Throughout the twentieth century London was the most important center for selling records in Europe. His Master’s Voice (Hmv, which in Italy was called La Voce del Padrone) opened its first large store on Oxford Street in 1921, rapidly expanding to other locations to become the world‘s leading record store chain. At his side, dozens of smaller businesses, specializing in different musical genres, began to flourish.
The expansion continued uninterrupted throughout the century: if in the nineties an enthusiast went to London, he was faced with an offer of recorded music of unlikely quantity and variety. There were the big west end megastores (such as the two Hmvs or the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street, or Tower Records in Piccadilly circus, the largest store in Europe) offering all mainstream western production, often difficult to find in places like Italy. But as soon as you began to go around the infinite neighborhoods of the city, a new experience began and you came into contact with musical worlds of which you did not even suspect the existence.
In the early 2000s the great crisis began, triggered by the birth of the pirate download. Large chains and dozens of small shops closed. Especially for the vinyl, already overtaken by the cd, it seemed that there was no future. But someone still resisted. Then, in the last ten years, the charm of the great records of yesteryear, with their (supposedly) better listening quality and above all their great and fascinating covers, has started to prevail again. And new dealers have arrived.
Today London offers a different but always extraordinary panorama of points of sale that spread new prints of old LPs and 45 rpm’s by now unavailable and precious used records. This is the city that the journalist Garth Cartwright guides us to discover with the photographer Quintina Valero in London’s record shops (Stroud 2021). A journey through “a city made up of interconnected villages” that leads us to see the colorful shelves and the tireless customers of shops specializing in heavy metal, dance, reggae and ska, jazz, soul, African and Latin music, alternative rock and pop and Not. In every house there is still always room for a new record.
Alberto Notarbartolo
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