'New' old recording

[DennisS]

Hi

Just to say that I always have a browse in Harold Moores everytime I am in town. As Mark says, they often have things that no-one else stocks. Always worth a visit and the staff are both extremely helpful and also very knowledgeable.

cheers
Dennis

[Alan Howe]

No, I've given up on HM too. They never have anything I don't know about already - and their prices are silly. As for the second-hand stuff - well, that seemed to have taken over last time I was there...

[Mark Thomas]

To be fair, although I still call in every time I'm in town, I don't know when the last time was that I actually bought anything there.

[Delicious Manager]

I mourn the old Gramex store - it was great for those Russian Melodiya recordings I adored back them. 'Gramex' still exists, but is a shadow of its former self.

Also, I don't know if it still exists, but Cheapo Cheapo Records in Rupert Street (in the 'shadow' of the Raymond Revue Bar!) was an unexpected but valuable source of second0hand CDs - some of them delicious rarities.

[giles.enders]

Harold Moores are closed to all business from Monday 16th August to Wednesday 8th September.  Their landlord is renovating the shop.  When I passed, there was a skip with a lot of discarded lp's in it. 

[thalbergmad]

Did you have a look to see what was in the skip??

Could be something really nice.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

Incredibly, this actually made the 6 o'clock news.

Thal

[giles.enders]

It wasn't me who reported it.  Yes, There was quite a bit of opera but such was the size of the skip that I could only see at the ends of it.  If I had a van with me I am sure I could have filled it with not just records but a good filing cabinet and all sorts of other useful things.  We live in a throw away society.

[albion]

Harold Moores are closed to all business from Monday 16th August to Wednesday 8th September.  Their landlord is renovating the shop.  When I passed, there was a skip with a lot of discarded lp's in it. 

Absolutely incredible! If the 'strategy' was wanton disposal of stock and fittings, they could have advertised the fact that it was freely available to collectors on a time-limited basis and saved themselves the cost of hiring a skip!

This story is sadly reminiscent of the wholesale destruction of publishers' archives which took place through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Lewis Foreman has written articles on the subject, including Lost and Only Sometimes Found (an abbreviated version of which can be read at http://www.ism.org/news_campaigns/article/lost_and_only_sometimes_found/): when Novello's moved from Wardour Street composer-annotated proof copies of works by Dvorak, Gounod, Parry, Stanford, Mackenzie, etc. were left to rot on the pavement in readiness for waste-collection. Staggering, and (you would think) beyond belief - but clearly the "if in doubt, chuck it out" mentality is alive and well.

[JimL]

Harold Moores are closed to all business from Monday 16th August to Wednesday 8th September.  Their landlord is renovating the shop.  When I passed, there was a skip with a lot of discarded lp's in it. 

Absolutely incredible! If the 'strategy' was wanton disposal of stock and fittings, they could have advertised the fact that it was freely available to collectors on a time-limited basis and saved themselves the cost of hiring a skip!

This story is sadly reminiscent of the wholesale destruction of publishers' archives which took place through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Lewis Foreman has written articles on the subject, including Lost and Only Sometimes Found (an abbreviated version of which can be read at http://www.ism.org/news_campaigns/article/lost_and_only_sometimes_found/): when Novello's moved from Wardour Street composer-annotated proof copies of works by Dvorak, Gounod, Parry, Stanford, Mackenzie, etc. were left to rot on the pavement in readiness for waste-collection. Staggering, and (you would think) beyond belief - but clearly the "if in doubt, chuck it out" mentality is alive and well.

Apparently, the same fate, more or less, befell the full score of Moscheles' 8th PC, leaving only the solo part, or a two-piano reduction (I forget which).  You also have to keep in mind that at the time, nobody thought there would ever be a call for the revival of forgotten works.

[thalbergmad]

I would find it physically impossible to throw away a manuscript or a score. One simply does not know if it will be needed in the future.

The only book I have ever destroyed is my "Hanon" and only because i wanted to see how it would stand up to a replica longbow at 30 yards.

I hate things being destroyed.

Thal

[Gareth Vaughan]

Wanton destruction of books and MSS is a most evil thing, and its perpetrators deserve to live in unendurable misery for aeons. It is an act against the creative principle in man which is one of the elements that makes him godlike.