What music megastores remain in London?

[Slo-mo]

Twenty years ago a visit to HMV or Virgin Megastore would have been a must when down in the smoke. Online looked to have killed the music store but in the last few years things have improved a bit.

What megastores if any remain in the capital?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

HMV flagship store in Oxford Street plus one at Stratford Westfield is about your lot I think.

Mainly selling DVDs, games, headphones and t-shirts though.

FOPP would be the nearest thing to yer old fashioned music megastore.

ETA: oh and Rough Trade East is pretty big too.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The Virgin megastore on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road was pretty great in the eighties.

Cavernous and well stocked. Not too neon either.

 

[dessiato]

My M-I-L used to get annoyed with me for asking about Virgins. She thought it was offensive. I'd, of course, always have to tell her I was looking for the nearest Virgin, or was looking for a Virgin.

 

[Slo-mo]

The Virgin megastore on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road was pretty great in the eighties.

Cavernous and well stocked. Not too neon either.

Yes I remember it well

 

[dessiato]

There used to be one in Piccadilly circus that I liked. I worked nearby and could often spend ridiculous amounts of time there instead of at work.

 

[krtek a houby]

Used to love them as well as the little indie shops. The Virgin Megastore in Dublin was pretty ace when it opened. The Tower Records in Tokyo is still about and it's only massive, 8 or 9 floors. Unfortunately new CDs are a bit steep to buy.

 

[skyscraper101]

Barely anything now except for the HMV flagship on Oxford St, and much of that is taken over now by video games and other non music stuff.

I fondly remember hanging around in the other Oxford Street HMV (which is now a Sports Direct ) in the 90s and spending hours looking through CDs, listening to albums at the listening posts, and playing vinyl on their row of Technics 1200s before slipping off to some of the indie shops in Soho like Black Market, Uptown, Sister Ray, etc.

 

[hash tag]

I was always very fond of towers in Piccadilly. They stocked virtually everything. Hours and hours of browsing in there

 

[Orang Utan]

I was always very fond of towers in Piccadilly. They stocked virtually everything. Hours and hours of browsing in there

Tower Records
They had an excellent leftfield book and magazine section

 

[Lazy Llama]

Tower Records in Piccadilly Cirus was my favourite megastore. Lots of imports, all kinds of magazines and it was also the first place I saw the Alabama 3 - they did a gig in the basement.

 

[Orang Utan]

I used to work at the Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly. Horrible place to work. Only job I've been fired from.

 

[DaveCinzano]

The Virgin megastore on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road was pretty great in the eighties.

Cavernous and well stocked. Not too neon either.

With extensive undercover security and one of the largest surveillance camera networks then in operation in the retail sector

 

[DaveCinzano]

I fondly remember hanging around in the other Oxford Street HMV (which is now a Sports Direct ) in the 90s and spending hours looking through CDs, listening to albums at the listening posts, and playing vinyl on their row of Technics 1200s before slipping off to some of the indie shops in Soho like Black Market, Uptown, Sister Ray, etc.

Try before you buy

 

[spitfire]

Tower Records in Piccadilly Cirus was my favourite megastore. Lots of imports, all kinds of magazines and it is was also the first place I saw the Alabama 3 - they did a gig in the basement.

Crikey. I’d forgotten about that gig until now.

Had a couple of mates that worked Tower vinyl dept. They were a bit up themselves about it though. Used to go into Choci’s chewns as well who oddly enough I have worked with on site recently. He’s now a chippies foreman/site manager.

Rough trade east is almost big enough to be a megastore and they sell a decent variety of stuff. Not been into fopp or hmv for years.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The people who worked in the dance section of Tower Piccadilly in the mid 90s were more up themselves than anyone I ever encountered in supposedly difficult shops like Black Market. It was comical.

 

[spitfire]

The people who worked in the dance section of Tower Piccadilly in the mid 90s were more up themselves than anyone I ever encountered in supposedly difficult shops like Black Market. It was comical.

I'd hate to imagine what they were like with people they didn't know! They were bad enough with me.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'd hate to imagine what they were like with people they didn't know! They were bad enough with me.

I can’t remember the specifics but there was definitely an attempt to make me feel bad about a record I asked them for, which they didn’t have.

I’d long since completed my apprenticeship in places like Daddy Kool and others so it didn’t really work that well.

 

[editor]

Tower Records in Piccadilly Cirus was my favourite megastore. Lots of imports, all kinds of magazines and it was also the first place I saw the Alabama 3 - they did a gig in the basement.

A friend of mine used to regularly 'liberate' quite a few CDs for his friends when he worked there.

 

[maomao]

With extensive undercover security and one of the largest surveillance camera networks then in operation in the retail sector

I stole an AC-DC album (on cassette, my coat wasn't big enough for vinyl) from there though.

 

[Orang Utan]

Crikey. I’d forgotten about that gig until now.

Had a couple of mates that worked Tower vinyl dept. They were a bit up themselves about it though. Used to go into Choci’s chewns as well who oddly enough I have worked with on site recently. He’s now a chippies foreman/site manager.

Rough trade east is almost big enough to be a megastore and they sell a decent variety of stuff. Not been into fopp or hmv for years.

Any of them called Hazell or Daren?

 

[spitfire]

Any of them called Hazell or Daren?

No, TBH their names have slipped my mind but it wasn't either of those. One of them ended up running some sort of Skiing business.

My mate Phil worked there as well but he was alright (still a top bloke). Used to DJ round Brixton, still does sometimes.

 

[ska invita]

Tower Records
They had an excellent leftfield book and magazine section

hah basically the first political books i ever bought were from there....included one of Zerzans anti-civilisation ones and something about CIA psy-ops

 

[Pickman's model]

My M-I-L used to get annoyed with me for asking about Virgins. She thought it was offensive. I'd, of course, always have to tell her I was looking for the nearest Virgin, or was looking for a Virgin.

never that you'd just popped into a virgin, of course

 

[Orang Utan]

hah basically the first political books i ever bought were from there....included one of Zerzans anti-civilisation ones and something about CIA psy-ops

Yeah, I found some great anti-imprisonment and anti-work tracts in there.

 

[Lazy Llama]

I used to get 2600, Mondo 2000 and Wired (US) in there.

Borders on Oxford Street had a similarly eclectic magazine section for a time.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Yeah, Tower (and then Borders) used to be great for weird American zines like Holy Titclamps.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

With extensive undercover security and one of the largest surveillance camera networks then in operation in the retail sector

And how did you come to find this out, DaveCinzano

 

[Pickman's model]

And how did you come to find this out, DaveCinzano

he went undercover of course

 

[isvicthere?]

Tower Records in Piccadilly Cirus was my favourite megastore. Lots of imports, all kinds of magazines and it was also the first place I saw the Alabama 3 - they did a gig in the basement.

I was there!