Comment: I remember in about 1970 accompanying my friend Eddie (who was an unreconstructed mod and a big Motown fan, especially the Four Tops) to NEMS in Liverpool, Brian Epstein's famous emporium, (which was actually a furniture store and is now, sadly, a sex shop) to buy the Tops' latest 45. Resplendent in his pristine dark brown mohair two-tone two-piece suit and Ben Sherman - record buying was an occasion in those days - Eddie strutted up the counter, leaned on it, fixed the female assistant with his coolest moddiest expression and said 'I Can't Help Myself'. Amazingly, she didn't bat an eyelid...
Name: Ray Hilson
Comment: I bought my first portable stereo record player from NEMS when I was about 15 years of age. I had set eyes on it in the window a year earlier and noted its purchase price of £5… A lot of money for a 15-year-old in those days! It looked so cool with lots of chrome and, yes, dials for volume, bass and treble. The tone arm that held the stylus was so slim and high tech and the turntable with its black rubber base was huge compared to its predecessors! Well, it took me a year to save up before I could take the trip from Crosby to Liverpool to make the big purchase. Following that, I purchased several LPs from NEMS, including The Beatles' White Album and Canned Heat Live. I am most sure I added many 45s to the collection during the next few years. Shame it’s gone… a landmark second only to The Cavern.
Name: David Owens.
Comment: NEMS also had record stores in Bootle, the New Strand shopping centre, also the Marian Square shopping centre in Netherton.
Name: Ray Astbury.
Comment: There was a NEMS in Great Charlotte Street as well as the one in Whitechapel. I was in Liverpool from 1958-64 and it was there during that time.
(26 April 2015)
Name Jon Clarke
Comment: There was also a NEMS in Wallasey Village in the mid-1960s. (1 October 2016)
Name: Derek Johnstone
Comment: I remember when the NEMS shop was officially opened in the Marion Square, Netherton and I waited at the rear entrance to catch a glimpse of the celebrity who was either Jimmy Tarbuck or Ken Dodd, I'm not quite sure?
(2018)
Name: Lesley Hallam
Comment: My mum worked in NEMS in the late 1950s/early 1960s. She looked after the Charlotte Street store after Brian Epstein asked her to move there from Whitechapel. She is pictured directly in front of Brian Epstein in the photo of the opening of the Charlotte Street store; she also presented Anne Shelton with flowers at the opening.
I have read the article about how Brian became aware of The Beatles - my mum has a slightly different version of the story as she remembers it from her days when they used to come in to the store before they were famous and listen to records, and before Brian knew who they were.
My mum has talked for many years about NEMS and her relationship with Brian Epstein to our family, but she is now 82 and her memory is starting to fade. John Lennon use to call her Brian's blue-eyed girl.
(2020)
Name: Alf Berrington
Comment: Just a follow-on from Jon Clarke's post from 2018 re: visiting the official opening day of NEMS, Marion Square, Netherton. I lived very close to "The Square" and had seen the notice of the visiting celebrity - Jimmy Tarbuck.
My memory of the day was seeing Mr T, with a couple of 'minders', in a grey suit, white shirt with big collars and he had stubble, not having shaved (possibly he had been working, or out, the night before). So my impression was, "What a scruffy man", so I went home.
(2022)
Name: Diana née Boden
Comment: I am on the clip of what is a part of a video, nearest the camera serving a customer. I think this was taken in 1959. I have a photo of me and staff taken in the NEMS Charlotte Street shop in January 1960. I was only there from August 1950 to April 1960, having worked for Rushworths since aged 15 I returned there. Brian kept me back one evening in December 1959 and tried to persuade me to go to the staff Christmas party. I didn't want to as I had nothing to wear. Girls in the shop told me later I was Brian's blue-eyed girl as he wanted me to present his mum Queenie with some flowers. I am 80 now but still have very strong memories.
(2022)
