Shit, thanks for that Ian. Apparently miserable Phil the owner has been taken very ill and that sounds like the end of it. The shop was two floors of second hand LPs, often brand new review copies at knock down prices or US imports from some sharp dealing. I remember he had lots of copies of Millie Jackson's Caught Up which I loved so much I would buy spares of to give to friends, particularly good looking female ones.
I got the job on the market stall outside by virtue of downing a pint in one very quickly; my 2.2 from UCL counted for nothing. On my first day it poured down the whole time and I'd sold sod all with half an hour to go and was worrying that I wasn't up to the job. I was saved by two charming pros who must have just pushed a wealthy punter off and decided to spend some of their money on a load of old singles. I never saw them again or indeed ever knowingly served a brass again.
The singles stall was run by two separate charachters John Thorpe a long time blues fan who once ran a shop called The Sky Is Crying. His partner was Graham Stapleton, now a headmaster and brother-in-law to Cat Stevens. He comes down the 100 Club for any live acts or the Xmas party and is involved in Roger Stewart's shop Off Broadway.
I met Ian Clark, Jim Eddleston, Denbo, Ian Levine, Frank Jackson, Ian 'Frank' Dewhirst, Nij Flood, Malcolm Baumgart, Mick Patrick, Pete Wid, Roger Stewart and Tony Rounce who eventually took over from me. It really was the social hub of London's small Northern exiles and local afficianados and along with Dave Burton's Harlequin records 100 yards away, we had a great thing going. There weren't many Northern nights at all probably one every two months in very odd places but we loved all sorts of soul and went down Kings Road in army greens and plastic see through sandals dancing to Wicki Wacky and Tom The Peeper.
Tony and I could write a book a piece on the place but we're trying to work so I'll try and keep it to this for the time being.
If anyone's got any photos, whack 'em up, I've only got a couple of poor ones.
Too many records to mention but the one I remember best was a geezer bringing down a bunch of promos and one was Jimmy Thomas The Beautiful Night promo when it was about the biggest sound in the country. he noticed our eyes pop and said "Is that a good one", "Yes we're giving you a pound on that and 10p on the others". Next day he came down with a box of 25. We only sold them at about £4 each and we made lots of Northern friends with those.