Selectadisc Information

Independent retailer offering music on CD, vinyl, DVD and books online. Music news and store locations in London only Every city deserves a great record shop and focal point for the local scene. Since 1966, Nottingham's music lovers have congregated in Selectadisc widely regarded as one of the country's best. Few imagined that good old "Sleccy", of all places, would go under. Then again, how many of us were still buying vinyl! Selectadisc began life as a simple market stall, before moving to a corner the market in Northern Soul rarities. Opening a "soul cellar" below the main shop, the owners traded in US imports and UK repressings, offering unmatchable bargains to Midlands soul fans - including a young Pete Waterman, who travelled up frequently from Coventry. A mail-order business followed, along with a record label (Black Magic), which licensed reissues of Northern Soul floor-fillers. Its biggest release, Papa Oom Mow Mow by the Sharonettes, briefly grazed the top 30 in 1975. By the early 80s, Selectadisc had moved to the city centre. In late 1983, the owners bought a dilapidated reggae club in the old Lace Market, relaunching it as the Garage: a hip alternative to the chrome-plated, smart-dress-enforced pick-up joints of the day. Needing someone to play records in the upstairs bar on opening night, ownerspress-ganged a young Selectadisc sales assistant called Graeme Park, at under a day's notice. Park's 25-year reputation as an international house DJ was founded at the Garage. Two years ahead of the 1988 "Summer of Love", he spearheaded the introduction of Chicago house into the UK, before graduating to the Hacienda in Manchester. "If it wasn't for Selectadisc, I would never have become a DJ", he says today. "I've always stuck with vinyl," says the current store manager, "During the 1990s, I remember going down and talking to people at Warner Brothers when I was trying to get a load of John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus reissued. They just thought: you're a fucking idiot from the sticks. And I proved them ...