(April 3, 2015) Mike Abbott In the early 60s I worked in The Strand and two of my favourite record shops were Dobells and Templar Books, the former in Charing Cross Road, the latter off Leicester Square. Later in the 60s I was back working in the WC2 area and one of my favourite record shops was The Magic Phonograph in Soho Square...Templar Books was a bookshop with a developed records section. I knew it well in the early 1960s. It was located in Irving Street which runs between Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square, on the right if you were walking in from Charing Cross Rd. In the early 60s I bought a number of import LPs including 'After Midnight' by Nat Cole Trio, and a double from Atlantic Records, 'The Ray Charles Story'. I went back 20 or so years later and bought the CD version of 'After Midnight' (illustrated). Glad I didn't remove Templar's price tag...
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I worked with Templar Records both in their Irving Street and later at the High Holborn shop. Great to to in ar the beginning of the CD era when record companies released their back catalogue
Name
Andrew Thorpe
(2019)
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Yes. I remember those stickers with an orange background.
Name
Andrew Thorpe
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Yes I remember visiting Templar Records Leicester Square almost on a weekly basis
(when I got paid!) in the early 1990s. In early digital for example the Alban Berg Quartet's EMI Mozart which came out on single
CDs which spurred me to hear them live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, plus other great recordings like Colin Davis's Philips Berlioz Les Troyens (transferred to CD) They charged full whack but the service was good. As I remember, there was an elderly guy in charge and his younger assistant which may well have been Andrew!!!!
Name
David Murphy
(2021)
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Yes. The younger assistant was probably me.
Name
Andrew Thorpe
(2022)
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I was just listening to - and enjoying - my copy of "The Pollwinners" (Barney Kessel, Shelley Manne and Ray Brown) which I bought from the High Holborn shop around spring 1988. It was £2.75... reduced from £5.45. The LP was a reissue of a 1957 album. Happy days..
Name
Clive Webb
(2022)
