Denmark Street (Tin Pan Alley)

[Tone]

I made a rare visit to London yesterday and took the opportunity to have a wander down Denmark St where I haven't been for several years. The street seemed tattier than I remembered but the familiar names were still there and the shops were quite busy, mainly with pony tailed 20 year olds. Standing (or rather sitting) out from the crowd in Rose Morris was a middle aged lady producing lovely sounds from a very nice Gibson acoustic. I spoke to her and she said she wanted to buy it but would have to wait a while to raise the required £4000. She asked me if I played and I told her that Hank is my guitar hero to which she responded by humming Apache. A nice moment.

I didn't notice anything of particular Shads interest in any of the shops except for Music Ground which had an interesting looking original Burns Marvin in tobacco sunburst. Like most of the other stock they had on display the price was well into four figures.

I stayed for about an hour and came away feeling rather flat and disappointed. I did make one purchase, though - a pair of jackplug adapters costing £6!

Fings ain't what they used to be!

Cheers.

Tony

[geoff1711]

I often drop in when I'm in the area, just for a look and to reassure myself how much better prices can be had from just about anywhere else, whilst I accept that overheads in that part of London are higher they seem to trade on the tourist, unwary and I guess those in the business who can write it down against tax.

But on the other hand if they create interest in guitars which 20 years ago would have ended up in a skip then at least we get some benefit when we sell similar on Ebay.

Geoff

[RayL]

If you are on a 'music shop stroll' in the West End, then apart from Denmark Street itself there are a number of other music shops close by.

In the Charing Cross Road, Rockstop is just round the corner from Denmark Street at 128 and Macaris' main shop is a short walk south at 92-94.

West through Manette Street, Greek Street, Soho Square and various passages will take you to Chappells, now in Wardour Street on the corner of Sheraton Street.

Go north, cross Oxford Street into Rathbone Place and you'll find Ivor Mairant's Music Shop. A few steps furher north is Hobgoblin Music, for all your ethnic musical instrument requirements.

After that, there's a bit of a gap before music shops can be found again in the suburbs.

Ray

[Ian Miller]

Hi All,

Some interesting history here:

http://www.coventgarden.uk.com/features ... _id=street

Regards

Ian

[StuartD]

Doc Hunt's is long gone!!!

Stuart

[dogbender]

When I was playing professionally in the early 60s, we were based at 7 Denamark St and also made a some of our recordings in Regent Sound Studios.

Denmark Street is where we first saw the Rolling Stones sitting in a car and we were told that they went on stage in the same clothes that they wore all day.

This was at a time when we all wore stage suits and we said that they would not get anywhere and that they would'nt last!

Just goes to show how wrong we were.................... they have lasted considerably longer than we did!

Pete.

[Martin Page]

My old band, The Gass Company recorded a single at Regent Sound in 1967: Everybody Needs Love c/w Nightmare, (the latter's on YouTube). Many years later in the late nineties I was in the Helter Skelter music bookshop in Denmark Street where I spotted the latest Record Collector Guide and duly looked up our record that was apparently worth £30! I bought the book of course. I then looked round and thought the place looked familiar. Stone me if it wasn't the old Regent Sound Studio that I was standing in - now converted into a bookshop - you've gotta love the irony...

Martin.