The famed record shop of Nottingham.

Hear the whole story in six separate episodes at BBC Sounds.

For The Record: The Selectadisc Story

1. On The Market (Founder Brian Selby had big plans for the business that started on a market in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire). 24 mins
2. The Garage (Brian Selby’s next move would shape the career of legendary Hacienda DJ Graeme Park). 20 mins
3. London Calling (As Britain waved goodbye to the eighties and said hello to the nineties, the opportunity to open a London store was too good for Brian to turn down. As well as music, the shop attract a new clientele stocking a range of football fanzines). 23 mins
4. Dizzy Heights (A new music obsession shaped the shop, a Hollywood director swings by, hip-hop revolution brings record sampling and Frank Sidebottom’s underpants end up on the Selectadisc counter). 25 mins
5. Britpop (Selectadisc appears on the cover of an iconic album and a rival business comes to town). 24 mins
6. Closure (After a strong start to the decade, the rise of music piracy in the mid 2000s spells trouble for Selectadisc. The sale of the business brings new hope, but ultimately the shop can’t be saved). 30 mins

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In a nutshell:
Brian Selby had a record stall on a Mansfield market from 1966 onwards and he found premises at 92 Arkwright Street in the Meadows, Nottingham in 1969.

1966

There had been a record shop at the premises before Selecta-Disc took over.

1970

1971

I have written a small piece about the above photograph here complete with names.

Another shop was opened at 16 Goldsmith Street, Nottingham on Friday 21st April 1972. I remember a sofa in there and some afternoons in ’73 I would hang around playing truant from school looking at all the records I dreamt of buying.

Not only did Selecta-Disc stock all the latest releases it also had a specialist soul music section.

The great soul music collector and John Manship told a story of Selecta-Disc in the early 1970’s on his YouTube channel but it has been closed. Until it reappears here is the audio from that story.

1973

The following photo is part of the Bernard And Pauline Heathcote Photographic Collection. Image Picture Nottingham.

This well known photo (above) of Selecta-Disc on Arkwright Street was probably taken in April 1973 or possibly May 1973. This is based on the window display. Most record shops then and now would put the latest releases in the window and I can see three albums in the far left window that I have that give clues as to the date.

The most recently released I can see is the David Bowie album Aladdin Sane (top row, second left) which was released on the Thursday 19th April 1973. The Faces album Ooh La La (middle row, far left) came our in March 1973 and was number one in the UK Albums Chart in the week of 28 April 1973. The Beatles released the Red and Blue Albums, officially titled 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 on April 2, 1973. One of them is in the bottom left corner. It is a little hard to see but in the far window of the “Import Export” shop there is “King Crimson” mentioned in the window display and the album “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” by King Crimson had been released on 23 March 1973 so might have something to do with this.

Let’s say Selecta-Disc have just received the new Bowie album in the first week of it’s release I would guess the photo date might be between 19th and the 30th. By May albums that would probably be in the window display would be Wings, Red Rose Speedway depending on which source you take released on April 30th or May 4th and Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells May 25th.

More coming later …