In the same way that I expect to get over the death of Michael Winner, I cannot join the chorus lamenting the possible demise of HMV, a "national treasure".
It isn't, and never was – and I am a connoisseur of record shops.
Let's restrict ourselves to Glasgow, this columnar space being the size it is. My father defied me to go into the original Virgin store on Argyle Street, presumably on the responsible parental grounds that it was staffed by dodgy hippies who also sold king-size cigarette papers.
I did go, of course, but I spent a great deal more money in branches of Listen, particularly those on Renfield Street and, later, Byres Road. I was rarely seen without a Listen plastic bag, in fact, although it didn't always contain a record.
Bruce's on Union Street became an important destination in the late 1970s for reggae and disco 12-inch platters in particular, and then Gordon Montgomery's original Fopp stall in DeCourcy's Arcade off Byres Road began to expand into national consciousness. There was Bloggs, and Missing, and Gloria's. 23rd Precinct in Bath Street was a long-surviving institution that took over the DJ market, of course, and is now a classy booze shop.
My jazz collection was hugely expanded by purchases at Fopp, but other specialist tastes had to be fed elsewhere. When my flatmate and I began holding parties on Frank Sinatra's birthday (evening dress, cocktails and pizza), the best place to plug the (few) gaps in our crooner's collection was Casa Cassettes on Sauchiehall Street. Iona Records, down at the foot of Stockwell Street, was the place to go for traditional music. The market now catered for by Mono in King's Court was nurtured by the record shop in the Byres Road branch of John Smiths.
Nowadays I'd walk past HMV to get to LoveMusic on Dundas Street, like any right-thinking person. Even in its heyday HMV was rarely as interestingly stocked as the Virgin Megastore or Tower Records. Just a smidgen above Our Price, really, which was nowhere, man.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article