Any "cockernees" Remember Vinyl Solution?

[Dave Moore]

Just been wondering about this place. Anyone else enjoy their visits to this gaff? I built up a pretty much a whole Tamla Motown Demo collection from there. I always remember coming out potless and thinking..."Where can I get another couple of hundred quid to snap them up before they go!".  Stuff like :

 

All the Marvin, Mary, Contours, Isleys, Stevie stuff on R/Ws. Lots of Stateside, Oriole, London stuff and I found a couple I didn't know even existed then:

 

Spinners - That's What Girls Are Made For - Columbia Stocker!  In the same box was the Demo but I'd had one of those for a while. I remember almost shouting out loud when the green stocker showed.

 

Another great find was Jimmy Thomas on a Parlophone black stocker too!  I went straight up to Melton Mowbray with that for trades when JM was above the Audio/TV shop.

 

I was always wondering how I could ALWAYS find stuff in there when there were all those collectors from London always about?    

 

Happy Days indeed. Anyone else have any memories of the place? 

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[Chippy Minton]

Hello Dave,

 

Yeah, based in Hereford Road, Bayswater, I remember it very well as I also spent a fortune in there over a few years. It was a great shop, but run by a moody Belgian chap called Yves, who I thought was a bit of an arrogant twat, really.

 

During the 80's I was heavily involved in collecting rare psych and freakbeat rather than soul and R&B, and this place was a real Alladin's cave for this stuff. They were bloody expensive, mind, but they did turn some extremely rare stuff up.They used

 

The first time I went in there it took my breath away a bit, as the ceilings were covered in very rare Hapshash posters, and the walls adorned with rare singles and albums. I came out well over a ton lighter, but with a German version of the We Are Paintermen album by The Creation, and Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope.

 

They were also rumoured to have been responsible for putting out the three volumes of Chocolate Soup For Diabetics albums that comped rare UK psych singles. The quality was dreadful, but they were the first of their kind so quite influential at the time. Yves later denied all involvement once record companies began sniffing around as they were bootlegs, but those on the scene at the time always suspected their involvement from the off.

 

After the Hereford Road site closed I think the same people may have been involved in setting up Intoxica in Portobello Road, but it was never the same... 

[Dave Moore]

Hello Mate,

 

Glad it wasn't just me that loved the place then.  

 

I remember their prices being all over the place and some stuff was 5UKP and right next to it the same thing at 15. You're right they were never the cheapest but it was the quality and quantity that always dragged me back. Just thinking back now I must have taken at least 150 UK TMG Demos out of there over the years.

 

Happy hunting Matey...

 

Regards,

 

Dave

 

PS. Did you ever get access behind that blokes white goods repair shop in Chertsey?  I had a great result in there too once...but that's another tale.

[Guest john s]

I used to love Vinyl Solution when I lived in London in the late 70s - used to go in there as a teenager and trade stuff that I'd picked 

up (including Tamla demos) for psych and garage records. 

 

Always got on really well with Yves, could always get a cup of coffee in there - he'd happily bring out the boxes of rare stuff for me to look through. "I know you're not going to buy them, but the knowledge might be useful".

 

Their stock was amazing and, with hindsight, pretty cheap - I remember being in there when someone bought a copy of the Eyes EP (rare mod) for £10, and Yves replaced it with another from the box of dead stock copies behind the counter. Wish I'd bought a few!

 

I also remember going in with three copies of a 45 by the Penny Peeps that i'd got from a junk shop - I didn't know it, and neither did they. I kept one and Yves gave me £75 each credit for the other two, which amazed me at the time. 

Edited April 21, 2013 by john s

[Dave Moore]

I used to love Vinyl Solution when I lived in London in the late 70s - used to go in there as a teenager and trade stuff that I'd picked 

up (including Tamla demos) for psych and garage records. 

 

Hi John,

 

Rest assured they went to a good home!

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[Chippy Minton]

Hi John,

 

Glad to hear that you got on well with Yves, I know plenty that did, but also plenty that didn't!

 

I'm amazed that he would let The Arrival of The Eyes EP go for a tenner, in my experience while I found him to be a miserable bastard at best, he knew his stuff really well, so are you sure it was a Mercury original, or perhaps a geltoob that they were very fond of, too;O) 

 

Incidentally, I've thankfully still got a copy that I've had for well over 30 years, as well as an original Liberty '68 issue of Model Village by The Penny Peeps - great stuff...!

 

 

 

 

 

I used to love Vinyl Solution when I lived in London in the late 70s - used to go in there as a teenager and trade stuff that I'd picked 

up (including Tamla demos) for psych and garage records. 

 

Always got on really well with Yves, could always get a cup of coffee in there - he'd happily bring out the boxes of rare stuff for me to look through. "I know you're not going to buy them, but the knowledge might be useful".

 

Their stock was amazing and, with hindsight, pretty cheap - I remember being in there when someone bought a copy of the Eyes EP (rare mod) for £10, and Yves replaced it with another from the box of dead stock copies behind the counter. Wish I'd bought a few!

 

I also remember going in with three copies of a 45 by the Penny Peeps that i'd got from a junk shop - I didn't know it, and neither did they. I kept one and Yves gave me £75 each credit for the other two, which amazed me at the time. 

[Pete S]

The guy's name was something like Yves Guillmot?

If so I sold him all my Bowie demos - Pye, Deram, Philips, Mercury.

This was way back, 1983.

Never went to the shop though.

[Guest john s]

Hi John,

 

Glad to hear that you got on well with Yves, I know plenty that did, but also plenty that didn't!

 

I'm amazed that he would let The Arrival of The Eyes EP go for a tenner, in my experience while I found him to be a miserable bastard at best, he knew his stuff really well, so are you sure it was a Mercury original, or perhaps a geltoob that they were very fond of, too;O) 

 

 

Absolutely sure, I wish I'd bought one but a tenner was a bit much for me at the time - I thought I'd pick one up in a junk shop like I had done with their 45s. 

[Chippy Minton]

Hello Mate,

 

Glad it wasn't just me that loved the place then.  

 

I remember their prices being all over the place and some stuff was 5UKP and right next to it the same thing at 15. You're right they were never the cheapest but it was the quality and quantity that always dragged me back. Just thinking back now I must have taken at least 150 UK TMG Demos out of there over the years.

 

Happy hunting Matey...

 

Regards,

 

Dave

 

PS. Did you ever get access behind that blokes white goods repair shop in Chertsey?  I had a great result in there too once...but that's another tale.

 

 

Not aware of the Chertsey geezer, Dave, so no...

 

However, a friend of mine at the time had set up his own record label that was dedicated to releasing high quality legitimately licensed (to begin with, at least!) UK psych comps, and knew the proprietors of most of the major London collectors shops. There used to be a shop in the 80's based in Blenheim Crescent called Plastic Passion that was run two business partners, messrs Allerton and Forsyth, which I been in several times that also used to operate a graet mail order business.

 

This was another cracking shop that stocked the same sort of stuff as Yves at Vinyl Solution, but eventually they fell out over something that I can't remember. The building was for a period during the late sixties the headquarters of a short lived underground hippy/psych publication and organisation called Gandalf's Garden, so their passion for psych music was quite apt. However, after the fall out Plastic Passion was dissolved, but rather than leave the building, it became separated into two different shops and as it was a a long and narrow building they had a side each, which was quite odd as the did tend to stock similar items.

 

Although he knew both, my pal was better friends with Bill Allerton and on a buying trip there on one occasion just after the split I was asked to deal with him in the first instance, but I really couldn't get my head around why. When we arrived, I was introduced to both, but upon talking to Bill Allerton we went out the back to a stock room that he had and I really don't think I've seen anything quite like it, before or since. The amount of incredibly rare stuff that he had in boxes that hadn't made the front of the shop was bloody awe inspiring. I left a couple of hundred lighter, but could easily have spunked a couple of grand if I'd have had it and that access was the reason my mate suggested we spoke to him. 

 

Both shops at the Blenheim Crescent address have now closed, but I last spotted the other gut, Bill Forsyth, operating a stall in a small market just around the corner in Portobello Road, still knocking out psych and powerpop stuff...

[Benji]

When did it close down? I think I passed by on one of my first trips to London mid 80s. I do remember when i saw the name I thought how tasteless it is.

[Ady Croasdell]

The shop was around at the height of my swanning round the London shops scoring and flogging records for a living. I think he had been a partner with Stan & Phil who also ran Rocks Off in Hanway St (old B&S Contempo shop) but split leaving Yves to the shop you mentioned. He was quite a character and developed an interest in cricket with no obvious links to the game. He used to close the shop early and spend his afternoons at Lords watching county games, something I as a big fan of the game, rarely manage. We must have wheeled and dealed loads of records but I can't think of one

[Chippy Minton]

Hi Ady,

 

It was around this time that I first came across you via your auction ads in the Record Collector magazine. I ended up buying a good few psych and freakbeat records from you over a few years and always in top nick, too!

 

Dunno why, but I can still remember the first one which was Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens by Family on Liberty, long gone now, I'm afraid, but good days. I knew more or less all of the main players collecting this genre at the time and old Yves was just one of many characters around at that tim :0)

 

 

 

The shop was around at the height of my swanning round the London shops scoring and flogging records for a living. I think he had been a partner with Stan & Phil who also ran Rocks Off in Hanway St (old B&S Contempo shop) but split leaving Yves to the shop you mentioned. He was quite a character and developed an interest in cricket with no obvious links to the game. He used to close the shop early and spend his afternoons at Lords watching county games, something I as a big fan of the game, rarely manage. We must have wheeled and dealed loads of records but I can't think of one

[Ady Croasdell]

Hi Ady,

 

It was around this time that I first came across you via your auction ads in the Record Collector magazine. I ended up buying a good few psych and freakbeat records from you over a few years and always in top nick, too!

 

Dunno why, but I can still remember the first one which was Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens by Family on Liberty, long gone now, I'm afraid, but good days. I knew more or less all of the main players collecting this genre at the time and old Yves was just one of many characters around at that tim :0)

Probably because I told you Family was the best live gig I'd ever seen. i had virtually all the freakbeat biggies at the time and sold them at just about exactly the wrong time lol. I've still got a load though so I'll auction 'em off one day.

[Guest john s]

i had virtually all the freakbeat biggies at the time and sold them at just about exactly the wrong time lol. 

 

Most of mine went in '89 through an auction in Record Collector - all the Wimple Winch, Poets, Primitives, Game...

 

though I did pick up near mint copies of The Family, The Accent and Paper Blitz Tissue last month, so maybe the others will come back one day!

[Chippy Minton]

Hi John,

 

Tell me about it...

 

Like Ady, I had more or less all of the main UK singles and albums for years, as well as unreleased acetate stuff but sold them off when the kids came along. Suddenly, we were down to one income and over the period of about a year I sold about 95% of my collection.   

 

Although I wasn't happy about it I didn't regret it at the time as it was a "needs must" situation, and everything was sold for its market value at that time which brought in decent money. However, looking at the prices that these records fetch today is a bit like a kick in the balls, but there you go! 

 

What does amaze me, however, are the prices being fetched for records that were seen as somewhat third division back in the 80's and 90's, and not that difficult to locate at all.

 

As earlier mentioned, though, I still have a box left, although the holy grail 45's and albums by Tintern Abbey, Open Mind, Apple, The Factory, One in a Million, Hush, July etc are all long gone now...

[Guest]

Did any of you guys ever get to "Tipples" off the Old Kent Road...had some decent hits for UK stuff there many (many) moons ago

[Ady Croasdell]

Did any of you guys ever get to "Tipples" off the Old Kent Road...had some decent hits for UK stuff there many (many) moons ago

South of the river Dave.

 

The best I went to was one on the bridge by Little Venice on the Harrow Road, some bloke had boxes unplayed UK records back to the early 60s. I think the soul had gone but there were hundreds of great 60s group records about £2 each. 

[Guest Garry Huxley]

Superb thread, Bringing back so many memories of when i was in the army based in Aldershot, Gettin on a train to waterloo, Spending all day scouring most of the shop's mentioned, then going to 100 club for the nighter. I was very blinkerd then and only bought the classic dancers, when i look back and think of all the current biggies that have been in my hands but ignored and the stuff what i now think of as dross i bought.

[Dave Moore]

Superb thread, Bringing back so many memories of when i was in the army based in Aldershot, Gettin on a train to waterloo, Spending all day scouring most of the shop's mentioned, then going to 100 club for the nighter. I was very blinkerd then and only bought the classic dancers, when i look back and think of all the current biggies that have been in my hands but ignored and the stuff what i now think of as dross i bought.

What years were you in the 'Shot'. I bet we caught the same trains after a full monty breakfast at the Top Hat!

Regards,

Dave

[Guest Garry Huxley]

What years were you in the 'Shot'. I bet we caught the same trains after a full monty breakfast at the Top Hat!

Regards,

Dave

 

1978 Keogh barracks Ash Vale,Basic training Jan 79 - 80 Germany,  81 - 85 2 field hospital & Cambridge mil hospital, I used to hang around with pete crampton, pete myles , andy ?,  I dj'd a lot at wooden bridge Guildford. I lived on salamanca park.

Yes many a breakfast at the top hat.

ATB, Garry

[Steve White]

Andy Savage! Alan Brown and myself!!

[Premium Stuff]

Did you say a "Cockernee"?   

 

Cheers

 

Richard

 

Lee Mack (Cockney) Live 2007

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQQ5FJXJaY

Edited November 28, 2013 by Premium Stuff

[Liamgp]

What was the shop in Tooting? Used to go there when I was visiting my sister who lived in Balham in the early 80s.

[Ady Croasdell]

Just been wondering about this place. Anyone else enjoy their visits to this gaff? I built up a pretty much a whole Tamla Motown Demo collection from there. I always remember coming out potless and thinking..."Where can I get another couple of hundred quid to snap them up before they go!".  Stuff like :

 

All the Marvin, Mary, Contours, Isleys, Stevie stuff on R/Ws. Lots of Stateside, Oriole, London stuff and I found a couple I didn't know even existed then:

 

Spinners - That's What Girls Are Made For - Columbia Stocker!  In the same box was the Demo but I'd had one of those for a while. I remember almost shouting out loud when the green stocker showed.

 

Another great find was Jimmy Thomas on a Parlophone black stocker too!  I went straight up to Melton Mowbray with that for trades when JM was above the Audio/TV shop.

 

I was always wondering how I could ALWAYS find stuff in there when there were all those collectors from London always about?    

 

Happy Days indeed. Anyone else have any memories of the place? 

 

Regards,

 

Dave

Hi Dave,

             I've had a thunk about this and remembered why we (Mick, Wid et moi) didn't bother with the shop too much. I actually had every UK Tamla release by then so I would only need to buy to resell -which was my full time job at the time. I remember they put the prices really high (relatively for London) so there was little margin for profit so I wouldn't spend too much time up there. I'd have obviously snapped up the Jimmy Thomas issue but you can't be everywhere at the same time. There were a lot of great finds, UK labels in particular, in London in those days. Ady

[Greety]

I was all over London in the 70's "junking". I never heard of Vinyl Solutions. Obviously a well kept secret.

Personally I think the Government should introduce a compensation scheme to compensate us Southerners, for having our vinyl plundered by "migrant" record collectors from 'oop North.

Moondogs was my favourite haunt.