Out On The Floor Records

I suppose there’s no point in singling this particular shop out for being yet another vessel for the present day London-​based scale of wildly inflated used vinyl. I mean, for all I know… maybe no one in London has internet access (or the means to travel to virtually any other city in the world). Too bad though, it really was a lovely shop at one point about 15 years ago (and earlier) — I keep thinking that surely ONE of my old London used record haunts will have resisted the new «heroically noncompetitive markup» metric of pricing, but… apparently not. WHO, exactly, is plonking down this kind of cash for records that were — largely — initially pressed in the millions? OOTF gets a star from me only for not QUITE being the worst offender within a 10 mile radius.
Now, just to be perfectly clear on this, I was primarily compelled to Unilocal!this business as some sort of P.T.S.D. therapy based on my experience attempting to shop in the basement portion of the store a couple of weeks back. Evidently, a different vendor rents out that space for HIS record shop (I suspect HE’S fortunate/​smart enough not to be on Unilocal!). Had I know what awaited me downstairs, I’d have never embarked on the perilous journey. Have you ever had the experience of attempting to shop and examine records while more or less being interviewed by some profoundly hyper-​verbal ADHD kid with literally no off switch? It was amazing — you really got the sense that he’d die if he shut up for two consecutive seconds. I did, somewhat improbably, manage to find a couple of downright affordable titles in this den of «Why isn’t this thicko on meds?» chatterbox insanity. But… by then, I’d been so thoroughly alienated by my indisputably MENTAL captor (it really was like being engaged in some exhaustively thorough interview in which the person asking the hundreds of questions was in no way even filing or acknowledging the replies… but rather just fulfilling some non-​consensual compulsive need to keep the dialogue/​monologue active… the young man had no shortage of opinions, despite having possibly never stopped for one second to listen to another person in his life. I can’t imagine his employer wouldn’t be mortified by the effect on any person attempting to patronize his business) that there was just no way I was going to spend another second in that «relationship». Fucking hell — someone do us all a favor and shove this boy in front of a video game or random pattern of flashing lights, and keep him as far away from the retail environment/​customer service as possible. I would also like to acknowledge the arrogance of the «cash only» policy — when your average price skews upward of £30 (and generally a great deal higher), I fail to see how/​why a credit/​debit card machine is considered impractical.
Recommended only to those with more money than sense. And among those, the basement is only recommended to the hard of hearing.

This little record shop in Camden specializes in soul, jazz, rock, reggae and punk music as well as having a good collection of posters and special edition prints.
When i entered, the owner looked particularly cool as he stood behind the counter wearing a shirt and flat cap, carefully trying to examine something on the back of a record sleeve (he was holding right up to his nose).
I liked the poster room which is on a split level between the entrance floor and the basement. There were quite a few special editions made by steam power posters that pictured artists such as Bob Dylan and film stars like the 1920s actress Clara Bow.
Generally the music seems to lean towards groups from the 1970s and 80s such as the Beatles, the Clash, Trojan records and so on. So no ‘nu’ stuff here for any young trendy ‘scenesters’, but a good collection none the less.