Woodward on a fairly regular basis. Really the nicest person, and certainly the nicest conductor I've ever worked under


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Admiral said:


> I used to see Neeme at Harmony House Classical on Woodward on a fairly regular basis. Really the nicest person, and certainly the nicest conductor I've ever worked under


Nice . Glad that there are wonderful people still out there.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I used to frequent a huge Tower Records store just north of Lincoln Center on Broadway in Manhattan. Several stories. The classical section was the size of a supermarket and was isolated from the other divisions. One could find every cantata of J.S. Bach, every concerto of CPE yet recorded, and numerous really obscure composers as well. And as PetrB noted above, these folks were educated. I don't know if a music degree was required for employment there, but the staff knew their stuff.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> I used to frequent a huge Tower Records store just north of Lincoln Center on Broadway in Manhattan. Several stories. The classical section was the size of a supermarket and was isolated from the other divisions. One could find every cantata of J.S. Bach, every concerto of CPE yet recorded, and numerous really obscure composers as well. And as PetrB noted above, these folks were educated. I don't know if a music degree was required for employment there, but the staff knew their stuff.


I loved that Tower Records! I used to go there when I'd visit my sister in Mid Town.

The Tower, the New York Ballet, the Met-- all right there together. . . with Betsey Johnson down a few doors, FAO Schwartz, and of course, that fantastic two-story Whole Foods just a few steps away.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

One fond memory of Tower Records: After my wife and I bought our first house, I remember going to the Tower in Buckhead. To celebrate, I bought this Schubert lieder set with Janet Baker:










Money was very tight back then. I'd actually sold some valuable records that I'd inherited (several Vee-Jay Beatles picture sleeves and a few Elvis Sun 45s) to help with the down payment on the house.

Buying each and every CD was a big deal -- a long-considered, carefully-planned thing. So I have distinct memory of buying this CD after we finally got through the hassle of the mortgage and were finally in our home.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Just found an awesome mini Tower Records like CD store near the University of Utah campus. Graywhale CD exchange. They have 2 shelves worth of used classical which is awesome.









and they have a very good selection of box sets upstairs.


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Tower is still going strong in Dublin, one of 2 left in the world. they have a fantastic classical room which is stuffed with great albums. Ive spent way too much time and money there over the past 2 years!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

The successor to our Tower Records, Silver Platters, was doing fine for almost a decade. Then a few years ago, it closed too! CDs are nowhere in Seattle even!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I think record stores are still alive and well in Japan.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Up until a few years ago Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon maintained a wonderful classical CD store alongside its popular CD store. It was a spacious, nicely stocked and staffed place where you could get away from the world and spend hours poking around cases full of discounted used CDs while listening to classical music. Then the management decided that the space should be devoted to vinyl, and now what remains of the classical CDs are squeezed into part of a small room between the popular music and the vinyl. I used to find treasures there, but it's slim pickin's now. You can still get cash or credit for (some) used CDs, though. Unfortunately you're not going to hear classical music while you're there, since classical no longer has its own space.

The classical clerk there remains from the good old days and has to listen to the crap they pipe in now. He seems good-natured about it - he'd better be, it's his living - but I pity him, a remnant of a dying civilization.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

For years, I made regular visits to the relatively large Tower Records Classical Annex, across the street from the most famous, iconic Sunset Strip Tower Records. There was no comparable source of classical records in the entire Los Angeles area. I can still remember the excitement of going there to just flip through the albums and see something that was new. They stocked such a large inventory of records from all over the world which included obscure eastern European labels. I collected all sorts of concertos & symphonies from the 19th century that were composed by the many lesser-known contemporaries of the more famous usual suspects.

But, my favorite Classical Annex Tower Records story is when in the late 1970s (1978 I think), I was standing in line (to pay) right behind the actor Richard Dreyfuss. He had just had that incredible period from 1975 to 1977 where he had starred in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Goodbye Girl (and had won the Oscar for the latter). I said hello to him but nothing more.

The funny thing is that when his time came to pay, he gave the girl (age mid 20s or so) behind the counter his credit card and she proceeded to asked him for his I.D. After he left, I complimented the girl on her not playing favoritism and treating everyone equally. She asked me what I meant and I said, 'You just asked Richard Dreyfuss for his I.D.' She responded something to the effect of 'OMG, I know him and his movies! How could I not have recognized him!'


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

When I lived in Amsterdam in the eighties I used to visit










Happily it's still there and they claim to be to biggest CD store (new & secondhand) in Holland. I used to bike in the old city centre from Classical CD store to bookstore to Classical CD store, bookstore and so on, but nowadays one has to be glad that this Concerto Amsterdam still exists. With bookstores it is the same 
In the early nineties I moved to Prague and saw the mega CD stores coming and going on the downside of the Wenceslav square.










They were all located in huge underground spaces with spectacular escalators. But alas, all is gone now.


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

The first time I ever heard the Liebstod from Tristan und Isolde was while getting ready to leave the classical music section in the Tower Records near Lincoln Center in New York City. I just stood there for several minutes, listening to it until it ended.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I always enjoyed shopping at Tower because the guys in the classical section were so knowledgeable. A memory that sticks with me was asking for something kind of different. The clerk asked what I knew and liked, so I told him. He said, "Try this," and handed me a recording of Hans Rott's Symphony in E. I bought it. It certainly was different!


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## CDs (May 2, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Up until a few years ago Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon maintained a wonderful classical CD store alongside its popular CD store. It was a spacious, nicely stocked and staffed place where you could get away from the world and spend hours poking around cases full of discounted used CDs while listening to classical music. Then the management decided that the space should be devoted to vinyl, and now what remains of the classical CDs are squeezed into part of a small room between the popular music and the vinyl. I used to find treasures there, but it's slim pickin's now. You can still get cash or credit for (some) used CDs, though. Unfortunately you're not going to hear classical music while you're there, since classical no longer has its own space.
> 
> The classical clerk there remains from the good old days and has to listen to the crap they pipe in now. He seems good-natured about it - he'd better be, it's his living - but I pity him, a remnant of a dying civilization.


If you live near the Seattle, Washington area you should visit Silver Platters. They have three locations in the area with all stocking classical CDs and vinyl. But their SoDo store has the best selection of classical music of the three stores.
I read some of the posts in this thread and a lot of them used the past tense to describe record stores but in the Seattle area we use the present tense to describe the record stores!


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Rose records (later Tower) in Chicago and Champaign. Am dating myself .


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## agoukass (Dec 1, 2008)

I remember taking the bus from my grandparents’ apartment in Hollywood to the Sunset boulevard Tower Records in 2005 to buy an eight CD Beethoven set that I had been lusting after for a while. The bus ride took roughly an hour and a half in LA traffic and then there I was… I remember being overwhelmed by the selection because there were so many good things that I wanted to listen to apart from that set, but I couldn’t buy anything else.

When I was living in California, I went to Amoeba Music a lot. I’m not sure what their set up was, but I’m pretty sure that they had an entire room full of classical CDs. They had all kinds of obscure and esoteric things there. I burned through a lot of money when I went there on Saturdays and other days I had off from graduate school.

Since there’s not a good music store near where I live, I just order everything from the internet or just download it onto my computer. My, how the times have changed…


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

CDs said:


> If you live near the Seattle, Washington area you should visit Silver Platters.


I bought most my early CDs at the Silver Platters at Northgate, I think there was only that one store then. If you could buy a classical CD for less than $15, you were quite lucky. Then Naxos came along.


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## CDs (May 2, 2016)

KenOC said:


> I bought most my early CDs at the Silver Platters at Northgate, I think there was only that one store then. If you could buy a classical CD for less than $15, you were quite lucky. Then Naxos came along.


Prices have come down thanks in large part to used CDs but Amazon is still cheaper for the most part on new products. But I still shop at Silver Platters a lot.
In my opinion record stores give you more of a personal connection to the music. 
I was watching a documentary on record stores and they said something to the effect of "Most people will remember the time, place and date when they bought the latest Beatles record but no kid nowadays will remember where they were when they used their smart phone to download the latest Kayne West album."


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Senior class trip, to Manhattan, 1955. I did a lot of solitary roaming. Sam Goody's - nothing even faintly like that back home. LPs on multiple floors!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I used to do most of my LP shopping at Tower Records in Sacramento, located in the same building as the Tower Theater (I think it's called the Tower Building, with architecture inspired by the nearby Tower Bridge). Later, in Seattle, I shopped mostly at the Tower Records on Denny Way.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

We never had a Tower Records, can vaguely remember a site on the internet


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## Biwa (Aug 3, 2015)

Morimur said:


> I think record stores are still alive and well in Japan.


There are 2 big stores alive in Tokyo (Shinjuku and Shibuya) and several smaller ones here and there.

I hope they are doing well. In this day and age...when kids and young adults don't even watch (or own) a TV, the old way of doing business has got to be tough.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

HMV.CO.JP is a very fine online-shop.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

The HMV & Virgin shops on Oxford St. in London.
- The bad ... making your way through the raucous noise of the store, up all escalators to what seemed like the top floor.
- The good ... walking through the doors into the refined atmosphere of the classical section

There used to be two Tower stores in San Diego.
- One had everything in one over-crowded room with non-classical &*^*% blasting everywhere.
- The other had it's own separate classical room, quite big, with its own door from the parking lot.

But the best was a small classical only store in downtown San Diego where the owner seemed to have an inexhaustible knowledge of even the more esoteric repertoire. I remember him introducing me to the first Geoge Lloyd recordings on Lyrita ... probably around 1980.


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## Vsyevolod (May 6, 2016)

KenOC said:


> I used to do most of my LP shopping at Tower Records in Sacramento, located in the same building as the Tower Theater (I think it's called the Tower Building, with architecture inspired by the nearby Tower Bridge). Later, in Seattle, I shopped mostly at the Tower Records on Denny Way.


That would be the Tower Records at Mercer and 5th, not too far from Denny Way.

I came this <> close to getting a job in the Classical music department there in 1980. One other lucky guy was ahead of me in the pick... Also of note, the Tower Records across the street from the U Book Store.

Tower used to have a policy that you could bring a record back within 7 days for a full refund if you didn't like it for any reason. They also sold blank cassettes... I'm not sure of the logic behind that one, and it may indeed have contributed to their eventual closing.

Stephen

.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vsyevolod said:


> That would be the Tower Records at Mercer and 5th, not too far from Denny Way.


Yes, not "on" Denny, for sure. One time I asked the guy on the classical side there for a special, unusual recording that I might like. He handed me Hans Rott's symphony, not well known in those days. A good choice!

I have a special story about that store, but won't tell it here.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I just remembered we had a Virgin shop , the biggest in the city, the classical department was run by a 40 something unmarried guy who locked his CD's In a closest, to avoid sunshine :lol:
The whole store lasted 2 years, one big disaster :lol:


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

The first store I ever used to buy records was woolworths - I think 1979 was the year and I bought a Blondie album.
my first classical record store I used regularly was in 1988 MDT Classics in derby - a cosy family run shop which within a few years had regretably gone down the mail order only route and is still operating. I did use HMV now and then but dont really have any memories. As a record collector I began to visit LP dealers - notably Roger McNichol in birmingham. There was Good Vibrations in Nottingham - memorable not least because the lady that ran it had a cat that was always purring in the window. Gramex in London of course and Roger Hewland the owner very generous and affable person to chat about music and indeed life. I went into the business myself and opened a shop in 1992 "Simply Classical" in Nottingham which finally closed in 2005 - 8 years after my father took it over when I went into the high end LP business. Nottinghill music exchange was one of my haunts in the mid 1990s as was Gramex when I was buying for profit. Ben's records in Guildford was a useful place and it was always good to have Ben there with his smile and cheeky sense of humour. When I was living in St Petersburg I used the philharmonia record shop which sold used melodiya LPs and CDs - found some great LPs there which I took back to the UK. I could go on but will let it rest there. Great times and those who only download are living a lonely life.


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## Vsyevolod (May 6, 2016)

So I was reading up on Tower Records on their Wikipedia page and I remembered that there was a documentary about the rise and fall of the company. I found it on Hulu tonight and watched it. For anyone with fond memories of the store, it's a really well done doc. Amazing in my mind what it brought to the surface.

"All Things Must Pass, The Rise and Fall of Tower Records" 2015

Highly recommended.

Stephen




.


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## CDs (May 2, 2016)

I second "All Things Must Pass". Very good documentary.


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