Interview with Mike LittleInterviewer 49:
Interviewer 49:43 So what was the first record shop called that you worked in?
Little 49:45 Ah, so it was BG Records. The original owner was Brian Gilbert. And the weird thing is people at Stockport will remember it for the giant space invaders painted on the windows, which was really weird because what actually happened was that we had a particular promotion on for - do you remember Hot Gossip?
Interviewer 50:13 Vaguely.
Little 50:16 They started out as a dance group on Top of the Pops.
Interviewer 50:19 Yup, that's right, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Little 50:22 And somebody decided they should make a record, because one of them could sing. Actually, it was what's his face's wife.
Interviewer 50:28 Ah, Anna... Yeah. Anna Baker, was it? No.
Little 50:33 No, no, it was... Oh my god, the who wrote Phantom among others.
Interviewer 50:42 Phantom, I don't know what Phantom...
Little 50:42 Lloyd Webber, Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Interviewer 50:44 Oh, is it Sarah Brightman.
Little 50:46 Yeah, so Sarah Brightman was with Hot Gossip. The original name was Sarah Brightman and Hot Gossip, until she disappeared. But they had a song, so they did I think, Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper, that was a big hit. And then she moved, because she could sing and the rest of them were there to look good, because they were a dance troupe, not actually a band. But they had a another song out that was something to do with Space Invaders, and their record company were doing a promotion, and they were actually sending these people down to our record shop, and it was going to be a big promotion day and all this, that and the other. And so a boyfriend of the manager of the shop, Phil, Philomena was the manager, and her boyfriend was an artist, and we got him to paint basically the whole front of the shop - so we had a massive plate-glass window on the front of the shop - done up to promote this Space Invaders related song that was coming along, and we never took it down. We took the wording down, but we had these two Space Invaders either side of the window, and that stayed on I think until the shop closed. So most people will remember that the shop looked like that with these Space Invaders, but actually it was done as a promotion for one day when the band came along. Which was great fun trying to fit seven or eight glamorous girls and a couple of very effeminate boys behind the counter for the whole day.#
Interviewer 52:23 Oh god. Was it a big record store?
Little 52:31 It was quite big, yeah. Compared to some of the properties around Stockport it was quite a big place, yeah. It was on an area called the Underbanks that they're trying to revive at the moment. But yeah, it was well know, it was the last of the independent record stores in Stockport, definitely. I stood longest.
Interviewer 52:54 It was 1982 that it closed?
Little 52:57 Say again?
Interviewer 52:57 Did you say it was 1982 that it closed, or was that when you were made redundant?
Little 53:01 No, it was probably '82, '83 that I was made redundant, and I'd moved on to a different store by that time. But that one, I think it managed to stay open until about maybe '84, '85, something like that.
Allan Phillip Russell
BG was the best of the Stockport recordshops . They had the first sex pistols single on the week of issue. (2022)
Phill Roden
Worked at BG Records 76 to 81 in the shop in the pic (20) and then when we moved next door to the bigger premises (16 to 18). Was also a regular at 78 Record Exchange (did it become Enzos?) used to send customers there if they were after anything deleted. Brilliant time to be selling music with the birth of punk and the indie scene plus music videos picture discs coloured vinyl.
