Can you remember the first record you sold in the shop? And the last?

The first record we sold was Fall Heads Roll by The Fall, as good a record to start off on as any. And the last record I sold was the first Velvet Underground album. Pretty good pair.

Do you remember the first record shop you went to? And you do you remember the first record you bought?

The first record I remember getting for Christmas was Time, Love & Tenderness by Michael Bolton (still have it, still not ashamed).
The first I remember buying with my own money was a David Bowie bootleg cassette of the final Ziggy concert.
The first record shop I went to was the only one on Canvey Island, Bee-Bees.
The Bee-Bees was just down the road from school so we’d be in there most lunchtimes, annoying the guy behind the counter by singing songs at him we’d heard on the radio but didn’t know the name of. They also used to give me the odd discount because I was buying stuff the owner liked – Johnny Thunders, Frank Black solo albums and southern soul singles.
My whole family are in to music, so it was always unavoidable growing up – my dad was a mod (a proper 60s one) and he liked all sorts of stuff (he’s particularly in to P. Diddy at the moment, at the age of 75), alongside what my parents were playing, my brothers and sister would be playing Oasis, Neil Young, George Michael, etc etc and 80s soul was massive on Canvey, with the Goldmine club, so that music was unavoidable and I was an avid NME reader. I remember reading something about Pussy Galore in there, which turned me leftways from the usual stuff I was listening to then.

What is your favourite record shop (apart from your own!) and why?

Reckless Records in London is a particular favourite, I always pick up good stuff in there.
I used to go to New York a lot for work and loved Other Music and Academy Annex. It’s a real shame Other Music have gone, they got me in to so much good stuff – The Embarrassment, Cause Co-Motion, Meneguar, Woodsist…

What’s your most memorable record store experience?

I’m sure everybody who buys records has that one absolute win in a record shop, where you’re not quite sure how you managed it.
Mine was picking up an original Ardent copy of Big Star’s Radio City for £5 about 10 years ago. I was sure it was a trick of some sort and was expecting the person serving to laugh in my face when I went to pay. Felt a bit drunk when I came out of the shop.

What's the best gig you've ever been to?

Kraftwerk in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern when they did a run of all their albums. I went to the Autobahn one – quadrophonic sound, 3-D images. Incredible.

What's your all-time favourite book?

Winter Journal by Paul Auster

What's your all-time favourite film?

North By North-West directed by Alfred Hitchcock

What would make up your desert island discs?

Bring It On Home To Me (live at Harlem Square Club 1963) – Sam Cooke
To Go Home – Daniel Johnston
Cheree – Suicide
Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
Int’l Players Anthem - UGK
The Atheist’s Burden – Disco Inferno
Teardrops – Womack & Womack
Marquee Moon - Television

Who would form your all-time Festival line-up? (past & present)

The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Love, Alicia Keys, Can, Television, Suicide, Big Star, Sam Cooke, The Fall, Otis Redding, Miles Davis, Grace Jones, Cluster, Curtis Mayfield, A Tribe Called Quest, Teenage Fanclub, Nina Simone, Pixies, Dusty Springfield, Fela Kuti, Madonna, The Kinks, Ramones, Outkast, Van Halen, Beastie Boys, Lee Hazelwood, Sly & The Family Stone, Neu!, Sun City Girls, Ash Ra Temple, Pussy Galore, David Bowie, The Clash, Leonard Cohen, Yazoo, The Ronettes, Nico, Prince, Parliament/Funkadelic, Buffalo Springfield, Janet Jackson, Pavement, The Go-Betweens, The Lounge Lizards, Nagisa Ni Te, Joni Mitchell

What's your all-time favourite record?

Of course this changes hour to hour, but right now, I’d probably Like Flies On Sherbert by Alex Chilton.

OTHER RECORD STORES