you'll have a job with record shops I'm afraid. They're all a little
sub-standard.
The pick of the bunch is in the palace on Slater street. Can't remember the
name, but you go inside and down into the basement, and it's a badly laid
out second hand shop with a fair range of techno, electro & house (down the
stairs on the right, do not whatever you do go left or you''ll find yourself
surrounded by box sets of fantasia XXIII tapes and Sy and Dougal CDs), but
be warned you will have to dredge through a few racks of coal to find the
diamond. Avoid 3-beat at all costs. It'll have one or two detroit records in
there (since sometime voodoo DJ Andy Nicholson works there and has a hand in
the buying) but apart from that it's really quite bad. full of scallies
listening to nasty hardcore and frankly rude staff (Andy Nich quite
definitely excepted, light brown hair, glasses, knows his stuff and is a
nice bloke)... I've a bit of a personal axe to grind with the shop since
last time I was in there they tried to charge me £15 for a TLS record on
warp (with a 7 quid sticker on it), on the basis that it was an import...
'what, imported from f**king Sheffield?'
Probe's not exactly full of techno but I have a soft spot for it and it may
be worth a go; just over the road from the palace. Besides it's been open
for almost a quarter century and had a hand in the liverpool punk scene so
you could just go for the historical interest (moved from it's original HQ
though which was far better). And you might want to try Hairy records in
Bold street. To my mind one of the best second hand record shops in the
country, although again no techno (a few decent early house records if you
search though).
and that's just about it. Sorry but the shops really are better in
Manchester. A fiver on the coach.
-s
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