Music Shops!?

[keith lockey]

Right, please, help.

When me and my bro were about ten yrs old we used to listen to Elvis Presley,The Beatles and the Rolling Stones on an old Danzig? (Wooden Heart, Help & Get off of my cloud, etc,) as well as a host of others like Shrimp Boats and Tower of Strength.

Now we were obviously too young to buy records so that means my mother must have bought them. BUT where would she have bought 45s in Bedlington?

Can anyone help on this one. Cheers.

[Symptoms]

Keith - would it not have been Millnes in the Market Place?

That old record player you mention was probably a Danset, not a Danzig.

[keith lockey]

Keith - would it not have been Millnes in the Market Place?

That old record player you mention was probably a Danset, not a Danzig.

Right on both accounts, Symptoms, my apologies. My bro mentioned Milne House, but I was too young to remember. I didn't think they would sell singles, though!!!

[Symptoms]

keith - Millne's (or Milne's?) had a record section at the back of the store (left-hand side) with the racks of records and further back a 'listening section' (I can't quite remember if there were booths or just headphones). You picked your record, the sales assistant would stick it on the behind-the-counter deck and you'd go and listen to it. If you were happy with your selection you then bought it. LPs and singles were sold there. When my old Mum died six years ago I found a few of the old 45s bought in Millne's in her record collection of LPs ... They were in good nick as I doubt they would have been played since the 60s.

There was an earlier thread on here which did include some of these tales about Millne's ... perhaps do a search for more info.

[Pete]

Right, please, help.

When me and my bro were about ten yrs old we used to listen to Elvis Presley,The Beatles and the Rolling Stones on an old Danzig? (Wooden Heart, Help & Get off of my cloud, etc,) as well as a host of others like Shrimp Boats and Tower of Strength.

Now we were obviously too young to buy records so that means my mother must have bought them. BUT where would she have bought 45s in Bedlington?

Can anyone help on this one. Cheers.

There was a record shop in the Oval that sold 45s, late fifties I belive.

[keith lockey]

There was a record shop in the Oval that sold 45s, late fifties I belive.

The other Keith mentioned this on The Oval Shops site, but he said it just sold instruments. I honestly can't remember Milne House selling them but others can. But we had loads of sixties top ten 45's so my mother must have bought them somewhere - in Bedlington presumably!

[Pete]

The other Keith mentioned this on The Oval Shops site, but he said it just sold instruments. I honestly can't remember Milne House selling them but others can. But we had loads of sixties top ten 45's so my mother must have bought them somewhere - in Bedlington presumably!

Woolworths in Blyth sold 45s but they had their own label (Embasy) mainly copies of the original. The record shop in the oval definitly sold 45s because I bought 45s there but can not remember the name of the shop. There where shops in Morpeth that sold them as well

[keith lockey]

Cheers, Pete, I can't remember the shop - I was born in 1956 - and didn't start buying records until the late sixties early seventies but I'll ask around and see if others can remember the shop.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Don't know about music shops Keith but the score at Newcastle today was music to my ears, did you hear, 3-nil! :lol:

[keith lockey]

Don't know about music shops Keith but the score at Newcastle today was music to my ears, did you hear, 3-nil! :lol:

So SAFC will be invading Poland tomorrow!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Well they invaded the Newcastle net today!!!!!! :lol:

[Orloff]

Keith, I'm just a little older than you (born 1951) but I remember buying my first ever 45 in a shop in Vulcan Place. It was by a pair of girls that sung under the name of The Caravelles, I had a crush on them.

[Maggie/915]

Born 1946 I am older than you Orloff!

I remember sharing the cost of records with my dad and the boyfriend.

I think the cost was 6/3 pence.

May have been 3/9 pence! So long ago.

I feel sorry for the Spotify Generation, buying the odd record or two or more was brilliant.

Going to a concert was almost as cheap or expensive as the records.

I remember hearing 'With the Beatles' for the first time.

Friends got together.

No downloads.

[keith lockey]

Keith, I'm just a little older than you (born 1951) but I remember buying my first ever 45 in a shop in Vulcan Place. It was by a pair of girls that sung under the name of The Caravelles, I had a crush on them.

Cheers Orloff, I remember the old Rediffusion shop at Vulcan Place but not a music shop. It might sound silly but I have very little memory of things before about 8 yrs old. The problem me and my bro are having is that neither of us can remember my mother buying records!!! But the records we had were new releases!! So where was she getting them from? I can't imagine my mother going out and buying a Stones record either! It's baffling us.

Edited April 15, 2013 by keith lockey

[tonyg]

Jimmy Millne . sold records in his old shop just past the northumberland arms dont know if he sold 45s but he definitely sold 78s .i have loads of 78s from the 1940s .Belonging to my Father in law

[threegee]

keith - Millne's (or Milne's?) had a record section at the back of the store (left-hand side) with the racks of records and further back a 'listening section' (I can't quite remember if there were booths or just headphones). You picked your record, the sales assistant would stick it on the behind-the-counter deck and you'd go and listen to it. If you were happy with your selection you then bought it. LPs and singles were sold there...

Totally correct and full marks! Right on through and almost to the end on the left-hand side. In charge of the Records Dept. the amazingly pretty blond Betty Brown (maiden name). She knew her records, and late one weekday afternoon insisted I listen to a newly-arrived record from this noisy new group playing a number called "Love Me Do" - well I wasn't too impressed at the time, and they probably never went anywhere!

No headphones; no booths; just a rather good Pye "Black Box" stereo system that lasted quite some years.

The other Keith mentioned this on The Oval Shops site, but he said it just sold instruments. I honestly can't remember Milne House selling them but others can. But we had loads of sixties top ten 45's so my mother must have bought them somewhere - in Bedlington presumably!

NVR on Front Street East sold vinyl for a few years in the mid to late '60s, and slightly later an upstairs place nearer the Market Place - think it was imaginatively named The Music Box or similar!

Keith, I'm just a little older than you (born 1951) but I remember buying my first ever 45 in a shop in Vulcan Place. It was by a pair of girls that sung under the name of The Caravelles, I had a crush on them.

I think it's more likely you bought it above what used to be Feasters and Percy Moldens. Some time in the mid '50s Millne's established the first record department there - straight at the top of the stairs in a partitioned off area. Previously they'd been sold from 110 Front Street East - The Cycle Shop. In those days record distribution was closely controlled, and the distributors are very unlikely to have supplied shops within a stone's-throw of each other.

What sticks in my mind about this is the extensive use of the new wonder material pegboard, the "comfy" seating, and the strips of red carpet over the regulation lino. Clearly no expense was spared! My other impression is of seeing the first vinyl 7" EPs there. EPs - 33rpm - didn't last too long.

Born 1946 I am older than you Orloff!

I remember sharing the cost of records with my dad and the boyfriend.

I think the cost was 6/3 pence.

May have been 3/9 pence! So long ago....

6s 8d (approx 34p) in the mid '60s I think. 45's were stuck at about that price for quite some years - though they attracted (25%?) Purchase Tax and changes to that might have produced some small variations. They likely were 3s odd in the '50s.

.

Jimmy Millne . sold records in his old shop just past the northumberland arms dont know if he sold 45s but he definitely sold 78s .i have loads of 78s from the 1940s .Belonging to my Father in law.

The last of the 78's went in a huge bumper sale in the Market Place store. The problem was that over the years thousands of the things had built up, and in those days it was forbidden to sell at below the price stipulated by the record companies (Retail Price Maintenance). In fact you could be taken to court for discounting, or worse have all your supplies cut off! With the move to Millne House (though it wasn't called that until the Coop took it over) there was a huge storage headache with this dead stock. Some time after the move, and after much argument and trepidation it was decided to go ahead regardless and flog them off at 2s 6d (eight for £1). Queues developed as discounted records were unheard of, and just about everything moved in a day or two. The much feared reaction of the record distributors never happened! If you kept yours - and didn't turn them into flowerpots or sling them - you probably have an excellent investment.

[ex Bedlingtonian]

NVR on Front Street East

??? Wasn't it called "Northern Vision Rentals" back then, and wasn't it on Front Street WEST?

[tonyg]

Jimmy millne son had the N V R . SHOP

[threegee]

...err... yes! 36 then 38 Front Street WEST! And tony got Millne right too - pity no one managed Dansette!

For a brief period in the late '60s NVR had a really novel battery portable called the Discotron, which played disks vertically and looked more like a transistor radio with a handle than a record player. They didn't have much output though, and weren't a big seller. If the firm had carried on and improved it a bit I think they could have been big, but it fizzled out. Result is they are very rare now, and highly sought after.