Shop talk

Last Friday I popped into Gramex, the world’s best second-hand classical CD and record shop, just behind Waterloo Station.

Last Friday I popped into Gramex, the world’s best second-hand classical CD and record shop, just behind Waterloo Station. The owner took one look at me and declared, ‘This gentleman is tired. He needs a cup of tea and a Belgian bun.’ Before I had time to reply he dashed into the bakery opposite. Two minutes later I sat there, sticky bun in hand, while he put the kettle on.

They wouldn’t do that in HMV. Actually, I suspect they won’t be doing anything in HMV by this time next year. One of its Oxford Street stores has closed; the other contains the only proper classical music department in the capital and — no offence — it has the smell of death about it.

When it’s gone, London will be like New York, devoid of a single big classical record store. The soundproofed showrooms where music lovers once queued to pay £16.99 for a recital by DG’s latest Wunderkind will be stuffed with cut-price lingerie. If you want anything remotely obscure you’ll have to wade into the cosy clutter of a second-hand shop, where the typical customer sounds like Peter Cook’s E.L. Wisty presenting Building a Library. (‘So I said to him, Callas would turn in her grave if she could hear what that EMI remastering does to her middle register, but would he listen?’)

There are perhaps a dozen specialist classical CD shops left in Britain. Many of them sell new CDs as well as LPs; most have a jazz section as well. Lots have closed in recent years — Brighton’s Classical Longplayer was a particular loss — but London still has three old-established stores.