Record shops Dublin City Centre

[Juggz]

95-96ish? Maybe a little later.

[Pentagrimes]

Must be about 20 years ago at this stage. It was around for a year or two in the mid late 90s, maybe 96-97 or thereabouts . The sroty I heard was the two boys who ran it had driven around the US for a while buying stock for the shop, had it shipped over, opened the place and then closed once everything was gone. Don't know how true that was.

[Eoin McLove]

Freakout was a regular haunt for me too.  I bought a promo copy of In the Nightside Eclipse in there for a pound. 

[Juggz]

Must be about 20 years ago at this stage. It was around for a year or two in the mid late 90s, maybe 96-97 or thereabouts . The sroty I heard was the two boys who ran it had driven around the US for a while buying stock for the shop, had it shipped over, opened the place and then closed once everything was gone. Don't know how true that was.

I heard a similar story. I vaguely remember new stock at one point, though 

They opened it in 93 or 94. I definitely had a demo in there in mid-94 and they had been open a while at that point. I would lean towards 93 if I was putting money on it.

[Thanatos]

Bought my first Vinyl record in Freakout - Grindcrusher Comp with the 7". Still have the record with the hand written £6 price tag on it. Must have been around 1996 'cos I was still in School.

Didn't they have the guy with the sandwich board and scary clown mask roaming the Grafton street area?

There was also that place Across from the Secret Book and record store, Forget the name - little pokey place in a basement - always had the bootleg live tapes. Was generally shit for metal but shortly before they closed I scored a copy fo the Raging Death comp and a copy of Scream Bloody Gore on the way home from work.

[Juggz]

Didn't they have the guy with the sandwich board and scary clown mask roaming the Grafton street area?

That was Aidan Walsh. If you don't know of him, you should look him up. There's a documentary about him. Nice fella, I always used to stop for a chat with him when he was out with the sign. We gigged with him once. It was a very strange evening.

[Trev]

Seems like it was a bit before my time, Borderline in Temple Bar was always a great spot for bootlegs and live tapes

[Eoin McLove]

Bought my first Vinyl record in Freakout - Grindcrusher Comp with the 7". Still have the record with the hand written £6 price tag on it. Must have been around 1996 'cos I was still in School.

Didn't they have the guy with the sandwich board and scary clown mask roaming the Grafton street area?

There was also that place Across from the Secret Book and record store, Forget the name - little pokey place in a basement - always had the bootleg live tapes. Was generally shit for metal but shortly before they closed I scored a copy fo the Raging Death comp and a copy of Scream Bloody Gore on the way home from work.

I remember that place too.  The stairs were so steep you practically had to abseil into it!

[leatherface]

 Freakout was a regular haunt of mine, it had a carnival mirror as you walked in which made you look weird and oddly shaped. I would have a field day there if could go back in a time machine. Lots of obscure psychedelic records as well as other obscure records across different genres. CDs were promos with the hole punched in them yeah.
There was also this huge place near the Bleeding Horse pub (from memory) that had boxes of unsorted vinyl and old fridges in the back stuffed with 45s. The same owner ran a place in the middle of George's Arcade (gone now as is he, rest in peace). He also had a shop that used to be in Bray, opposite the DART station. (Now a taxi rank or chipper).
The place opposite the secret book and record store with the steep stairs and luminous colour bootleg tapes of concerts was called 'Record Collector'.

[Juggz]

It was called Final Vinyl or Vinyl Countdown, I think. It closed around 2004 or 5.

[Weltenfeind]

Didn't they have the guy with the sandwich board and scary clown mask roaming the Grafton street area?

That was Aidan Walsh. If you don't know of him, you should look him up. There's a documentary about him. Nice fella, I always used to stop for a chat with him when he was out with the sign. We gigged with him once. It was a very strange evening.

Didn't this guy put on gigs in the TBMC? Fairly sure id been there on weekends watchin my school  mates crappy indie bands in the late 90s.

[leatherface]

Yes, Final Vinyl was the one in the arcade and near the Bleeding Horse, couldn't remember the name.

[Mithrandir]

There was also that place Across from the Secret Book and record store, Forget the name - little pokey place in a basement - always had the bootleg live tapes. Was generally shit for metal but shortly before they closed I scored a copy fo the Raging Death comp and a copy of Scream Bloody Gore on the way home from work.

Completely forgot about that place, I picked up a few Metallica live in Dublin bootlegs there when I was in school, still have them somewhere at home.

[Cryptic Stench]

The place opposite the Secret Book and record store was called Record collector. I scored a lot of cool shit in there over the years, always thought it was a cool spot myself.Picked up great vinyl singles Sepultura Territory, Slayers Serenity in Murder, great bootlegs, promos etc never extortionate.

Someone mentioned the Rage, fucking kip of a place - aside from being overpriced they are arseholes to boot. They'd obviously caught on to the cassette resurgance a few years back and were looking for 10-15 for a second hand tape. Mental altogether. The last time I was in there was a copy of Cannibal Corpse's The Bleeding on cassette on the racks so I thought I'd make an exception for that, when I brought it to the counter the snide hipster serving me inserted a TDK cassette into the box, an arguement ensued, basically I was wrong, the cassette was still €15, I didn't know what I was talking about and I could fuck off elsewhere if I thought they were overcharging.

Borderline was super back in the 90's - great for vinyl and tapes but in the mid - late 00's the level of stock seriously depleted and it didn't help that your man that ran the place was and is a cranky cunt. Seen him popping up at a few of the record fairs etc. Often wondered if some of these characters were a little more pleasant would the stores have weathered the storm a little longer. Spindizzy is still going fairly strong, the lads that run that place seem to be bang on, I never buy as much in there but it's always a better experience. 

[Thanatos]

I'd heard years ago that lad in the Freak out clown mask was rumoured to have been Aidan Walsh. Not really surprised that it was.

Finally Vinyl on Camden street was a well stocked shop. Got a rake of great CD's in there in the early 2000's after I heard a story about a lad had sold his collection to them to fund his exorbitant car insurance.

The place in Bray was legendary though. It was depressing going in there as a broke teenager seeing all the stuff on my wants lists I couldn't afford. It featured in that GGG Galway ad for Bank of Ireland from the late 90's or early 2000's.