Regarding the record shop Flyover Records - I'm from Denmark but lived in London in the mid seventies for 14 months. I shared a flat in Notting Hill, but very often I went to Hammersmith just to visit Flyover Records. I bought dozens of Beatles records imported from Japan, the US and Mexico. The shop was located at 15 Queen Caroline Street on Hammersmith Broadway and just the thought of it, brings back great memories. I spent hours in the shop and still have the old catalogues and price lists. Just for the fun of it
Japanese imports were
Single album £ 8.99
Double albums £ 15.95
Treble albums £ 24.50
Singles £ 2.65
EP's £ 3.60
Those were the days! atb2008 Sound of the world forum.
I knew Flyover Records in the late 1970's. The owner was Louis Rayner. The shop was the size of the average living room and the office was the size of a telephone booth. The shop was well known for imports and Louis was the first to sell Dylan's Japanese live album. All round it was a great place to go. Elton John was said to have spent over a grand there one day...Flyover Records also did some distribution of indie labels. Louis sent out a load of our ( Left Hand Drive)singles in 1978 and to our surprise they sold...He was a nice guy and a great busines man too... a rare thing. Comment: John Brassett.
(July 30, 2013) Richard@SmartCall.co.uk said:I worked for Charmdale the record import company who, along with compettor Vixen,supplied a lot of Frlyover's imports. We used to break open the shipments at Heathrow, stow them in a racked out Transit and hammer down the A4 in a race to get the latest imports into the shops. Being on Hammersmith Broadway Flyover Records sat directly opposite the end of the motorway, so Louis was often the first shop to stock a new album in the UK. Louis was a great guy and a good friend. He had such a nice personality that even traffic wardens let him park his BMW 2002 on the yellow lines outside the shop all day long. When the store closed down prior to redevelopment he gave me his contact details in Cyprus (if I remember correctly). Unfortunately I mislaid them, but over the last 35+ years I have often thought about him, such as today when I found this forum. I hope he is well. If anyone knows where he is it would be lovely to hear from him.
(Jan 17, 2013) Gary Critcher said:I'm originally from Chiswick, so Flyover Records was a short bus journey on a Saturday morning for me. I remember buying the Japanese import copies of quite a few Ian Gillan solo 'live' albums from Flyover (would have been around 1979 methinks) because they hadn't been released in Europe. I remember it as being a brilliant place where you could just stand there going through the racks for as literally as long as you wanted.
(Oct 18, 2012) robert negri said:I remember this place vividly. For dome reason a Plasmatics album sticks in my mind. Loads of records in plasticsleeves on the wall. Ask remember that it was one Olathe first places I ever saw Japanese import vinyl. Would pop in almost every day with a friend on our way home from school, early eighties.
(Jan 28, 2012) h said:Thanks for your nice comments.. Yes it was agreat time. Keep well..Louis:)
(March 26, 2015) Hi Louis, remember me, I turned down major store management offers to travel everyday from Hatfield in Herts (2 hours each way) to "manage" your store. I learned all about the importing business from you and still remember fondly searching for hours trying to find albums in your masterbag filing system!!! Went on to have a successful career in the music business, much learned from my short sojourn at always "Your Joint" Much love and fond memories, Mick (Mike)Warlow
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Hi Mick..of course I do. Glad to know you are doing well.It was a great,fun journey we took.Keep well. L
Hi Richard..nice to hear from an old friend. Great exciting times which I miss..but am a million miles from it all now. Ha ha..quite amazing to park on the broadway all day and get away with it. Such arrogance on my behalf:)
Name
Louis Raynor
(2019)
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J John Basset...a tiny correction.The first time Elton came to Flyover he was brought in by Roy Carr, one of the great Music journalists...he spent over £5000 which is probably around 15/20000 in todays money. Thereafter he was in even week to collect his orders and to pick up anything new that had come in since his last visit. I knew him going back to One Stop Record days when he actually worked at rival store whose name I have since forgotten...Elton was just one of the many people/stars in the business who supported Flyover records. As important were all the record collectors/fans that came in religiously to spend their hard earned money on sounds. some every week even queuing every weekend to pick up the latest sounds from the USA or Japan .Sometimes it would be that they would go over budget and I would still let them have their sounds which they could pay for whenever they could. Not once did anybody let me down and not pay their dues. There was even one guy who I had given up on, but he too did eventually turn up around a year on and paid the twenty pounds he owed. . We had them all, the jazz guy, soul, the heavy metal guys...you name it. We even had The Rod McKuen/Elvis fans who would visit from all over the UK and abroad to pick up stuff they couldn't find anywhere else. Loved them all then and still think of all our customer friends warmly even now.
.Name
Louis Raynor
(2021)
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Living in Hammersmith, I was a frequent visitor to Flyover Records. I believe that Louis moved there after having a record shop in the Kings Road, Chelsea.
Name
Peter Robinson
(2021)
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Started buying tunes there with my old friend Tony and we met Mark who worked there and served us some classics we all started a mobile dj business together with the guys covering Essex and And the home counties Tony and myself started working there part time to pick up some classics at a discount but Jean was a very clever operator. This shop gave me my grounding and allowed me to work numerous pirate radio stations jfm,solar,Horizon and I also opened and ran 4 successful record shops in my time... The history right there... The beginning
Name
Chris Simon (2021)
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I bought Accept's "Russian Roulette" album in Flyover about half hour before heading up the road to Hammersmith Odeon to see them in Concert. Happy Days.
Name
Glen Beasley
(2021)
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