Name: Michael Vinner
Comment: Collectors Records was run by a chap - an ex-Teddy Boy, I always assumed, or a '50s Rock 'n' Roll fan at the very least - by the name of Ray Wilks, and opened around 1975 or thereabouts.
I used to go in there when I first started buying records in 1976/77 and there were always a few Teddy Boys hanging around inside and outside the shop (the then ubiquitous 70s Teds that have been disgracefully airbrushed out of UK social history by the middle-class, middle-aged ex-Punks who run the media - the BBC in particular - and publishing). Another local-to-me shop that Teddy Boys frequented was good old Rockin' Records in Penge.
Anyway, Collectors Records sold mainly secondhand records of all types (not just RnR).
I remember they had a copy of The Who's My Genration original Brunswick LP in the window in the late 1970s - £10, I think it was! - but new release chart singles and LPs,too. It became more of a general shop later on towards the end (I did have an earlier 45 sleeve when it was just 'Collectors Records' but can't find it at present) it sold secondhand books and household goods etc. It moved up the road to Brockley Rise and was renamed Hot Wax c.1980. I bought quite a few Soul 45s from here, they were fairly cheap - the best was a copy of Ray Charles's rare Northern Soul classic I Don't Need No Doctor on UK HMV from the 25p cheap box outside! I also bought James Brown's Excitement Pye International LP for just a few quid when I was first getting into Soul at 16/17. It had 'Shout & Shimmy' on it, which really knocked me out! Hot Wax became a video shop, I think, before closing in the late 1980s.
Name: Lynne Brodie
Comment: Ah, the memories of waiting for a 171 bus from Harringay all the way over to Forest Hill back in the day. Some two hours each way I seem to recall. By the time I'd got there it was almost time to get the bus back! Should've spent more time sorting through all the eclectic stock.
Name: Kris Bethune
Comment: Wow... do you have any more memories of 219 Stanstead Road... Collectors Record Shop...
My family owned the whole building from 1975-81... we rented the shop to Ray (he lived across the road), he had a partner who I think was German. I remember all the Teddy Boys outside the front...
(2021)
Name: Dewey Gill
Comment: A copy of the sleeve above has made it all the way to the United States, I just picked one up housing Cream’s Cats Squirrel/Wrapping Paper on Reaction. I had to google the store as I’ve always had an interest in record shops, having spent most of my 66 years in them. Mentioned disc made it to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Seems only fair, since you lads cleaned out our soul records in the late 1970s before I wised up.
(2022)
