Name: Steve Turner
Comment: Virgin Records in Corporation street that had aircraft seats with headphones and good looking girls behind the counter.
Name: HergestRidge
Comment: My first ever shrink-wrapped record was from the Virgin store in Birmingham hidden in the bowels of a building up the top of town. I couldn't believe the selection of records and on the plastic dividers you would often have the discography of the artist written so if an LP was out of stock you could order it from the list.
Name: Paul Evens
Comment: Virgin Records, a superb place full to the brim of excellent goodies... I bought quite a few LPs and Videos from there. I remember buying the very first Dave Lee Roth LP and a staff member saying to me, "Oh man, it's really OTT, you're going to love it!" Yes mate, I did and still have it. Great staff, really friendly... I really miss those shops. Saturdays were so much fun.
Name: Stuart Wade
Comment: Totally agree, although in the 1990s my weekends and Mondays depending on new releases were spent in Virgin Records, I loved that shop and nowadays every time I climb up that ramp I think about those old days and smile.
(6 September 2013)
Name: Ruth
Comment: I would say this picture was taken c.1971. The man in the picture was Paul Dolman and next to him was his wife Lyn who was my sister. I remember being in this shop and thinking how trendy it all was. Happy days.
(18 August 2013)
Name: Harry
Comment: Does anybody know what year this photo was taken?
(2 August 2013)
Comment: Yes, the guy in the picture is Paul Dolman. I got to know Paul in the late 1970s through working at RCA records and got a Saturday job at Virgin Records.
The staff were all knowledgeable (Ron, Andy, Vicky, Paul, Carol, Sheena, and many more). The picture must have been taken before my time at the shop as Paul had shorter hair when I knew him. After Paul left Virgin he opened up a record shop in Bewdley which was quite successful, but sadly died, I think in the late 1980s. Great guy!
Name: Jon Webster.
Comment: Yes, I agree, the picture was in the old shop and it was Paul. Tim took over as manager from Paul and was there when I went to university in Brum in 1972. I was assistant manager to Paul in February 1976 when the new store opened at 74 Bull Street. Noele Gordon from Crossroads did a PA soon after we opened! Not cool. Phil was the singles buyer who had come from Baileys. He was brilliant. Does anyone have a photo of the old shop at 177 Corporation Street?
(20 January 2016)
Name: Matt Gytrash
Comment: I remember the original Brum Virgin in Corporation Street! It was managed by a shuffling longhair, had wooden racks stuffed full of albums, and some beaten up old airline seats in front of the window where you could sit and listen to an album of your choice. Both sides. Then another if you fancied it! No pressure man... I bought most of my early records from there, including the Pistols' Anarchy... on EMI. I so wish I still had that, but back in the day I never saw records as an investment opportunity.
Name: Cora Elizabeth Fowler
Comment: Great record store, bought my first Jefferson Airplane albums there.
(2022)
Name: Paul Lovell
Comment: Virgin Records - a big part of my life, as music was so important.
I worked with Paul and Lynn at the Birmingham Virgin shop and we became big friends, visiting them at their apartment in Birmingham, Richard Branson would show up some nights - great times. I think that photo is around 1972.
(2022)
