Whilst scanning through my music collection database came across Rox Records, Birkenhead. Used to go in a lot when I was at school in Birkenhead. Had good prices even though I never had any money. Bought Todd Rundgrens Runt for £1.99 which I was well happy about as usual record stores never had any early Todd. Good times. Comment Francis Parker.
Name Abby Bagnall Comment: Rox was my nearest record store so I started using it in the early 1980s for sourcing early Aerosmith and Todd Rundgren - I was never comfortable with the bloke behind the counter though. ( August 17, 2016).
Name Arthur Comment: I often popped in on the way back from school - early 80s... opposite Woolworths on Grange Road...The bloke behind the counter looked like Geoff Lynn from ELO - he caught me nicking a Sham 69 picture cover once & chased me all the way to the No. 64 bus stop on Borough Road to get it back. Fortunately, he didn't press charges. I remember they had a great Skids' 'Days In Europa' window display at the time - I asked for the cardboard display when he was done with it & he said... 'no'. There was another Rox later nearer Hamilton Square... which wasn't as good.(Feb 3, 2017)
Comment
I used to shop at the one in Liscard and one in a while this one. Got a lot records, mostly 12" singles from those shops.
Name
Mal Franks
(2019)
Comment
There were several Rox Records shops around the Wirral, three of which were in Birkenhead. I remember going into the (small, box-like) Rox Records on Borough Road (at Charing Cross), Birkenhead in 1977 and they were playing the Sex Pisols' God Save the Queen single on heavy rotation. As the song finished the guy behind the counter would just put the stylus back at the start of the record. This was great as it was banned at the time and you couldn't hear it on the radio.
That shop was badly damaged in an explosion in the mid-eighties (thought to have been caused by a gas container). The shop was demolished soon after so that the pavement could be widened.
Being the most central of the three Birkenhead Rox outlets, the Grange Road shop (which was just a short way down past where Boots currently is, on the same side) was arguably the best. It used to have a board in the window full of those huge two and a half inch diameter badges that you used to see in those days. I still have the AC/DC Let There Be Rock, Uriah Heep Innocent Victim and Rush 2112 badges that I bought there. This shop was demolished around the time the Pyramids (shopping centre) was built. Then there was the shop at the bottom corner of Market Street, Birkenhead. Decent enough but always in stiff competition with the ever-superb Skeleton Records on the other side of the road (on Argyle Street). However, I do remember picking up the I'm Stranded album by The Saints in there at the right price. (Great record.) This building is still standing today, possibly being used as a cafe/sandwich takeaway.
Rox was also a good place to pick up those large 'Pace International' (of Glasgow, Scotland) posters too, and I recall buying posters featuring Alex Harvey, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Status Quo. Finally, it seems they briefly had their own Rox record label. I have a rock single on Rox by a long forgotten band called Mallet. The amazing thing is the fact that Rox was operating (and thriving) alongside so many other record outlets in the town. Apart from Skeleton (which was, and remains) the 'go to' place) there was Boots, Bargain Box Records, Beatties, Rumbelows, Littlewoods and probably a few others besides. Rox Records, though, will always have a special place in the memory of those Wirral music lovers who remember the days when vinyl was king!
Name
Dave a.k.a. 'Ape'
(2020)
Comment
There was also one in Moreton on Pasture Road.
Name
Malcolm Franks
(2021)
Comment
I remember Rox on Upton road Moreton shame the other ones in Birkenhead , didn't stay when am old enough to buy stuff in that area or discard Rox,. But i made good use of the Moreton one, last time it was there, it got burgled then closed in 2005.
Name
Neil Ashton
(2021)
Author
Rox Records Remembered - Wirral
I’m Debbie Morris, I worked in the Grange Road shop in Birkenhead in the late 70s, can’t you tell by the hair do. I floated between shops like Borough Road with Dave Frizzle and Market Street with Alan Samson and John. I left for a short time (became a mum) but came back to work in Wallasey and West Kirby for a while…Happy days. I now work for the Salvation Army Trading Company as a Cluster Manager. David Crosby is still a great friend because our love for musicals!
1977 by Dave Crosby
Birkenhead, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Rox was an offshoot of a Wirral record store chain of the same name.
