A request came from Martin James who was reminiscing on Facebook about Chiltern Sound in Spittal Street.
I remember Martin as an enthusiastic customer and an occasional help behind the counter in busy times.
The shop opened in the Autumn of 1971 in a new building, a block of three retail premises, on the site of Miss Gasper’s legendary toy shop. The other two were Barbecue Take Away and Unit One Kitchenware.
Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” was Number One in the charts at the time.
The shop was set up with limited funds and with many of the fixtures and fittings obtained secondhand or built with materials from Lynch’s Yard round the corner.
Records and a separate section for cassettes and 8-tracks were downstairs: music of all styles and with a healthy jazz section. (You might be too young to know what an 8-track was!) There was a Hi-Fi showroom upstairs specialising in Pansonic products and also from local manufacturers Hacker and Dynatron.
A small video library arrived downstairs, but, in truth, probably not enough space to do the job properly.
Also upstairs was a spectacular collection of antique gramophones and phonographs and a few vintage juke boxes; the one pictured is a 1940s Mills, playing 78s.
The shop was initially a bit chaotic, but was updated and refitted in the late 1970s, followed by a (slightly reluctant) move into the CD era in the early 1980s.
Here are a few memories of some of the faces over the years, Ian and Louise, Sue and Glenn, and also Sarah.
There were two Louises, both lovely ladies.
I wish I could find the picture I have somewhere of Louise Number One. She was featured in the National Press with her pet (and housetrained) red squirrel which accompanied her to work.
There were at times a few star visitors: George Harrison, who lived in Henley, came in on a busy Saturday afternoon, and despite wearing dark shades and a trilby hat got a lot of attention.
He bought an LP of Nina Simone. Sandy Denny bought tapes of Billie Holiday.
George Best was a regular, when he came to Marlow to visit his ex-wife Angie and young son Calum who lived at The Old Parsonage.
George used to leave Calum selecting records whilst he nipped along to the Carpenters Arms for a couple of pints.
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A later occupant of The Old Parsonage was Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi, and he became a good friend.
One quiet Wednesday morning David Bowie came through the door with the representative from R.C.A. Records, promoting and taking orders for the forthcoming Ziggy Stardust album.
It was an idea that caught on with some other record companies – if the star could spare time to go round with the rep, taking advance orders, then those orders would double or even treble as a result.
Sadly, a camera was not available, but David did sign a poster.
Two pictures above I have not yet explained: one was the shop mascot Mr Palanchin, a cigar smoking ventriloquist dummy, who sat on the till, and the last picture, well, best to ignore that one!
Contact Michael at michael@jazzfans.co or 01628 486571.
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