Name: Henry Holmes
Comment: Modern Music used to be called Haken & Bell which is also listed on this site. I think in the late 1980s it became Modern Music. Anyway, it was a massive shop, and quite formative when I was growing up so I remember it fondly. It had musical instruments downstairs, upstairs were tapes, records, and CDs, plus a little video shop or rental in a separate room. I lived further up the High Street so I spent a lot of time in this shop. I remember buying a lot of heavy metal records here - tapes too: Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, AC/DC.
The staff were great - later on I remember ordering music from there a lot which is what you did pre-internet. Stuff that was hard to find elsewhere - Magma, Beefheart. Out of print and deleted stuff. Loved this place. Later on I remember they closed upstairs and had the music downstairs - which would have been late 1990s. Last time I passed through town a few years ago it was a pound-shop sadly.
(2021)