Rob's Records (situated in Hurts Yard Nottingham) is one of my two favourite second-hand record shops. After 35 years of crate-digging, involving travelling all over the U.K, I still think Rob's Records can't be beaten. It's a very rare occasion that I go in there & don't have an amazing find (at a great price), and being a collector of some very obscure genres, it will often be something that I would have had no chance of finding in any other record shop. Far too many second hand record shops just focus exclusively on western 'Rock / Pop' from the last few decades, and don't cover other fields, such as jazz, classical, folk, or the whole gamut of what sometimes gets filed as 'miscellaneous' - ethnic recordings, spoken word, comedy, sound effects etc. Rob's Records is great in that it has huge, well-stocked sections of all these 'other' kinds of records.
Rob's Records is often described as 'a Nottingham institution'. It has been here since 1980 (a few years before I moved here). About seven years ago, it moved to a shop one door up, more or less the same size, & so kept the same layout. Regular customers didn't really notice a change when it moved - thank goodness. 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it' as they say.
The only thing I've noticed significantly changing over the last few years is that almost all the 7" singles have disappeared, & the focus of the shop is almost entirely on L.Ps. That's fine for me, as I'm almost exclusively an album buyer. I think there might well be a large stock of 7" singles, but there just isn't the space to put them out, as the shop is absolutely overflowing.
As well as being described as 'a Nottingham institution', there are many other descriptions you hear of this shop, usually involving the word 'chaos' (e.g - 'a shrine to chaos', 'a temple of chaos'). It's not that records aren't meticulously sorted into genre sections (in fact, in that respect, it's very good). It's just that the shop is so overflowing with stuff that sometimes it's hard to get to any particular section. Often it involves stretching over several boxes of stuff on the floor, in order to flick through any particular section. Often there are crates of records sitting on top of sections (worryingly probably causing damage to sleeves & warping the records) that you have to move first in order to get to what you want to look at.
When he moved to the new shop about seven years ago (involving shutting down for a few weeks), at first customers were pleasantly surprised that all that chaos had gone. However, it wasn't long before that chaos crept back in to the new premises, & after a couple of years, the new shop was just as chaotic as the old shop. it's absolutely crammed with records (which is great) and 'Excuse me. Can I just squeeze by you here ?' is a commonly heard refrain from customers.
The owner, Rob Smith, is your ideal second hand record shop manager. He never harangues or hassles you to buy things. He's always cheerful, and never grumpy (unlike some second hand record shop managers, who are like Bernard Black of the TV comedy series 'Black Books'). He's made it his business to know what his regular customers buy, and if I pop in, he might say to me something like 'You might want to look in the Jazz section - there are some interesting instrumental L.Ps just come in that you might like'. Other than that, he leaves you to it., and when you buy something he's incredibly courteous (referring to you as 'my dear sir').
Despite looking like a scruffy old man (I think he's about 60 years old, complete with classic moth-eaten Ronnie Corbett jumpers) Rob Smith has a second career as a big name Northern Soul D.J, and has a schedule that would put any young raver to shame. Most nights, he's out till the wee hours of the morning spinning discs at Northern Soul events all over the U.K.
He's also a walking encyclopedia of music. Pull out an album of any genre & ask him about it, & he usually be able to tell you something about that album or the artist. If somebody comes into the shop & asks for a particular album or single, he'll know if he's got it or not, and knows exactly where it is (despite all the chaos). If you ask if he ever gets in certain albums, he doesn't bullshit you with the lazy stock reply - 'Yes, we get that in from time to time, so keep coming back'. After decades in the business, he knows what the likelihood of certain records turning up are & how frequently they do, and will give you an honest reply (sometimes being prepared to admit 'No, we never get copies of that here').
Goodness only knows where he gets his stock from, but every week loads of stuff turn up in that shop that I've never seen before & never knew existed. I can only presume that he's got some deal with 'House Clearance' companies, as every week huge record collections (often containing rare & valuable albums) turn up in his shop. I can't believe that people have just come in the door & sold him this stuff, as I very rarely see anybody coming in & trying to sell him stuff. When he had his first shop (before moving) I used to sometimes see people coming in trying to sell stuff, at which point he would pull his 'dealer face', grimacing, whilst saying 'It's not really what will sell here' and then offering them a pittance for it.
Whilst this approach may not be good for the seller, it's wonderful for the buyer. One thing you can't complain about in Rob's Records is the prices. Whenever I flick through the 'Rare Records' section (which is usually 'classic rock' from the late 6Os), albums are significantly lower than the 'book price'. I think he just gets so much stuff in that it's priced to sell quickly, so he can clear space & get more stuff out.
He wants stock to shift quickly, and he told me recently (with regard to a lot of the 'jazz' & 'miscellaneous' albums) that he'll tend to put it out at 'full price' (still very low - 3 or 4 pounds usually at tops), but if it doesn't sell after a few weeks, it just goes in one of the '£1' sections. There are huge sections in the shop of albums that have been knocked down to only a pound (& a lot of them are great albums, not the usual 'charity shop rejects' type albums that other record shops would have in their 'cheap' section), As a result, you never need to avoid Rob's Records if you've only got two or three pounds in your pocket. There's still loads of stuff you can buy. I've found many of my most treasured record finds in Rob's Records, and only very rarely have any of them been more than £3.
Every record buyer in Nottingham has their own 'defining story' of the chaos & craziness that is Rob's Records. Two anecdotes of my own that come immediately to mind are ~
(one) Finding a half-eaten sandwich lodged between albums in the middle of the 'New In' section. It looked like that sandwich had lain there for weeks, and I can only presume that Rob Smith himself was the eater of said sandwich, and had got distracted when a customer came in.
(two) A couple of years ago I asked him if he still had videos.for sale. As there was no other customers in the shop at that point, he took me into some kind of warehouse a few doors up from the shop. Despite being a customer almost 30 years, I never knew this warehouse existed (& I've not met anybody else who's been in it)..
There was a mountain of videos just inside the doorway, & I bought quite a few. As I peered further into this warehouse, I saw a huge backroom in which there were tens of thousands of albums being sorted out by 3 or 4 skinny young hipsters, none of who I'd ever seen before in the shop (maybe they were slaves, & he kept them chained up in this warehouse ?)
The whole scene looked Dickensian. This huge backroom was almost pitch black, only illuminated at a few points by some small spotlights. It had a bare concrete floor, & the wood of the ceiling was all rotting & falling away. There was a distinct sound of dripping water coming from somewhere.
Ever since then I've wondered what was going on there, who these people were, and what was happening with all these mountains of L.Ps. There's always a few hundred albums in the 'New In' section each week, but there's just no room in the shop to put new stock out in vast bulk. If all these albums were ultimately destined for the shop, it would take forever till they all saw the light of day. I would love to get in there again & find out what's going on there, but so far that hasn't happened.
Finally, a mention should be made of the kind of customers you find in Rob's Records, as the customers in any second hand record shop always significantly add to that shop's 'character'. The customer base is split 50 /50 between pleasant & polite young hipsters, & annoying old men. These old men don't appear to be in there to actually buy anything, but instead just to corner Rob & regale him with tales (which I suspect of being utter fabrications) of some amazing 'deals' they've done (i.e - 'I bought such & such a record at a car boot sale for £1. It was in absolutely Mint condition. It's £500 in 'the book', and I sold it to a dealer in London for £300.... blah... blah blah').
There's also the 'loonies'. Every second-hand record shop attracts it's share of 'loonies', but Rob's Records sees to have the lion's share. In truth,I don't know if all these people are strictly 'loonies', but they just lack any social skills or social awareness. Often. people will enter the shop & just shout 'Rob !', demanding his attention immediately, regardless of what he's doing, &/or whether he's in the middle of serving a customer. I remember at one point, an interview was being filmed with Rob in a corner of the shop (for a documentary on the so-called 'vinyl revival') & still morons were just walking into the shop entrance & shouting 'Rob ! I've got some records I want to sell to ya !''
As regards the 'loonies, the defining moment was a few years ago ago, when a fifty-something woman appeared in the shop doorway & shouted out - 'Rob ! I'm mentally ill, and I've just had my leg amputated !' in a very happy & excited voice, as if you were meant to say 'congratulations,well done' (& in fact, she appeared to have two fully functioning legs).
So, all in all, if you're prepared to put up with some 'loonies', are prepared to put up with climbing over boxes of records, are prepared to stretch your arms out in order to access some sections, & are prepared to undertake some heavy lifting (moving crates of records in order to get at the ones underneath), Rob's Records is really worth the visit & worth the effort.
When I flick through my own album collection, it's amazing how may of my best finds came from Rob's Records (& very rarely have I paid more than £3 for any of them). The day Rob's Records shuts down will be a sad day indeed.
For a video showing just how crazy & chaotic this shop is ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQ_uxZzN-M
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