Fine Records

If you’re on the hunt for that first pressing of some 1960s Blue Note classic Fine Records is as good a place to look as any. Looking like nothing more than an average music shop from the outside, this place is surprisingly comprehensive; that is if you’re a jazz or classical fan. With different sub-​genres individually labelled, as opposed to lumping everything into jazz, it’s great for those who know their Wes Montgomerys from their Charlie Parkers. Selling music in various formats it’s also great for people with a preference for Bakelite. As the owner is more than willing to guide you through the collection it’s the kind of place in which you loose track of time. I’ve lost too much of it here already.

This shop is slightly odd — it sells new and second hand CDs, LPs and cassettes, and doesn’t seem to specialise particularly in any particular genre. This is fair enough. The weirdest thing about it though is the cassette section. They are selling some old tapes for as much as £10.25. Specifically, I saw a cassette of the soundtrack to Deep Impact at that price. Is that really such a highly desirable/​speciality item? I expect you could get the CD from Amazon or download it from iTunes for less than that, would you really want a cassette copy? And even if you did, surely it would be easy enough to buy a CD and tape it, which precludes the possibility that the reason it is so highly priced is because there exists some Deep Impact affectionados who want to listen to the soundtrack in their cars and so absolutely have to own it on cassette. Or maybe cassette artwork is becoming an expensive collectors item? Whatever, I don’t know. I just thought it was weird. It wasn’t the only one either, lots of tapes were priced at around a tenner. The two men staffing the shop seemed genial though. They were obviously enjoying themselves, singing along to the music that was playing.

Having studied music for over four years now and played in bands since my early teens it’s rare for me to find myself caught out. But when I popped into Fine Records the other day I was totally on the back foot. To put things into perspective, where in many Brighton record shops you might have sections for all the different types of rock and pop, Fine records has a section labelled «rock and pop» then the rest of the wall continues with bebop, trad, modern and so on. To be blunt this is a shop for the discerning Jazz and classical listener. It quite literally specialises in fine records. All types of media are catered for hear from Bakelite right through to CD.
The man who works here is pleasantly humile and approachable too. I approached the counter just to enquire what the name of the artist responsible for the modern classical he was playing was and he was quick to spring from his chair and launch into action, telling me not only the artist’s name but his back ground and then digging out the case just for me to look at.
Somehow this place feels more like second hand book store than a record shop, like there should be a resident cat curled up atop the piles of records purring to itself with a comfortable and satisfied air. It’s one of those shops that you could just spend hours in.

Tucked in-​between charity shops, cafes and beauty stores on George Street is Fine Records. Run by a dedicated music lover, it’s a dusty old shop that has lovingly kept racks of new and secondhand CDs, vinyl, tapes and DVDs. The majority of the stock is classical but there’s also sections devoted to jazz, blues, opera, soundtracks and lounge music. Nestled alongside Beethoven and Chopin, there’s rare Philip Glass scores and bargain CDs from modern classical and opera singers like Russell Watson and G4.

Fine records specialises in new and second hand classical CDs and also has a good stock of Jazz and movie soundtracks. They stock a fair amount of rare LPs too so worth having a dig through those to see what you can find.
Owner Julian Pelling prides himself on helping people look for what they’re after and is more than happy to order in what he can’t find in his vast stocks.