| Author | Message | ||
     kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 966 Registered: 05-2005 |
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061010/BUSINESS/61 0100333/1003 Cant say I used Tower that much. They had a shop in Glasgow that had a good reggae section. Their online service was poor I thought, maybe only bought a few CDs from them over the years whereas I have bought hundreds from Amazon and HMV. Interesting to see in the article that not developing their online operation led to their downfall. | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 272 Registered: 07-2005 |
I am a little sad about their demise as when they forst opened in London they had a really good Country/World/Jazz sections and were open until midnight. SO spent a good number of hours in there after dark with anything better to do. It then turned in to Virgin and went down hill | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 704 Registered: 04-2005 |
Like the Soviet Union, Tower Records once seemed unstoppable. Both are proof that there's nothing that can't collapse. It's sad, though I can't honestly say I've purchased anything from Tower in at least five years. But in the late '70s and through most of the '80s and '90s, it was the place I spent many, many long hours browsing, hunting, and buying. Like Jerry, if I was bored and didn't have anything to do, a quick run to Tower solved my problem for hours. You know, in this instant-gratification era of iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, eBay, etc., as great as it is, it's just not as much fun as wiling away the hours at a real record store. And for a long time, Tower was that store. It was eclipsed by the indies long ago--thank goodness they're still around--but still, I'll miss it. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 917 Registered: 03-2006 |
I'm a little sad about it, too, though I realize it's one more sign of the inevitable demise of the record store/company model... But still, the Tower in New Orleans was great - it was in the French Quarter, so you could go drink at your favorite bar, then go shop for records drunk as a rat. You wind up with some interesting purchases that way! Back in its heyday, if they didn't have it at Tower, it just wasn't to be had. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 801 Registered: 05-2005 |
Way too expensive. Their margins were worse than HMV's. A mate of mine worked the Birmingham branch, whilst they had a great stock and improt section it was just v. extprtiante. Still end of an era. Tower for now! PS There was a really crazy guy a big guy called Kenny worked in Birmingham then London, he was a broad Glaswegian, his line when offered a drink during a round was: "aye, a Guiness please, and another black shite in the morning!", ahhh Kenny! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 436 Registered: 08-2004 |
1 Picaddilly Circus used to be a regular finishing part of the tour of record shops in Central London. Tower were usually the most expensive. The shop in Windsor also became a Virgin megastore. It seems HMV are struggling now as well, before long there won't be any record shops left, the only music you can physically purchase will be at Tesco & Asda. This is too much. I'm still not over the demise of Our Price & MVC. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 967 Registered: 05-2005 |
Isnt the problem with some of these chains is that they try to over egg the pudding - why not just stick to records. i was in hmv in stirling today and i could have bought an album, a dvd, a book, a PC game, a Play Station game, a Gameboy game, a phone, an ipod. my point is if they stuck to music and ditched all the extras there would be far more space to stock "left field" music. only guessing, but perhaps 80% of the store is taken up by chart music and the non music stuff i mentioned, so with the 20% space thats left you would need to be lucky to find anything by The Chills, Cathal Coughlan, The Penice Brothers or any of the other bands we have discussed here in the last week. Then again thats probably why 80% of the population go into HMV - to buy the chart music and the peripheral stuff. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 708 Registered: 04-2005 |
That's a good point, Kevin. Last time I set foot in a Tower, I almost couldn't find the music for all the other stuff they were selling--action figures, movie merchandise, games, accessories, tote bags, lunch boxes, etc. Yet often they wouldn't have new releases the same day other stores got them. A record shop that doesn't have a brand-new PJ Harvey release but has a huge display of Metallica action figures and Justin Timberlake lunch boxes isn't much of a record shop. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 404 Registered: 10-2004 |
back in the 80s, tower records, at least some of the locations here in the bay area, had great import vinyl sections. they weren't excessively pricey either. i didn't frequent tower too often because i usually preferred the 2nd hand shops in berkeley and SF, but i remember always being pleasantly surprised by what i could find there in terms of imports. then somewhere in the early 90s, it all went horribly downhill. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 921 Registered: 03-2006 |
The cheesiest to me was when they started selling soft drinks from a cooler by the cash register. Why stop there? Why not sell condoms, bait, fill prescriptions? Why not change your tires in the back? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 711 Registered: 04-2005 |
You must have had a backward Tower where you live, LK. I always bought my KISS-logo condoms at Tower. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 923 Registered: 03-2006 |
Cue "Calling Dr. Love"... Did they have the Kiss coffins as well? May as well go whole hog... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 675 Registered: 05-2005 |
I loved the Tower on Mass Ave / Newbury St in Boston when I lived there. Loved the fact it was open til midnight. When I went to Boston in the summer of 2000 it was the first time I'd been there for 10 years. I went to Tower and bought a just out XTC album on the night I arrived. I also loved the Tower in Dublin. Sometimes it surely was overpriced, but the stock was so vast. There are no Tower shops in Australia. I didn't get a chance to go to Tower when I was in Dublin in June and I guess now I'll never have another chance. Kevin, if the big stores didn't sell DVDs etc they would not survive at all. CDs in Australia are cheaper now than they were when I first lived here in 1992. That's in direct comparison terms; in real terms with inflation taken into account they are way cheaper now. Margins have obviously been cut significantly. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 153 Registered: 05-2005 |
Padraig, I also loved the Tower Records you list in Boston. My friends and I spent a number of memorable trips to Boston from Detroit between 1992-1994. Part of those trips were record hunting endeavors through Haavaadd and the like. Found some great vinyl all over town. Tower had the best CD5 selection and prices if you waited long enough. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 659 Registered: 03-2005 |
Like Jeff I usually favored the secondhand and indie shops. Here in LA they always had promo copies of new releases for $2.99 or $3.99 and that's how I discovered so many people in the 80s. It was cheap, so why not just experiment? It sounds like Tower was not able to compete pricewise outside the US because I don't remember Tower ever being overpriced for a new-release store. Somewhere on this board I've previously mentioned the amazing selection of indie 7 inch records the Tower on Sunset Strip stocked in the late 70s. It was quite a service to the burgeoning punk/indie scene. What usually happens with big corporations is that a new generation of MBA types take over from the original folks who had the inspiration and then the focus and passion disappears. And, yes, with the current model of music delivery the old Tower-type store really only makes sense for anoraks who probably aren't buying that much music anymore anyway. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 260 Registered: 01-2005 |
I went to the Tower store in Chicago last year when the G-B's were in town to play at The Abbey Pub. I was blown away by the size of the store and bought a couple of cd's, but I didn't feel I was missing out on not having been to one previous to last year. Michigan and some of the surrounding states had Harmony House as our record store chain. I think they had close to 3 dozen stores at one time. There all gone now, but they were my main source for buying vinyl and cd's for 20 years. I shopped at a couple of indie stores as well that are also sadly gone. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 87 Registered: 05-2005 |
I went to Tower records in Dublin yesterday and it was open as usual for business. I bought Cathal Coughlan's new 'work' which the jury is still out on. So Tower in Dublin is still open! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 706 Registered: 05-2005 |
Matthias, what a long trip for record buying! How long is the Detroit-Boston drive. Yeah, some very good record shops between Harvard and Central Squares. One of the best burnt down not long after I was last there six years ago and lost all their stock. I think I read about it on the Boston Phoenix website. | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 64 Registered: 05-2005 |
I remember when the one in Picadilly Circus opened: it had a fantastic selection of imported releases, and I spent hours in there. But with the internet, there's no need for me to go to London to get imported releases. So I didn't. |