Dobells
Dobells Staff and Customers
Established 1946 Closed 1992
Firstly a bit of history about Dobell's,it all started in 1946 when the founder was his groovy lordship Doug Dobell took over his father's antiquarian bookshop in Charing Cross Road and reserves a small part of the premises for the sale of 78 rpm records. Doug Dobell who was centre piece of the jazz scene in London in the fifties, sixties and seventies. It was the place where musicians used to hang out, smoke and where you find certain records nowhere else. Dobell's set up his own record label called "77" after the address of the street ( Charing Cross Road) there was a limited edition of pressings and it was mainly folk, jazz and some oddities from the US. To say the least a certain American artist called "Blind Boy Grunt" released his first recordings via "77" records, it was no other than Bob Dylan. Doug Dobell died in Niece during a jazz festival in 1987. Some famous Associations (shoppers)
Muddy Waters, B.B.King, Rolling Stones, Alexis Korner, and Tubby Hayes.
Record Label "77" and Folklore.
Quote/Story
Whenever B.B. King was in London in the 70s he would go to Dobell's and buy
blues LPs by the truck load. There's documentary proof of this in a Melody
Maker interview of June 1971 thus:
"I (Max Jones) was surprised to find him almost literally knee deep in books
and records. It was the result of a shopping expedition. "Well I took some
time off and went to see Ray in Dobells shop. I remember him from before and
it's always nice to talk to him. Whilst I was there I bought some books and
records" (Max Jones The Blues Boy In London, Melody Maker 19th June 1971
page 15)"
Ray Bolden at Dobell's would phone round and tell his mates "B's in the
shop". I last saw him there in 1987.
Mousetrap was playing for about 25 years) the serious - and I mean *serious* - jazz stuff was in the front of the shop and the
Blues/RnB stuff was in the back. I still have a handful of gospel albums that I bought there, but the atmosphere in the front part
of the shop was very intimidating. It felt like you had to have a degree in higher hipology before they'd even deign to sell you
something. It was an ambition of mine to own all the albums featured on the bags they used. Rob Hall
Doug Dobell had another shop at 10 Rathbone Place, where the mail order business was run from.
The shop was Dobells Folk and Blues Shop from (about) 1961 to 1965 I was the manager of the shop,
Bill Colyer ran the mail order dept. We also were the wholesalers for, Riverside, Blue Note, Folklore, 77, Prestige and
Electra among others. One of our first sales reps was Graham Bond. I wrote many sleeve notes for Doug's own labels, and was present at all his recording sessions including the famous Richard farina, Rik Von Schmitt and Blind Boy Grunt session, you can hear my dulcet tones on all of the choruses. Fascinating and wonderful times. rongould
Wave is a wonderful tune. I first heard this song on the first Oscar Peterson album I ever bought.
I cycled up to London from Poole to purchase it at Dobell's jazz record shop, and cycled all the way back with it strapped to my
rear cycle rack with a bunjy chord (a round trip of 200miles). It's a miracle it wasn't damaged, I still have it.
Mike Hatchard musician
I can remember buying a Louis Armstong EP in Dobell's, just around the corner in Charing Cross Rd, before they moved.
The second-hand stuff was downstairs in a tiny cramped cellar. After Dobell's moved to their shop (just along from where the
Mousetrap was playing for about 25 years) the serious - and I mean *serious* - jazz stuff was in the front of the shop and the
Blues/RnB stuff was in the back. I still have a handful of gospel albums that I bought there, but the atmosphere in the front part of the shop was very intimidating. It felt like you had to have a degree in higher hipology before they'd even deign to sell you something. It was an ambition of mine to own all the albums featured on the bags they used - Rob Hall
With my husband, Robin, good memories of John Kendall presiding over the basement, Ben Webster smiling happily to all comers from his chair; an evening spent with John and Henry Red Allen; and celebration the arrival of the Ellington band.. Comment:Brenda Herdman.
Myself and my friends used to come down to Ronnie Scotts once a year from Nottingham and always visited Dobells to buy jazz records.I still have my Charlie Byrd LP I bought in the 60's. A mecca for jazz enthusiasts. Comment: Peter Minkley.
I used to go to Dobells nearly every Saturday afternoon in the late 60's. John Kendall was so helpful in finding stuff. I remember telling him I was looking for a good Prestige copy of 'Saxophone Colossus' and a week later when I went in John had kept one under the counter for me. I also remember the murals on the staircase, reputed to be by David Stone Martin! Comment Tony Saul
Some of the happiest days and best memories of my life are from the time that I worked at Dobells. Comment:Ron Gould
(Apr 27, 2013) chris standen said:I remember the basement with all the secondhand 78s,and listening to them in the tiny booths whilst puffing on a roll-up.Good music and gloriously incorrect
(Mar 14, 2013) brian said:I was one of the crowd who used to hang out with Ray Boulden who ran the blues and folk shop at number 75. In fact Ray was a jazz lover, rather than the largely blues and bit of folk he sold. He really did phone around when a big name blues artiste was in the shop, even in anticipation. We used to spend hours in the Cottage Club a couple of minutes away where Ray had a permanent pint glass of gin that was topped up by the round and put under the bar when we left. I am not sure whether I spent more money on LPs or drinking but those days are far, far gone.
(Feb 4, 2013) B.Herdman said:What about John Kendall?
(Feb 1, 2013) John Barnes said:Around 1968 when I was 18 I used to visit Dobells at least once a week. Through my older brother who had been one of John Kendalls closest friends I also became close to John. I worked in a large department store in their record department. This was the days of your record will be in both no.6 Sir. On my day off on a Wednesday I would spend my afternoon down in Dobells basement. This was convienient for John. `Ah young John, can you man the counter Ben is on his way.` There would then be the sound of heavy feet coming down the stairs to the basenent second hand section which John ran. `Old bones` said the rather rotund man desending the stairs. Hi Ben John is here so we can go over the road fro a drink. John Kendal and Ben Webster would then leave me to climb the stairs to cross the Caring Cross Road for a few beers.
(Sept 8, 2012) Pete Batten said:Very happy memories of Dobell's, mainly thanks to the late John Kendall. I learned a lot from him and enjoyed his stories about his friendship with Red Allen. I remember also a hilarious account of a trip round Soho when John was trying to help Ben Webster buy some ground nutmeg. Not so happy memories of the late Bill Colyer and his rather insulting treatment of customers who did not share his knowledge of the jazz scene. Overall a wonderful shop and a great period in my life.
(Feb 25, 2015)
Dobells in Charing Cross Road was great in the early 1970's. It had several racks of second hand records. I remember squeezing through into the back part of the shop and buying Bob Dylan bootlegs, recent West Coast albums and other oddities. Sometimes there would be not much there but, in 1971, I found a battered copy of the 13th Floor Elevators' "Easter Everywhere". I couldn't resist the cover. Comment: Jon Savage.
(May 15. 2015) Jon Taylor wrote this on BB: I had the great pleasure of seeing him various times, and was on a festival bill with him (sadly our shows were at the same time). I also had the great pleasure of meeting him in Dobell's record shop, Covent Garden, London, back room in the 1980s, when Les Fancourt was running the blues section.
Dave Davies's autobiography, Kink. The time he's writing about is around 1962:
"Peter Quaife and I would sometimes meet at lunchtime or after work to venture round second-hand music and record shops...In the late Fifties and early Sixties record stores were still very small-time. One of our favourites was Dobell's, where we'd hear Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Diz Dizzly, and of course Django Reinhardt. This is the store where I first discovered Eddie Congdon. They also had many blues records which were refreshingly new to me - Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sleepy John Estes." Source Garth Cartwright.
( March 1, 2016) I started work in Page Street, Westminster aged 16 and a half. Finishing early on Fridays I used to walk up Whitehall, across Trafalgar Square and onto the bottom end of Tottenham Court Road/Charing Cross Road and make my way to Dobells basement - because I could only afford second hand albums. Just to be there was magical - there was quite often a jazz celebrity on the ground floor. I remember buying a Big John Patton Blue note album "Along Came John".I got it in stereo on Cd some 15 years ago and all those memories came flooding back! What a great place it was! Comment: Mike Richards.
( March 18, 2016) Dobells Blues shop was initially a bit of a shock. To buy blues records in Halifax you had to order them and hope - and only if they were released by a major label. Like Robert Johnson on CBS. But Dobells gave me the impression that they had such a comprehensive selection that some on the LPs were on sale before they'd even been recorded. And where was I going to get the money to buy all those records. Just the ones I wanted, never mind those that I needed as well. One sticks in my mind. A recording recommended by the reviewer in Blues Unlimited. Trash Talkin' by Albert Collins on Liberty. Still have it and I think it might still have the yellow Dobells price label in it. Comment:Truats Heytarl.
Name Robert Brown Comment: I loved Dobells. I used to visit weekly in the late 1960's and early 1970' to buy a Blues album. I would always find something great to buy and often went in to buy one album and went away buying three. Those were the days. (August 14, 2016).
Name Bradley Scorey Comment: My dad used to drag me to the folk shop as a kid in the earley seventies never really appreciated how fantastic it was. (Jan 5, 2017).
Name Roger Hall Comment: I have George Wallington Quintet acetate from Doug Dobell's early 1950S the first Bohemia club LP,with "snakes-jay mac's crib- bohemia after dark-the peck-johnny one note-sweet blanche-minor march. Hand written white label. Says on card sleeve recorded at Dobell's charing x rd etc.Anyone know of live session of this at Dobell's??? (July 24, 2017)
Name Patrick Collard Comment: Yep I remember Dobells, a mate told me about this shop where you could find loads of old blues records......I spent my wad came out with 20 LPs...Blind boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Jesse Fuller, etc. I was the original "kid in a sweet shop".....was a great shop. (July 14th, 2017)
Comment
After Ray Bolden left Dobell´s he went to work at BT in Tunbridge Wells, where I met him when I started my first job. One of my prized possesions is a signed drawing of BB King that BB gave to me when he invited Ray & myself backstage at Hammersmith Odeon.Ray was great company and was also an accomplished photographer - despite sitting on his glasses and never replacing them!
Name
Stuart Jenner
(2018)
Comment
I worked next door at Caplan's, with Barry Preston.. we shared the entrance ( Dobell's to the right; Caplan's to the left )... Doug often wandered in to chat with Barry... I befriended Ray... Magical time (1972).. Lou Hart ( Bunjie's ) was also a frequent visitor
Name
John Dyson
(2018)
Comment
Wonderful article thanks.
Having searched the world pre internet 1970s
I located a copy or Muddy Waters Fathers and Sons at this wonderful shop Dobells to this day my most played vinyl. Also emptied the shop of everything written by Willy Dixon. Very happy day.
Name
Mike Chambers
(2019)
Comment
From about March to April, 1965, I actually worked as front salesman in the Rathbone Place shop. I knew nothing about white folk music and got some puzzled looks when I always referred to "Bobbie" Dylan the folkies obviously thought I had some sort of insider knowledge to refer to the great man in this way. Doug was a very kind man, but Bill Colyer in the back room tried to have a go at me about not changing the display window! The rest of the guys were great to me as they realised I had quite a few trad jazz connections such as Hugh Rainey, my old mucker from the Queen Mary College jazz Band of 1955. We were allowed to take l.ps home to record on tape as long as they were back on the shelves the next day- this way I amassed a huge collection of open reel tapes covering Coltrane, Mingus etc. I was always busy and one of the big problems was keeping an eye on the West Indian fans who used to nick the album covers to decorate their pads.
Happy days!
Name
Derek (Norrie or Del) Paramor
(2021)
Comment
Hello,
I owe Dobells (Charing Cross Road) a huge debt of gratitude. In the early sixties I was aimless, I certainly didn't like the pop music of the period, I came from a home that never really listened to much music and musically I had nowhere to go.
During '64 or '65 I was dragged by my friends to La Discotheque in Wardour Street but what always fascinated me was stairs that went down to the Ronnie Scoot's club in Gerrard Street!? The one thing that did attract me and get some interest were the crooners; Mel Torme, Vic Damone etc. And then by chance I heard Charlie Mingus's Oh Yeah, and that did get my attention.
I used to come into the West End a lot from Tilbury in Essex and used to go to Foyles so I was aware of Dobells. I went into Dobells ('65ish) and came out out a few LP's. A couple of more visits ensued and more LP's were bought; some quite rare from the used records section. Then I went to sea to complete my apprenticeship and lost touch.
It's not the records that I bought from Dobells that I am writing for; though I am, even to this day, extremely grateful; it's the world that Dobells introduced me to. I love music of most kinds but my one passion and obsession is Bebop, especially J Coltrane, D Gordon and O Nelson and I wouldn't have heard of that without Dobells.
Thank you so much
Warmest Regards
Graham Crook
(2021)
Comment
Who can forget the advertising slogan “Every jazz fan is born within the sound of Dobells”?
I used to visit the shop as part of a circuit comprising of Mole Jazz, Dobell, Ray’s, and if time permitted, HMV in Oxford Street.
Name
David Harrison
(2022)
Peter Guralnick
When living in Cambridge England I reulary visited Dobell's and Dave Carey Swing Shop to dicover music. Rock back pages podcast (2022)
Firstly a bit of history about Dobell's,it all started in 1946 when the founder was his groovy lordship Doug Dobell took over his father's antiquarian bookshop in Charing Cross Road and reserves a small part of the premises for the sale of 78 rpm records. Doug Dobell who was centre piece of the jazz scene in London in the fifties, sixties and seventies. It was the place where musicians used to hang out, smoke and where you find certain records nowhere else. Dobell's set up his own record label called "77" after the address of the street ( Charing Cross Road) there was a limited edition of pressings and it was mainly folk, jazz and some oddities from the US. To say the least a certain American artist called "Blind Boy Grunt" released his first recordings via "77" records, it was no other than Bob Dylan. Doug Dobell died in Niece during a jazz festival in 1987. Some famous Associations (shoppers)
Muddy Waters, B.B.King, Rolling Stones, Alexis Korner, and Tubby Hayes.
Record Label "77" and Folklore.
Quote/Story
Whenever B.B. King was in London in the 70s he would go to Dobell's and buy
blues LPs by the truck load. There's documentary proof of this in a Melody
Maker interview of June 1971 thus:
"I (Max Jones) was surprised to find him almost literally knee deep in books
and records. It was the result of a shopping expedition. "Well I took some
time off and went to see Ray in Dobells shop. I remember him from before and
it's always nice to talk to him. Whilst I was there I bought some books and
records" (Max Jones The Blues Boy In London, Melody Maker 19th June 1971
page 15)"
Ray Bolden at Dobell's would phone round and tell his mates "B's in the
shop". I last saw him there in 1987.
Mousetrap was playing for about 25 years) the serious - and I mean *serious* - jazz stuff was in the front of the shop and the
Blues/RnB stuff was in the back. I still have a handful of gospel albums that I bought there, but the atmosphere in the front part
of the shop was very intimidating. It felt like you had to have a degree in higher hipology before they'd even deign to sell you
something. It was an ambition of mine to own all the albums featured on the bags they used. Rob Hall
Doug Dobell had another shop at 10 Rathbone Place, where the mail order business was run from.
The shop was Dobells Folk and Blues Shop from (about) 1961 to 1965 I was the manager of the shop,
Bill Colyer ran the mail order dept. We also were the wholesalers for, Riverside, Blue Note, Folklore, 77, Prestige and
Electra among others. One of our first sales reps was Graham Bond. I wrote many sleeve notes for Doug's own labels, and was present at all his recording sessions including the famous Richard farina, Rik Von Schmitt and Blind Boy Grunt session, you can hear my dulcet tones on all of the choruses. Fascinating and wonderful times. rongould
Wave is a wonderful tune. I first heard this song on the first Oscar Peterson album I ever bought.
I cycled up to London from Poole to purchase it at Dobell's jazz record shop, and cycled all the way back with it strapped to my
rear cycle rack with a bunjy chord (a round trip of 200miles). It's a miracle it wasn't damaged, I still have it.
Mike Hatchard musician
I can remember buying a Louis Armstong EP in Dobell's, just around the corner in Charing Cross Rd, before they moved.
The second-hand stuff was downstairs in a tiny cramped cellar. After Dobell's moved to their shop (just along from where the
Mousetrap was playing for about 25 years) the serious - and I mean *serious* - jazz stuff was in the front of the shop and the
Blues/RnB stuff was in the back. I still have a handful of gospel albums that I bought there, but the atmosphere in the front part of the shop was very intimidating. It felt like you had to have a degree in higher hipology before they'd even deign to sell you something. It was an ambition of mine to own all the albums featured on the bags they used - Rob Hall
With my husband, Robin, good memories of John Kendall presiding over the basement, Ben Webster smiling happily to all comers from his chair; an evening spent with John and Henry Red Allen; and celebration the arrival of the Ellington band.. Comment:Brenda Herdman.
Myself and my friends used to come down to Ronnie Scotts once a year from Nottingham and always visited Dobells to buy jazz records.I still have my Charlie Byrd LP I bought in the 60's. A mecca for jazz enthusiasts. Comment: Peter Minkley.
I used to go to Dobells nearly every Saturday afternoon in the late 60's. John Kendall was so helpful in finding stuff. I remember telling him I was looking for a good Prestige copy of 'Saxophone Colossus' and a week later when I went in John had kept one under the counter for me. I also remember the murals on the staircase, reputed to be by David Stone Martin! Comment Tony Saul
Some of the happiest days and best memories of my life are from the time that I worked at Dobells. Comment:Ron Gould
(Apr 27, 2013) chris standen said:I remember the basement with all the secondhand 78s,and listening to them in the tiny booths whilst puffing on a roll-up.Good music and gloriously incorrect
(Mar 14, 2013) brian said:I was one of the crowd who used to hang out with Ray Boulden who ran the blues and folk shop at number 75. In fact Ray was a jazz lover, rather than the largely blues and bit of folk he sold. He really did phone around when a big name blues artiste was in the shop, even in anticipation. We used to spend hours in the Cottage Club a couple of minutes away where Ray had a permanent pint glass of gin that was topped up by the round and put under the bar when we left. I am not sure whether I spent more money on LPs or drinking but those days are far, far gone.
(Feb 4, 2013) B.Herdman said:What about John Kendall?
(Feb 1, 2013) John Barnes said:Around 1968 when I was 18 I used to visit Dobells at least once a week. Through my older brother who had been one of John Kendalls closest friends I also became close to John. I worked in a large department store in their record department. This was the days of your record will be in both no.6 Sir. On my day off on a Wednesday I would spend my afternoon down in Dobells basement. This was convienient for John. `Ah young John, can you man the counter Ben is on his way.` There would then be the sound of heavy feet coming down the stairs to the basenent second hand section which John ran. `Old bones` said the rather rotund man desending the stairs. Hi Ben John is here so we can go over the road fro a drink. John Kendal and Ben Webster would then leave me to climb the stairs to cross the Caring Cross Road for a few beers.
(Sept 8, 2012) Pete Batten said:Very happy memories of Dobell's, mainly thanks to the late John Kendall. I learned a lot from him and enjoyed his stories about his friendship with Red Allen. I remember also a hilarious account of a trip round Soho when John was trying to help Ben Webster buy some ground nutmeg. Not so happy memories of the late Bill Colyer and his rather insulting treatment of customers who did not share his knowledge of the jazz scene. Overall a wonderful shop and a great period in my life.
(Feb 25, 2015)
Dobells in Charing Cross Road was great in the early 1970's. It had several racks of second hand records. I remember squeezing through into the back part of the shop and buying Bob Dylan bootlegs, recent West Coast albums and other oddities. Sometimes there would be not much there but, in 1971, I found a battered copy of the 13th Floor Elevators' "Easter Everywhere". I couldn't resist the cover. Comment: Jon Savage.
(May 15. 2015) Jon Taylor wrote this on BB: I had the great pleasure of seeing him various times, and was on a festival bill with him (sadly our shows were at the same time). I also had the great pleasure of meeting him in Dobell's record shop, Covent Garden, London, back room in the 1980s, when Les Fancourt was running the blues section.
Dave Davies's autobiography, Kink. The time he's writing about is around 1962:
"Peter Quaife and I would sometimes meet at lunchtime or after work to venture round second-hand music and record shops...In the late Fifties and early Sixties record stores were still very small-time. One of our favourites was Dobell's, where we'd hear Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Diz Dizzly, and of course Django Reinhardt. This is the store where I first discovered Eddie Congdon. They also had many blues records which were refreshingly new to me - Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sleepy John Estes." Source Garth Cartwright.
( March 1, 2016) I started work in Page Street, Westminster aged 16 and a half. Finishing early on Fridays I used to walk up Whitehall, across Trafalgar Square and onto the bottom end of Tottenham Court Road/Charing Cross Road and make my way to Dobells basement - because I could only afford second hand albums. Just to be there was magical - there was quite often a jazz celebrity on the ground floor. I remember buying a Big John Patton Blue note album "Along Came John".I got it in stereo on Cd some 15 years ago and all those memories came flooding back! What a great place it was! Comment: Mike Richards.
( March 18, 2016) Dobells Blues shop was initially a bit of a shock. To buy blues records in Halifax you had to order them and hope - and only if they were released by a major label. Like Robert Johnson on CBS. But Dobells gave me the impression that they had such a comprehensive selection that some on the LPs were on sale before they'd even been recorded. And where was I going to get the money to buy all those records. Just the ones I wanted, never mind those that I needed as well. One sticks in my mind. A recording recommended by the reviewer in Blues Unlimited. Trash Talkin' by Albert Collins on Liberty. Still have it and I think it might still have the yellow Dobells price label in it. Comment:Truats Heytarl.
Name Robert Brown Comment: I loved Dobells. I used to visit weekly in the late 1960's and early 1970' to buy a Blues album. I would always find something great to buy and often went in to buy one album and went away buying three. Those were the days. (August 14, 2016).
Name Bradley Scorey Comment: My dad used to drag me to the folk shop as a kid in the earley seventies never really appreciated how fantastic it was. (Jan 5, 2017).
Name Roger Hall Comment: I have George Wallington Quintet acetate from Doug Dobell's early 1950S the first Bohemia club LP,with "snakes-jay mac's crib- bohemia after dark-the peck-johnny one note-sweet blanche-minor march. Hand written white label. Says on card sleeve recorded at Dobell's charing x rd etc.Anyone know of live session of this at Dobell's??? (July 24, 2017)
Name Patrick Collard Comment: Yep I remember Dobells, a mate told me about this shop where you could find loads of old blues records......I spent my wad came out with 20 LPs...Blind boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Jesse Fuller, etc. I was the original "kid in a sweet shop".....was a great shop. (July 14th, 2017)
Comment
After Ray Bolden left Dobell´s he went to work at BT in Tunbridge Wells, where I met him when I started my first job. One of my prized possesions is a signed drawing of BB King that BB gave to me when he invited Ray & myself backstage at Hammersmith Odeon.Ray was great company and was also an accomplished photographer - despite sitting on his glasses and never replacing them!
Name
Stuart Jenner
(2018)
Comment
I worked next door at Caplan's, with Barry Preston.. we shared the entrance ( Dobell's to the right; Caplan's to the left )... Doug often wandered in to chat with Barry... I befriended Ray... Magical time (1972).. Lou Hart ( Bunjie's ) was also a frequent visitor
Name
John Dyson
(2018)
Comment
Wonderful article thanks.
Having searched the world pre internet 1970s
I located a copy or Muddy Waters Fathers and Sons at this wonderful shop Dobells to this day my most played vinyl. Also emptied the shop of everything written by Willy Dixon. Very happy day.
Name
Mike Chambers
(2019)
Comment
From about March to April, 1965, I actually worked as front salesman in the Rathbone Place shop. I knew nothing about white folk music and got some puzzled looks when I always referred to "Bobbie" Dylan the folkies obviously thought I had some sort of insider knowledge to refer to the great man in this way. Doug was a very kind man, but Bill Colyer in the back room tried to have a go at me about not changing the display window! The rest of the guys were great to me as they realised I had quite a few trad jazz connections such as Hugh Rainey, my old mucker from the Queen Mary College jazz Band of 1955. We were allowed to take l.ps home to record on tape as long as they were back on the shelves the next day- this way I amassed a huge collection of open reel tapes covering Coltrane, Mingus etc. I was always busy and one of the big problems was keeping an eye on the West Indian fans who used to nick the album covers to decorate their pads.
Happy days!
Name
Derek (Norrie or Del) Paramor
(2021)
Comment
Hello,
I owe Dobells (Charing Cross Road) a huge debt of gratitude. In the early sixties I was aimless, I certainly didn't like the pop music of the period, I came from a home that never really listened to much music and musically I had nowhere to go.
During '64 or '65 I was dragged by my friends to La Discotheque in Wardour Street but what always fascinated me was stairs that went down to the Ronnie Scoot's club in Gerrard Street!? The one thing that did attract me and get some interest were the crooners; Mel Torme, Vic Damone etc. And then by chance I heard Charlie Mingus's Oh Yeah, and that did get my attention.
I used to come into the West End a lot from Tilbury in Essex and used to go to Foyles so I was aware of Dobells. I went into Dobells ('65ish) and came out out a few LP's. A couple of more visits ensued and more LP's were bought; some quite rare from the used records section. Then I went to sea to complete my apprenticeship and lost touch.
It's not the records that I bought from Dobells that I am writing for; though I am, even to this day, extremely grateful; it's the world that Dobells introduced me to. I love music of most kinds but my one passion and obsession is Bebop, especially J Coltrane, D Gordon and O Nelson and I wouldn't have heard of that without Dobells.
Thank you so much
Warmest Regards
Graham Crook
(2021)
Comment
Who can forget the advertising slogan “Every jazz fan is born within the sound of Dobells”?
I used to visit the shop as part of a circuit comprising of Mole Jazz, Dobell, Ray’s, and if time permitted, HMV in Oxford Street.
Name
David Harrison
(2022)
Peter Guralnick
When living in Cambridge England I reulary visited Dobell's and Dave Carey Swing Shop to dicover music. Rock back pages podcast (2022)
‘I’m living for the ones who didn’t make it’: Bonnie Raitt on her unquenchable thirst for music. Kat Lister Interview Guardian.
Keith Pro"When she discovered Wallace in 1968 at Dobells record store on Charing Cross Road in London, she had no idea that by recording three songs – Mighty Tight Woman, Women Be Wise and You Got to Know How – she would reintroduce Wallace to a new audience. She also had no idea that Wallace was still alive and singing gospel in Detroit. “I begged her to come out to the Ann Arbor blues festival in 1972 and we sang Women Be Wise in the backstage trailer.” They toured together for 15 years until Wallace died in 1986."
Ruskin Old Boy
Another record shop I remember from the 1960s was Dobells in Charing Cross Road. I bought Blue Beat records from them - the first, a Prince Buster album I still have and play. Carried on buying records from them - mostly blues until they closed in 1992 after moving to other locations nearby.
This is the branch in Charing Cross Road:
Mick Jagger tells his 'Life as a Rolling Stone'He mentions buying blues record in the Charing Cross Road which would have been Dobell's. He states that this kind of music was hard to find but as the curator with an oversight of what was happening at the time, the choice was greater than he knew. You had Collets. Imhoff's, HMV, Keith Prowse to name but a few off the top of my head. I would suggest that the collection of R&B and Blues albums under Mick's arm that got Keith's attention at Dartford station, came from Dobell's.
(2022)
In the Letterman interview she mentions getting the record in London.
Ruskin Old Boy
Another record shop I remember from the 1960s was Dobells in Charing Cross Road. I bought Blue Beat records from them - the first, a Prince Buster album I still have and play. Carried on buying records from them - mostly blues until they closed in 1992 after moving to other locations nearby.
This is the branch in Charing Cross Road:
Mick Jagger tells his 'Life as a Rolling Stone'He mentions buying blues record in the Charing Cross Road which would have been Dobell's. He states that this kind of music was hard to find but as the curator with an oversight of what was happening at the time, the choice was greater than he knew. You had Collets. Imhoff's, HMV, Keith Prowse to name but a few off the top of my head. I would suggest that the collection of R&B and Blues albums under Mick's arm that got Keith's attention at Dartford station, came from Dobell's.
(2022)
In the Letterman interview she mentions getting the record in London.
|
|
Click on image to purchase CHELSEA space - #49 Dobells Jazz Folk Blues
Detailed Description#49 Dobells Jazz Folk Blues 10.04.13 – 18.05.13
2013 Published by CHELSEA space
A5 fully illustrated black and white 20 pagesISBN 978-1-906203-69-6
Detailed Description#49 Dobells Jazz Folk Blues 10.04.13 – 18.05.13
2013 Published by CHELSEA space
A5 fully illustrated black and white 20 pagesISBN 978-1-906203-69-6
|
|
Jazz Journal 1974