The Wonder Of Woolies

[Dayo]

Anyone else remember when Woolworths had hundreds and hundreds of Tamla Motown LPs for about 70 pence each?  Must have been 1972 or thereabouts. I still have stuff I bought like the Marvelettes Sophisticated Soul and Edwin Starr Soul Master. I can recall loads of Chris Clark Soul Sounds and many more.  Wish I could have bought more but pocket money was very thin on the ground back then.

 

What was the story? Did EMI just dump all the recently deleted stuff?  I'm sure many other soulies would have been filling their boots as I know it wasn't just in Worcester Woolies....

[AlanB]

I remember that too around that time in Glasgow.  Lot's of UK Minit and Liberty soul LPs too, as well as lot's of non-soul stuff.  Hundreds of clear-out LPs suddenly appeared, stacked on the counter tops, not in the usual LP shelves.  

 

Unfortunately didn't buy any, as was more into 45s.  Have thought about it regretfully from time to time since

Edited March 5, 2015 by AlanB

[Paul R]

Woolies also had Cliff Nobles The Horse, Bob & Earl and others(all LPs)

 

Paul

[Paul R]

About 25 years ago  Rumbelows in Plymouth had a load of import 60s LPs very cheap. I got a King Errison Zola, Cherry People And Suddenly, and a Chuck Jackson Greatest hits for about 50p each.

 

Paul

[Ian Parker]

I bought the isley Bros album with 'my love is your love' from Woolworth, Grantham, circa 1980, for a princely sum of 99p.

If I'm not mistaken, our very own Pete Watkin (caveman) served me

[Dekka]

I bought the isley Bros album with 'my love is your love' from Woolworth, Grantham, circa 1980, for a princely sum of 99p.

If I'm not mistaken, our very own Pete Watkin (caveman) served me

Wow a big jump from serving in woollies to the Royal Marines and seeing service in the falklands with the SBS, how cool is that story, cheers Ian, by the way he's feeling sorry for himself at the moment, he has a poorly tooth, big girls blouse lol

atb

dekka

Edited March 5, 2015 by dekka

[Guest phillybuster]

About 25 years ago  Rumbelows in Plymouth had a load of import 60s LPs very cheap. I got a King Errison Zola, Cherry People And Suddenly, and a Chuck Jackson Greatest hits for about 50p each.

 

Paul

Debenhams in Plymouth 74-75 had a mass of great cheap LP's Sam Dees etc near the Buttery.

Edited March 5, 2015 by phillybuster

[Smudger]

We had 2 Woolies in Doncaster  and they both had loads of Emi Soul Lp,s ones i bought from memory are :-

 

We are the Monitors

Chris Clark Soul Sounds

Carla Thomas Memphis Queen

Johnny Taylor Greatest Hits

Darrell Banks  Here To Stay

Rare Stamps  JJ Barnes Steve Mancha

Boy Meets Girl   various Stax artists

Smokey Robinson and Miracles Time out

Temptations With a lot of soul

Tammi Terrell Irrisistable

 

I remember they had the Martin Luther King LP which i pondered over many times but didn't buy  Wished i had later on.

 

Then later on in the seventies went to Scarborough and in their Tesco they had loads of reggae and ska 7'S which i bought loads of 'I'm sure i can remember Seeing several copies of Glen miller on Doctor Bird as all that came to mind was his wartime big band   Doh!!

Edited March 5, 2015 by smudger

[Dave Rimmer]

I remember buying six out of the seven 'This Is Loma' series of LPs in Woolies. It took me nearly twenty years to get the seventh

[Swifty]

I remember buying six out of the seven 'This Is Loma' series of LPs in Woolies. It took me nearly twenty years to get the seventh

Thats 'cause Woolies shut Dave 

[Jkpnefc]

Remember Woolies but prior to that also remember Tesco used to have loads of imported dingles...some good stuff too.

[Davenpete]

I was told that Rob Smith ran the record department in Woolworth's in Nottingham at one point - don't know if it's true.

Dx

[Keeper]

I remember buying six out of the seven 'This Is Loma' series of LPs in Woolies. It took me nearly twenty years to get the seventh

Perhaps you should re-charge your mobility scooter 

[Labeat]

Best bargain of all was a 99p 5 item breakfast

[Dayo]

Yeah I remember getting Rare Stamps from Woolies too - had forgotten that. What bargains even back in the day.....

[Guest Gogs]

when i was much younger we had a local "woolies" and i did get the lp with the isley bros. on it, but just round the corner was a shop called (if i remember rightly) "remnant kings" that had all sort of singles for sale, but unfortunately my pocket money at the time was only 2 and 6 (or 12 1/2p in today's money, and most of that went on sweets).

[Sjclement]

Thought this was something to do with the cold weather?

Hoylake Woolies provided me with This is Sue, Bob and Earl (on B&C) and RicTic Relics to name but three.

[JOHNNYBETCHA]

Had loads from Woolies - all UK Motown - Isley Brothers, Monitors, Bobby Taylor, Marvelettes, to name but a few.

[Pete S]

Straight out of the 10p deletion boxes..
 

[Mick Holdsworth]

Remember Woolies but prior to that also remember Tesco used to have loads of imported dingles...some good stuff too.

 

Apart from the dingles, they did have singles.

 

It must have been a few years before my time, but our late friend Blue Max told be the first copy of Perlean Gray came from a Tesco (possibly somewhere in Telford, as I don't think we had a Tesco in Wolverhampton at that time, else we would have used it for shopping).

 

Apparently, there was only the one copy of Perlean Gray in that Tesco at the time, but multiples of other titles.

 

Cheers

Mick

[Pete S]

Apart from the dingles, they did have singles.

 

It must have been a few years before my time, but our late friend Blue Max told be the first copy of Perlean Gray came from a Tesco (possibly somewhere in Telford, as I don't think we had a Tesco in Wolverhampton at that time, else we would have used it for shopping).

 

Apparently, there was only the one copy of Perlean Gray in that Tesco at the time, but multiples of other titles.

 

Cheers

Mick

 

Mick, did Telford actually exist then, I remember them building it, 1967 - 1969!

[Kegsy]

Mick, did Telford actually exist then, I remember them building it, 1967 - 1969!

 

Does Telford actually exist now.

[Pete S]

Does Telford actually exist now.

 

It's a nicer alternative to having to go into Wolverhampton

[Kegsy]

It's a nicer alternative to having to go into Wolverhampton

 

Sorry Pete, didn't realise Wolves had got THAT bad, well apart from the football team.

 

I know, in the immortal words of Julian Bentley "F*ck off Kegsy".

Edited March 6, 2015 by Kegsy

[Pete S]

Sorry Pete, didn't realise Wolves had got THAT bad, well apart from the football team.

 

I know, in the immortal words of Julian Bentley "F*ck off Kegsy".

 

No it's just dead mate, I remember going up there shopping in the 70's and you couldn't move, now you're lucky if you see a fellow shopper!

Edited March 6, 2015 by Pete S

[Bigsoulman]

when i was much younger we had a local "woolies" and i did get the lp with the isley bros. on it, but just round the corner was a shop called (if i remember rightly) "remnant kings" that had all sort of singles for sale, but unfortunately my pocket money at the time was only 2 and 6 (or 12 1/2p in today's money, and most of that went on sweets).

Interesting story on that Gogs, there was a great record shop called Jefferies at the end of Bread Street, now a hairdresser, when it shut it moved to a massive shop that sold material just like Remnant Kings (no idea the tie up there) they had a small counter in that shop and was selling off it's records, lots of pop stuff but manged to rescue a few soul 45s, I think Remnant Kings must have either bought that shop then sold it on empty.

[Kegsy]

No it's just dead mate, I remember going up there shopping in the 70's and you couldn't move, now you're lucky if you see a fellow shopper!

 

Bradford is pretty much the same, except in the summer when all the

dole dossers lie around in the new "city park" complete with mirror pool,

supping lager and sunbathing.

Its quite ironic really, as the same council that build the park are now

up in arms that the City centre is full of piss heads every time the sun comes out.

 

By the way I got many of the albums already mentioned at Woolies too.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Kegsy

[Swifty]

Straight out of the 10p deletion boxes..

 

Reggae.jpg

Pete , don't know if you remember me telling you about a couple of boxes of 45's 2-300 given to my old man when we had a Pub , there were all sorts but little soul , about 10 copies of Florence Ballard - Love Aint Love - ABC but that's all really.

 

Anyway all the records were Mint and most of the covers were stapled in the corner but there must have been 50-60 at least Reggae 45's on CRAB - CAMEL - PAMA - GAS - ISLAND and other labels I'd never heard of but they all had that same sticker on the covers as that Pama in yor picture , is it Delamare or something like that ? What was Delemare then , any ideas

[Shsdave]

70 or 71 W H Smith had a big sale of Motown LPs ( & possibly other Soul stuff, long time ago) can't remember price but 14 / 6d seems to ring a bell but might be barking up the wrong tree there  bought Isley Brothers Behind a painted smile, don't think I knew anything on it apart from the title track. Imagine hearing all that stuff on one album again for the first time 

 

Why I never bought anything else who knows but to this day that remains one of my favourite Motown/souls LPs 

[Kegsy]

Straight out of the 10p deletion boxes..

 

Reggae.jpg

 

In about 1969 my mum worked with a West Indian woman called Olga, me and my sister

used to babysit her kids sometimes.

Her husband Barry ran the biggest sound system in Yorkshire at the time.

Anyway one day he gave me two big boxes full of little label reggae stuff he had

lying about the house, there must have been nigh on a 1000 singles, most

hardly ever played before being tossed aside, as was the case with reggae back then.

When I started work in 1971 I sold both boxes to a skinhead at work for

twenty quid.   

Edited March 6, 2015 by Kegsy

[Ric-tic]

Anyone else remember when Woolworths had hundreds and hundreds of Tamla Motown LPs for about 70 pence each? 

they were 50 pence on merseyside...

[Kegsy]

they were 50 pence on merseyside...

 

They were Shillings and pence in Bradford.

[Pete S]

Pete , don't know if you remember me telling you about a couple of boxes of 45's 2-300 given to my old man when we had a Pub , there were all sorts but little soul , about 10 copies of Florence Ballard - Love Aint Love - ABC but that's all really.

 

Anyway all the records were Mint and most of the covers were stapled in the corner but there must have been 50-60 at least Reggae 45's on CRAB - CAMEL - PAMA - GAS - ISLAND and other labels I'd never heard of but they all had that same sticker on the covers as that Pama in yor picture , is it Delamare or something like that ? What was Delemare then , any ideas

 

No idea who they were mate sorry, but oh to see those records!

[Carty]

Remember Woolies but prior to that also remember Tesco used to have loads of imported dingles...some good stuff too.

Yes Tescos , around 72 or 73  had wire bins full of thousands of 45s all for 10p each,    mainly i remember these were full of the now very collectible pama offshoot label stuff   , unity , camel  etc  bought  quite a few at the time , two i remember were   Return of  Al Capone  Peter Touch ( Tosh) on Unity    and Creation   I got the  Fever  on Stateside .  I imagine different areas would of had different titles as it seems they had been sold job lots of deletions for next to nothing . 

[Carty]

Pete , don't know if you remember me telling you about a couple of boxes of 45's 2-300 given to my old man when we had a Pub , there were all sorts but little soul , about 10 copies of Florence Ballard - Love Aint Love - ABC but that's all really.

 

Anyway all the records were Mint and most of the covers were stapled in the corner but there must have been 50-60 at least Reggae 45's on CRAB - CAMEL - PAMA - GAS - ISLAND and other labels I'd never heard of but they all had that same sticker on the covers as that Pama in yor picture , is it Delamare or something like that ? What was Delemare then , any ideas

Swifty, wrote my above comment before reading your post , those seem the exact type of stuff that Tescos were selling , maybe other places were selling them as well,   could it be that Delamere is a long gone chainstore maybe , or maybe the distributer .   they may have just been the people who made the tags ? 

[Paul R]

I seem to remember that Delamare was the trade name for Tesco clothing. I do remember all those reggae singles in Tesco in the early 70s, plus Tony & Tandy and Sharon Tandy on Atlantic.

 

Paul

[Jerry Hipkiss]

I know that I got Bob and Earl "The Sissy" on Chene, Bunny and Cindy on Neptune, some US promos of pop stuff (Status Quo on Cadet Concept anyone?) and probably a few reggae 45's in those Tesco 10p bins - I've always wondered what we all missed that has since gone massive!

[Alan Bonthrone1]

Two Paul Robeson 78, s and apair of Sunny San sandal, s.

[Ernie Andrews]

I rember import 45s being on these racks that twist round- I knocked the buggers over once trying to reach for one I wanted! - Got some strange looks!

[Ernie Andrews]

I remember import 45s being on these racks that twist round- I knocked the buggers over once trying to reach for one I wanted! - Got some strange looks!

[Mick Sway]

Anyone else remember when Woolworths had hundreds and hundreds of Tamla Motown LPs for about 70 pence each?  Must have been 1972 or thereabouts. I still have stuff I bought like the Marvelettes Sophisticated Soul and Edwin Starr Soul Master. I can recall loads of Chris Clark Soul Sounds and many more.  Wish I could have bought more but pocket money was very thin on the ground back then.

 

What was the story? Did EMI just dump all the recently deleted stuff?  I'm sure many other soulies would have been filling their boots as I know it wasn't just in Worcester Woolies....

Certainly do, from Woollies Hanley, still have Edwin-00 Soul,Fantastic Four, Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson & Inex & Charlie Foxx to this day.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Mick Sway

[Mick Holdsworth]

Mick, did Telford actually exist then, I remember them building it, 1967 - 1969!

 

Not really sure, but think the PG in Tesco might have been a year or two after '69. As said, really before my time.

[Swifty]

I remember import 45s being on these racks that twist round- I knocked the buggers over once trying to reach for one I wanted! - Got some strange looks!

did you knock 'em over twice ? 

[Soulfinger]

Yes Tescos , around 72 or 73  had wire bins full of thousands of 45s all for 10p each,    mainly i remember these were full of the now very collectible pama offshoot label stuff   , unity , camel  etc  bought  quite a few at the time , two i remember were   Return of  Al Capone  Peter Touch ( Tosh) on Unity    and Creation   I got the  Fever  on Stateside .  I imagine different areas would of had different titles as it seems they had been sold job lots of deletions for next to nothing . 

Tesco's in Stretford had big floorstanding, wire bins of 45's in 72/73 for 10p. Hard to sift through! Lots of blue Stax and Mirwood. I was on a quid a week from my paper round and for some time, Tesco got all my money.

[Hill868]

I bought the isley Bros album with 'my love is your love' from Woolworth, Grantham, circa 1980, for a princely sum of 99p.

If I'm not mistaken, our very own Pete Watkin (caveman) served me

I bought one from M. Mowbray Sunday boot last week for 50p amongst others

[Carty]

Tesco's in Stretford had big floorstanding, wire bins of 45's in 72/73 for 10p. Hard to sift through! Lots of blue Stax and Mirwood. I was on a quid a week from my paper round and for some time, Tesco got all my money.

Yes true almost impossible to get to the ones at the bottom , also knowing the lack of accessibility dictated the best would be down there, never seen records stored like that before or since ,as if someone had thought one record is the same as the rest and people would grab a few without even looking at the titles