BY late 1974, Gloria’s Record Bar, in Battlefield Road, Glasgow, had become something of an institution.
Not only did it have around a reported 100,000 records and tapes on display – music fans knew that they could always find what they wanted there – but it had a sound relationship, so to speak, with record manufacturers and suppliers.
“We are in the privileged position of having priority in deliveries from the record manufacturers,” said Howard Blint, managing director. “If there is a shortage of certain records, we, along with 20 or 30 other shops in Britain, get the first delivery.”
Gloria’s was preparing to sell the new Billy Connolly album, Cop Yer Whack For This. “I would say he was our biggest single seller this year,” said Howard. “We hope to be able to sell the new LP at a very good price, but we are still in negotiation at the moment.”
But, then as now, the record-buying public could be fickle. It took a certain skill to be able to decide which record was going to be popular. “You really have to know by glancing at the list sent to you what will sell and what won’t,” Howard added. “And, as you would expect, pop music is much more difficult to predict than jazz or classical music.”
On Facebook and elsewhere customers nostalgically recall their purchases from Gloria’s. “I bought my first single in there on a school lunch-break,”; “Half of my vinyl collection was bought from there,”; one man “bought my first LP there” – Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.
Lots of musicians adored Gloria’s, too. Alan Mair of the Beatstalkers once recalled: “Our secret was Gloria’s Record Bar, where Howard got these great import records every Monday. We bought them up, half a dozen at a time, and, for a spell, other bands in Scotland wondered where we got our material.”
The Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart once traced his southern soul roots to Gloria’s where he discovered the soul singer, Solomon Burke.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here