Smallfish Records

[Rachel Verinder]

Smallfish wasn't a bad shop but unless you lived locally it was extremely awkward to get to. The same with These Records (RIP) round the back of Elephant and Castle and Sound 323 up at the rear end of Archway.

"Destination shops" are all very well and good but they need to be reasonably accessible and easy to reach.

Otherwise potential punters throw their hands up in exhaustion and resign themselves to buying records off the net, or in the middle of town, or concentrated areas such as Portobello Road where actually Smallfish might have had a better chance of prospering and a more receptive clientele.

 

[gabriel]

i just want a big shop with lots of records and up-to-the-minute mixtapes, no frills, like music depot in houston or beat street in brooklyn or something.
unfortunately that ain't happening, though.

yeah that would be really great.

apart from being quite small, isn't uptown quite like that? only problem is it's well expensive (£9 for a 12") so i never buy anything there. but there's always good stuff there. not sure about mixtapes though.

 

[Rachel Verinder]

£9 for a 12"??????????!!!!!!!????????????!!!!

Thank God I don't buy vinyl any more!

Are they really that afraid of Starbucks gazumping them?

As for the problem of surly record shop assistants, surely two birds could be killed with the one stone of installing self-checkouts as per Sainsbury's?

 

[Blackdown]

It seems the internet is killing off all the small retailers, so that only the big chains can afford to stay open. Most of the independent bookshops have already gone. In fact most bookshops have gone.

Even online - shops like Recommended (aka ReR Megacorp) - how long are they going to last? I've been buying stuff from ReR for 25 years or more and I want to keep supporting. But when you can get CDs from the Amazon marketplace for half the price...

anyone noticed how the big shops like HMV & Virgin now put DVDs or console games at the front of the store?

 

[mms]

one of the cd now type places on berwick street has a fair old amount of us import mix cds and grime /uk hip hop cds - the one just down from what used to be selectadisc, lots of reggae cds and african popular stuff too.
i fucking love mix tapes.

 

[Blackdown]

i fucking love mix tapes.

me too. grime mixtapes cost less than one grime 12" and has 10 times more tracks!

 

[mms]

there was a much more shoreditchy record shop that opened near smallfish on charlotte road last summer but it recently closed too.





there is a real prick who works/used to work at the music and video exchange on berwick st

know as the graveyard amongst my friends - where all the stuff you can't get rid of in reckless goes - they are well grumpy there
those two brothers are ner.

 

[Rachel Verinder]

Sister Ray took over the Selectadisc shop up the road.

Several people have commented on the increasing preponderance of DVDs near the front of the shop.

 

[stelfox]

i'm seriously thinking of doing a sunday market guerilla mixtape stall somewhere. totally unethical, i know, but it would at least put them out there. if it wouldn't be financial suicide, i've also considered importing southern hip-hop properly. actually if someone has any idea of how to do this and make a few bob (not much, just not losing money and paying exhorbitant tax), i'd be totally into doing it still. i just don't understand why US hip-hop mixtapes aren't more available here. they're piss cheap and i bet people would buy them.

 

[gabriel]

just remembered seeing a stall on petticoat lane selling us hip hop mixtapes. didn't investigate closely, but might be worth a look

 

[reposed]

just wish london had anywhere worth even thinking about going to to buy hip-hop, reggae, other global street stuff under one roof. in fact, i don't think there's a single decent hip-hop shop in town anyway.

not the answer to your problems, but in the same part of town as smallfish beat workin records is looking good for a new (6 mnth old?) store. it's just off brick lane, near the top. it's all second hand, and a mix of styles, maybe similar to sounds of the universe.

 

[bassnation]

i'm seriously thinking of doing a sunday market guerilla mixtape stall somewhere. totally unethical, i know, but it would at least put them out there. if it wouldn't be financial suicide, i've also considered importing southern hip-hop properly. actually if someone has any idea of how to do this and make a few bob (not much, just not losing money and paying exhorbitant tax), i'd be totally into doing it still. i just don't understand why US hip-hop mixtapes aren't more available here. they're piss cheap and i bet people would buy them.

if you ever get this off the ground i would be very interested in checking the stuff out on a regular basis!

 

[notoriousJ.I.M]

Sister Ray took over the Selectadisc shop up the road.

Several people have commented on the increasing preponderance of DVDs near the front of the shop.

I was in there the other day and they were adding more racks for vinyl which is encouraging.