John Beal & Son
As a collector now for over 45 years I started with John Beals in East Street. The record store was downstairs and had 3 listening booths and a large stereo listening room. It sold all the latest hard to find albums - Velvet Underground, Mothers of Invention. I even stood next to Charlie Watts who bought records there. Bredons at Bartholomews had a downstairs record store selling items like the Doors and Fever Tree. I bought my ticket to the first IOW 1968 festival here. Bredons moved from here to a site in East Street and then took over John Beals. By Arthur Johnson (19/05/2009)
I bought my first record in 1963; it was the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand", to play on my younger sister's newly-acquired Ferranti autochange record player (one valve, about two watts mono power). With singles at 6/8 and my pocket money at two shillings a week I couldn't afford to buy any more records new, but I discovered a second-hand bookshop near the south end of Gardner Street, about five doors from the end on the left as you faced south, which also sold pre-owned comics and old jukebox records. I knew they were ex-jukebox as they'd had the middles removed. These came at ninepence or a shilling each. I recall buying Eden Kane's "Forget Me Not", Hank Levene's "Image" and Adam Faith's "As You Like It" - all great tunes but a bit dated in the face of Beatlemania, hence their retirement from the jukebox. Later I also bought a battered copy of the "Rolling Stones No 2" LP there, the second album I ever owned. Of course, nowadays jukeboxes all use Internet downloads, so no more ex-jukebox records. By Len Liechti (08/02/2010)
This was primarily a stationery shop, but back in the day you could venture downstairs in order to buy record albums, such as the Beatles. (Update: Alternative Brighton by Noyce & Jarman flagged up by Shelley Guild 30.03.20 – They also had listening booths with doors for intimate listening).
I bought my first record in 1963; it was the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand", to play on my younger sister's newly-acquired Ferranti autochange record player (one valve, about two watts mono power). With singles at 6/8 and my pocket money at two shillings a week I couldn't afford to buy any more records new, but I discovered a second-hand bookshop near the south end of Gardner Street, about five doors from the end on the left as you faced south, which also sold pre-owned comics and old jukebox records. I knew they were ex-jukebox as they'd had the middles removed. These came at ninepence or a shilling each. I recall buying Eden Kane's "Forget Me Not", Hank Levene's "Image" and Adam Faith's "As You Like It" - all great tunes but a bit dated in the face of Beatlemania, hence their retirement from the jukebox. Later I also bought a battered copy of the "Rolling Stones No 2" LP there, the second album I ever owned. Of course, nowadays jukeboxes all use Internet downloads, so no more ex-jukebox records. By Len Liechti (08/02/2010)
This was primarily a stationery shop, but back in the day you could venture downstairs in order to buy record albums, such as the Beatles. (Update: Alternative Brighton by Noyce & Jarman flagged up by Shelley Guild 30.03.20 – They also had listening booths with doors for intimate listening).