Comment
Before the rise of the strange 'Indies are morally superior and cooler' trend, music fans bought records wherever they were sold - although one might be loyal to a couple of favourite shops in particular, you bought stuff where you found it.
In 1986 I was made redundant (for about a week) and I blew my payoff on a new hifi setup and my first -and best- Sony CD player. Sick of the playback wear that even carefully curated records displayed, I was ready for CD.
Bath Compact Disc not only had a superb range of Classical CD then, but also a fair amount of rock and pop- I bought my first Flying Burrito Brothers CD there (the much underrated 'Live In Tokyo') but I failed to buy a CD EP by the same band which I've never seen since in any discography. They also had CDs by now obscure bands like 1919.
CDs were around £10 then and I once remember blowing a week's wages (more or less) on half a dozen.
The shop was small, immaculately clean and tidy and well laid out. Down the alley beside it was eventually the Jazz shop, which I visited frequently in the late 90s onward. Bath CD moved over entirely to classical as time went on -especially after HMV opened- and finally moved across the road on broad street before it folded. The Jazz shop went the same way. Sad- online shopping is no substitute...
Name
Steve Andrews (2021)
