![]() ![]() That was an interesting half an hour,” he says. He didn’t say boo to a goose, but he did buy some Sly And The Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix. “He jumped out of a pink limousine, walked into the shop and had a good look round. ![]() There, you will find a compelling collection of new and second-hand vinyl, with the walls adorned with eye-catching rarities.Īmong the many musicians to visit Sister Ray over the past 30 years are Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, while co-owner Phil Barton will never forget the day Prince popped in. 75, Sister Ray offers a broad array of music, with CDs at ground level and its basement dedicated solely to vinyl. Currently situated at its third location on the street, No. Most of our customers really are mad for vinyl and always have been.”Īnother veteran Berwick Street survivor is the famous Sister Ray, which has been selling records there since 1989. He says that while there has been much talk of a vinyl revival, at Reckless the demand for vinyl never went away: “The so-called vinyl revival is mainly driven by nostalgia, people buying re-pressings of classic albums that are destined for their front-room wall display, hopefully they listen to them too, but statistics suggest maybe not always. The shop is well run, adaptable, reasonably priced, reasonably fair, and tries to keep helpful staff that are not off-hand or snooty.” Having overcome many challenges over the past 35 years, Kerr is understandably proud that Reckless managed to its keep its head above water while all around it record stores were sinking: “We rode the waves of passing fads by being focused on second-hand records. The veteran store manager says the area is now almost unrecognisable from those days: “Soho has been blitzed, physically, with lots of buildings demolished or replaced, and right now the protected brick wall facade at the corner with Broadwick Street is perched, seemingly precariously while it awaits a new development behind it.” ![]() At the time, tourists were a rarity in the area but now account for around a third of the shop’s trade. Kerr, who is now semi-retired, recalls the early days when the market ran the length of Berwick Street and many of its stalls were manned by “dodgy geezers” who spent much of their time popping in and out of the Blue Posts pub and the porn palaces huddled around Paul Raymond’s Revue Bar. Specialising in second-hand vinyl, Reckless stocks a broad range of records across myriad genres including rock, pop, soul, dance, jazz, punk and reggae. The oldest record shop on the street, Reckless is managed by Duncan Kerr, who has worked there since the outset. S oho’s Berwick Street and the surrounding area was home to more than a dozen independent record shops in the 1990s before soaring rents, wholesale gentrification and the rise of digital music reduced them in number.ĭespite the many ongoing challenges, though, the stalwart survivors have ensured Soho remains a heartland of independent record stores, all of which are sharply tuned to the demands of their core customers.īy the time Berwick Street appeared on the sleeve of Oasis’ second album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in 1995, the area had long been a mecca for record collectors prepared to dodge the market stalls and seedy doorways of sex shops in search of gratification within the walls of its many record stores.Īt 30 Berwick Street, the doors of Reckless Records were opened for the first time in 1984. Fortunately, a handful are more than surviving, they are thriving, writes Christopher Barrett Known as the Golden Mile of record shops, Soho has been transformed in recent years and lost many of its once celebrated music emporiums to redevelopment. ![]()
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