Record and music shops in the city

I remember: Hits & Misses (Far Gosford Street) Shambles Arcade (2nd hand LPs) A place on the Burges above another shop (Kong?) that sold rare singles and albums. Soundhouse (Hertford Street) Spinadisc (Lower Precinct, their store in Market Way was rubbish.) Two HMVs A terrible Our Price Virgin Megastore MVC And there was a place in West Orchards for a while called '4 Play'... I reckon a good independent store like HEAD in Leamington would thrive in Coventry - probably if it was somewhere like Earlsdon Street.

This link leads to previous postings about Fennells

I discovered only yesterday that Fennels were originally bakers in Spon Street!

There also used to be a quite small Virgin record shop next to the Climax pub,by the birdcage, opposite 'Mr Nello's' restaurant and nightclub. It was certainly there in 1974. I'm not quite sure when it ceased trading. I remember at the time that the staff employed there were paid the princely sum of

Aha... and that brings us full circle, have you seen my very first question that kicked this topic off? If only you'd been here to answer my query nearly three years ago!

Sorry Rob, I didn't trawl back through all the posts on this topic. Very remiss of me! At least I knew what the pub used to be called!! Better late than never!

Must have been the same advert as the one I saw in Earlsdon Street, Dreamtime. It was quite a striking picture of the bow of the liner towering up in the foreground with the smoking funnels behind and of course the KB logo prominently displayed. I did a quick search and we aren't imagining things. Couldn't find the advert, but did find a lot of references to the link up between KB and Cunard such as this KB Queens in the 1950s.

I remember Mr Nello's. I took the 'squeeze of the day' there for the New Year's do 1975 at her request. As I recall, it wasn't much of a do, the food wasn't great, and she had been replaced by the end of January too! Before being Mr Nello's it was a Chinese restaurant called the Midland Star. At that time I think there were only four in Coventry, the others being the Oriental Star in Market Way, the King Wah in Warwick Row, and the one I preferred, the Sunflower House by the station. I did use the Virgin shop for records, which was previously a pet shop. Another place I would buy music, strangely, was on the top floor of Owen Owen. They didn't have a huge selection like Virgin, but for some reason they were cheaper for what they did have. Not sure if this picture has been posted before:

Did they sell any records by The Pet Shop Boys? It's because they were imports from Holland My housekeeper worked at Owens for a time and used to pick-up big-name albums for me from there dirt cheap

Morning Dutchman, Our first 'radiogram' HMV was bought from the Co Op in Corporation St., and at the same time we bought a Fleetwood Mac LP. Their selection of records was quite good. Probably not up to 'record shop' standards but very good anyway.

G'day Dreamtime! A friend's family owned an HMV radiogram which I assume was bought from the Co-Op in Corp St. as his mother refused to shop anywhere else. It was HUGE, had very nice sound and if I remember correctly had a built-in cocktail cabinet? There was a reason for its huge proportions which beyond the needs of sound reproduction. Many of the 30-something buyers had grown-up during the Great Depression in the 1930s when the ownership of 'unnecessary' furniture was frowned-upon by the welfare authorities. Thus owning such a large and aspirational piece of furniture gave the buyers a greater sense of security and well-being. Some of HMV's televisions were equally massive pieces of furniture for the same reason.

Hi Dutchman, Ours was not very big, low with one half the radio and the other half had a lift up lid with the turntable inside. Had a lovely tone and we actually brought it out here with us and used it for a few years and then let the daughter have it. My Gran's HMV was a large one, just a radio though it seemed overly big for just a radio but looked very impressive standing in the corner. Is HMV still in production or as in some cases taken over by another company ? I know I should look for myself but that is what you are there for !

Most of the well known radio manufactures have either gone out of business or their names have been bought by far-eastern companies who use those famous names-of-old to sell their products. For instance "Bush" and "Alba" are just Argos's own brand labels with no connection to the original companies.