Wax Factor

Dreadful tell you about records they have and then as I look through told has to check the price ( charge more money ) overpriced ignorant dusty vinyl full of scratches rarekind for music in Brighton

This is a great little record shop. One of the pleasures for me is just hunting and flipping through a large catalog of vinyl, CDs, DVDs and books, in hopes of finding something interesting. I never go in with a plan, I just hope to be surprised, and Wax Factor gave me a few surprises.
They carry a large range of vinyl and CDs. Their DVD selection is smaller, but there are a few good foreign and art house classics mixed in the bunch. And their book selection is wide and varied, offering some mainstream fiction titles and classics.

This, in my humble opinion is one of the best of the bunch of record shops in Brighton. They have absolutely stacks of vinyl from originals (a bit pricey) to re-​issues. They carry a massive selection of 45s which takes a fair bit of digging through but well worth the effort.
The staff are very funny, usually hanging around the front of the shop looking bored but are more than happy to jump into action to help you look for a particular record.
Happy hunting!

If Colin Wilson worked in a bookstore it might look like Wax Factor. In fact if Edgar E Poe, Asimov and all the other madcap writers you’ll find in here were to turn in their collective grave and witness their life’s work on the walls of this dingy second-​hand bookstore — cum record shop — they’d smile; because this is a true bookstore. The staff look like they haven’t slept and have words tattooed to their skin, the sections and sub sections are myriad and more importantly the books are cheap! Whether it’s photography on the Vietnam War or Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux, you’ll find it here burning the midnight wax.

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Although Wax Factor is wall to wall vinyl, CD, and video, for most record lovers it you will experience the usual pain and suffering of paying over the odds for second hand, non-​mint, often re-​issues for records you want, just not for the stupid prices.
It is always worth a sniff, but you will often be left bewildered as to why the copy of some latest release is 8 quid cheaper than that scratched up broken copy of Chapter House’s one and only release. then you will realise its because you’re the only one who knows who Chapter House were and thus the price tag.
Have a look around, but be careful with your wallet.

Any Brazilian on offer at The Wax Factor won’t bring a tear to your eye, but a groove to your soul. This shop must offer one of the most comprehensive and eclectic ranges of vinyl and CDs on the south coast.
If your taste runs to rockabilly you can pick up Duane Eddy’s ‘Twanging Up A Small Storm’; looking for something acceptable in the 80s how about Billy Bragg ‘Talkin’ to the Taxman About Poetry’; looking to assuage your guilty middle-​of-​the-​road craving try 50s crooner David Whitfield’s EP ‘Rose Marie’.
The shop also has a great selection of second-​hand books ranging from the mysterious to the mainstream.
Mark (words) and Al (music), who run the operation between them, have been in situ since Morrissey was a lad and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the stock. If you’re looking to find, say, ‘You Can Do Magic’ by Limmie and the Family Cooking, don’t waste your time rummaging in the racks just ask and they’ll tell you have more chance of growing hair on the back of your eyeballs.

Wax Factor is the real life equivalent of the shop John Cusack owns in High Fidelity– even the names have a similar ring. There’s something about the way the dvds, cds and records are stored– all filed in alphabetical order like a library with no effort to display anything that suggests that this is a hardcore music lover’s store. No need to tantalise with displays that take up precious room– if you are serious about music (or films, or books for that matter) then you enjoy flipping through records or running your finger along cd and dvd spines. Everything here is second hand but in excellent condition and you just know that the staff can tell you about pretty much anything they have in stock. Music takes up the lion’s share but there are several shelves of dvds– a mix of art cinema and the better mainstream films; and three or four bookshelves on the right hand side as you go in crammed with books– novels and classics of the ‘quality fiction’ sort. Wax Factor often have more arcane offerings– hard to find Vonnegut novels, obscure blues records… that sort of thing. Great place.

Brighton is blessed with a handful of secondhand record shops and one of the best is Wax Factor. Housed in a black painted building on the perimeter of North Laines, it’s an atmospheric place that’s literally jam-​packed with secondhand vinyl, CDs and books. They stock everything from hip hop, electronica, funk, soul, jazz and motown but their real speciality is classic rock and pop from the 1950s to the present day.
If you’re looking for a copy of The White Album, Quadrophenia or the whole back catalogue of The Rolling Stones or The Small Faces, this is the place you’ll find it!

The Wax Factor is a cosy little CD/​Book shop based in the North Laine area, just a short walk from Brighton station. The store is literally full to the brim with cds, books and vinyl, which is most impressive, but does make it a little difficult to walk around. Indeed, there were some passages I feared I wouldn’t quite manage to squeeze through, and I’m not exactly wide, so I imagine that there are some individuals of a more rotund disposition who may find navigation of this store difficult to impossible. Still, its a nice, quaint little shop, the service is friendly, the selection is vast — superb for any music lover on the hunt for a particularly hard to find CD or LP -, and the prices, although nothing to boast about, are adequate. Certainly worth having a look in here if you happen to be in the area.

Wax Factor is a mysterious place. I have been going there for many years. In some strange way they seem to know exactly which book or piece of music I am looking for. They stock an amazing variety of books and no pulp fiction! It’s a shame they got rid of their wonderful stock of classical vinyl. Second hand bookshops suffer a lot from the charity shops who recive their stock free of charge. It’s hard to compete with this.

This is one of those shops that make Brighton such a great place to shop, completely unique.
It does give a nod to the modern age by stocking CDs, books and videos, but it also has a wide range of music in vinyl format, with knowledgeable staff who love their work!