(Dec 22, 2014) When I was a student in the mid-fifties I worked Saturdays in Hanson's in Hertford Street. The front of the shop was filled with pianos, and some steps led down to the record department. It was while I worked here that HMV's pale blue POP label appeared for the first time. We played current 78s on the PA system, mostly commercial drivel, of course, but I did squeeze in the occasional worthwhile item featuring such as Duke Ellington or Count Basie, and British bands such as Johnny Dankworth, Ted Heath and Jack Parnell. Jill Hanson was bright and rather well spoken, immaculately manicured and coiffured, and with vivid red lipstick. Comment: Paul Barnes.
Extract from Garth Cartwright Interview with Pauline Black. Strange Fruit was a watershed song for me. I was a radiography student when I went into – Jill Hanson’s Record Shop – the only record shop in Coventry. This was 1974 – I went in and ordered two Billie Holiday albums and I ordered them because of a girl I was working with in radiography, her father was dying and he liked to listen to Billie – so I went and ordered these two albums and on one of those records, I remember it had a sepia cover, it had Strange Fruit. I didn’t know she had done the song. It was shocking – not that I didn’t know that lynching went on – if you’ve read Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul On Ice then there’s not a lot that shocks you about what happened to black people in the US. Jill Hanson – it was on two levels next to Woolworths and you had to order records – they would have a big ledger and they would say I want such and such a record and they would look it up and order it. Quite a laboriously process, I still have those records. It was an old fashioned record shop and very relaxed shop. Jill was a blonde lady with flick-ups, very '60s looking and classy. (June 1, 2016)
I remember going there in the 60's - singles were 6s 8d!!
Headphones in booths!
