I don’t remember demo records. At hmv when I was a boy
The salesperson was annoyed when we did not purchase…
A record they said you do not come here to listen to records.
Which is correct. I did not have enough pocket Money to buy many records. Now I buy a cd with 5 lp records on it for
Just over £5.
Things are better
Brian
Ah yes the old memory is coming back --thank you -Lasky’s was that the one with the open stairs to the first floor?
Or maybe it was HMV on Oxford.
D41
Yes - it was a massive shop, with, as you say, open stairs to the first floor. Huge amount of stuff in there - or so it seemed to a provincial lad like myself.
Certainly where I lived, on the edge of London, being able to listen first was de rigour from when I first started buying records about 1968, at least until I moved away in late 1970s, the three record record shops in the local high street all had either listening booths or hoods initially, though I recall one changed to headphones at one point. Headphones were more common in central London record shops in early 1970s, including the original Virgin shop in Oxford St., and what I think was the original HMV shop on the South side of Oxford St,
Somehow those stores on Tottenham Court Road seemed to me to have a bit too much of a stack-it-high-sell-it-cheap style. When I first moved to London I lived within walking distance of them, but the first thing I did when I got there was head to Billy Vee’s in darkest Lewisham in search of some ‘proper’ hifi.
Perfect when first there as a 15 year old buying an SP25 MkII deck and a Shure M3D cartridge out of long saved pocket money and paper rounds! (Chosen, as was normal back then, on spec and reviews.) When a few years later I was looking for decent speakers, I only listened to one pair on TCRd, and that was the Tannoy Arden in a shop the other side of the road from Laskys. Others on the road either didn’t have the speakers on my shortlist or didn’t have dem rooms.
True - but when you know what it is you want to buy, and are an impecunious student, they were just the job.
Ahhh, nostalgia… It’s not what it used to be…
I do fondly remember a trip to Laskys where I asked to listen to a particular amplifier… “But amplifiers don’t make any noise, Sir” was the confident reply.
Why is it you only think of the perfect response some time later?
I’m now the happy owner of a NAP200 so I can assure the honourable shop assistant that amplifiers do make a noise 
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Billy Vee was where I got my first Naim system from. An adventure in the car before sat-nav!
Indeed, I went there when I started Uni, and after the bright lights of central London, heading to the dark south was quite an eye opener. I persuaded a friend who had a car to drive me down there, and he was horrified at the ramshackle appearance of Billy Vee’s shop. We were both impressed with my subsequent purchase though.
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