I spent recently a few days in Edinburgh, and have only good things to say about it. Gorgeous city, beautiful Gothic buildings emanating history and an ambiance of mystery - it's not surprising that so many novelists of the mysterious and fantastic come from here: From classics like Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle to modern bestsellers Ian Rankin and J.K. Rowling - the latter may not come from Edinburgh but wrote the first Harry Potter novel while living there and incorporated many features of the city in her writings. The books' phenomenal success saw them in turn become an Edinburgh feature, as evident by the abundance of Harry Potter souvenirs on sale everywhere in the city. The local pubs were great, and so was the food: we ate, among other delicacies, haggis (with neeps and tatties), sausages and mash, mac and cheese, and pies filled with venison/stake & ale stew/fish/anything else you can imagine (including of course haggis, neeps and tatties). Still regret not getting to the bottom of mum's comfort food menu, but I intend to try on a later visit. Of course, like good tourists we took a couple of guided tours: the city history tour and the ghost tour. Maybe because the size of the city permits it, there is a plethora of walking tours to choose from: the underground tour, the literary tour, city of the dead tour, the Outlander tour etc. One thing's still missing though: it's the Edinburgh Record Stores tour, so let me be your guide: Seeing as the record shops are scattered throughout the city and not all within a 10 minute radius from the touristic Royal Mile, you may want to split your walk and combine it with visiting other sites.
I split it in three parts, roughly 2 hours average, depending of course on how long you'll spend browsing.
DAY ONE: Right on The Royal Mile (the road to Holyrood Palace) on 110 Canongate Str, you'll find
Unknown Pleasures - subtitled "rare records and cd's" but not as exclusive as the title implies. It's a medium-to-small-sized shop with a nevertheless good selection of LP's (mostly £7-20, more for the actually rare ones), 7' singles, T-shirts and CD's (£4-8). Near the university, and to the south, there's
Backbeat Records (31 E Crosscauseway, just off Nicolson Street). It's packed to the top with boxes, which makes browsing impossible. Apparently the owner is much admired for his ability to produce any record you ask for out of the chaos of his store, which is exactly what I
don't want when I'm record hunting. I like to be surprised by discovering unexpected gems while browsing, as well as finding a nice bargain: after 30 years of record collecting, I've learned that you can find anything for the right price, and I don't mean the one listed on Record Collector's
Rare Record Price Guide, the book which the Backbeat owner uses. He told me that if I wanted bargains I'd have to "search the charity shops", which
I did: within a few meters from his shop, I found a Barnardo's (45 Clerk Street) Oxfam, (116 Nicolson Str) and British Heart Foundation (102 Nicolson Str). Not much in the way of vinyl, but a random selection of cheap CD's for £1-3 - including many 4* or 5* albums from the 90's and 00's. I bought a few from that specific Bernardo's (UK's biggest charity for children). We have charity shops in Holland (they're called
kringloopwinkels) but in Edinburgh there's literally one in every corner - not to mention that almost every establishment we visited (from hotels to cafes) seemed to promote another charity. If I ever get to heaven, I expect to find it choke-full of Scottish philanthropists. Further down Clerk Street (on number 69) you can find
Record Shak. It has a run-down appearance, packed with LP's that seem to be lying there for
decades (folk, rock, jazz, indie, a bit of everything really, mostly £7-15). Good stuff though, including some CD's and even cassettes.
DAY TWO: On the second day I started once again from my base in the Royal Mile and hit the closest shops:
Underground Solu’shn on Cockburn Str is a really nice one. Its focus is in electronic music which isn't my cup of tea, but it also has some interesting rock and indie LP's. Most CD's and LP's were priced £10-20. A few steps to the West (12 Bank Str.) you can find
Coda Music. The shop has two rooms, of which the front one is dedicated to new vinyl (all kinds: rock, indie, blues etc, £15-25) and general CD's (many on offer £4-5) and the back one is full of folk CD's (mostly £7-12). Everything is here:
Scottish folk obviously, but also Irish, European, Country, and World music. From there, one passes Princes Street Gardens (A.K.A. the former
Nor Loch, liquid grave to the city's witches) to cross to the new city. On 3-15 Rose Street, right behind Princes Str, there's Edinburgh's
Fopp. Fopp is a record store chain of the HMV family, I had earlier visited the one in London and knew what to expect: this large shop has a big variety on new LPs (£15-25) and CDs (many on sale for £5, the rest generally also rather logically priced). Also many offers on DVD's and books (music, fiction and non-fiction, small variety but good titles priced 2-for-£5).
Moving outwards from the city center, on 21 St Stephen Str, you'll find
Vox Box. A small-ish shop with a good vibe and a mix of new (£18-25) and used (£5-15) records. Rock, Indie, Punk etc. The back room allegedly hosts non-crappy cheap vinyl (around £1,5) but it was closed when I visited. A bit further down on 64 Raeburn Pl. there's another
Oxfam shop, this time one dedicated to books and music. LP's fall into three categories: cheap (not necessarily crap, but zero collecting value) £1-2, general £2-7 and collectibles £8-30. CD's £2-7. The
median price of LP's and CD's was £4. Generally cheaper than other record stores, but don't expect to find great bargains. At least your money will be helping a good cause. On my way back to the center, I stopped at
Assai Records (1 Grindlay Str), right under the feet of the castle. After all the crammed shops I visited, I liked how spacious and modern it looked. Only new vinyl (£15-20, indie, rock etc). A few bargains too, I left with a Bevis Frond LP (an older Record Store Day special reissue) for £3,99. Mind you, the second day's walk was almost twice as long as the previous, so you may want to split it more evenly.
DAY THREE: On the third day I visited a few shops on the road between the city center and the city's harbor Leith. It's a bit far from the center, but I'd certainly recommend visiting
Vinyl Villains on 5 Elm Row. Nice decoration outside and cozy inside, big selection and affordable prices. Indicatively: LPs new £13-20, 2nd hand on average £4-8, a few offers £1-2. CD's mostly £3-5, max. £9. T-shirts, cassettes and 7' singles also on sale. Further up on that road, there's
Elvis Shakespeare (
gotta love the name!) dedicated to used books and music. At first it doesn't seem to have so many records, but that's just because they're neatly filed per genre in sliding cupboards. There are some £1 LP's and (indie) CDs. Average prices are £3-5 for CD's, £4-5 for vinyl, excluding collectibles. Last stop that day, the port of Leith. Some nice cafes and the Ocean Terminal shopping mall, which is connected to one of Edinburgh's more popular attractions, the
Royal Boat Britannia. If you make it this far, it'd be a shame not to visit
HMV. It may have the ambiance of a supermarket, being a remnant of the huge corporate record shops era, but it does have a big variety on CD's (£4-12, many offers for £5), DVD's and new vinyl (£15-25). If you're looking for something specific, especially on CD, chances are it'll be here.
Generally the UK gives me the impression of suffering from some kind of vinyl price inflation. I can't see why 2nd hand UK pressings should be more expensive in London or Edinburgh than at my local record store in Delft. The supply in UK should be larger, unless it was hit during the last decade by some kind of vinyl-eating virus which destroyed the country's reserves. Even in charity shops that give away other stuff (including CD's) dirt cheap, vinyl is relatively overpriced. Variety-wise, also, visitors from big European or American cities should not expect to find in Edinburgh more than at home - unless of course you're looking for bagpipe music. But in my experience searching
always pays off, so I'd certainly suggest to take some time and visit at least a couple of these shops. You're bound to come away, as I did, with some cool souvenirs from your visit.
DISCLAIMER: The Record Shop Walking Tour Of Edinburgh Ltd. is not liable for foot blisters or empty wallets. Feel free to ameliorate or adjust the program according to your own needs on the basis of the information given. The prices are indicative and the information and photographs current as of April 22, 2018.
When I visit a foreign city I always return with a few records indicative of the local scene, mostly rock. This wasn't the case with Edinburgh and Scotland, because there's nothing particularly Scottish about, say, The Waterboys, Deacon Blue or Belle & Sebastian. Maybe you can say that about The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, because of the singer's accent. In any case, I already had all that and more, so I settled for a CD of modernized bagpipe music (The Red Hot Chili Pipers - not Peppers, get it?) and I also picked up a random LP by The Corries who I knew to be the Scottish equivalent of The Dubliners. I chose it just because it had the word Edinburgh on the title, but I guess you can't go wrong with a traditional band like that. I say band although they're just a duo, Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne - I guess if you can call The White Stripes a band, then any duo can legitimately claim the same title. The music is mostly acoustic ballads, with voices and guitars occasionally embellished by harmonica, whistle, mandolin and other instruments. The album begins with a rousing rebel tune played on 2 bodhráns (Celtic hand drums). "Wha Wadna Fecht For Charlie" is a Jacobite martial song, urging the clans to support the claim of Charles Stuart (known in Scotland as Bonnie Prince Charlie) to the English and Scottish thrones. The Jacobite uprising was eventually crushed 300 years ago, but not forgotten it seems. Not by The Corries nor by the current pro-independence Scottish parliament. The English prefer to forget about it, but the conflict is immortalized in the British national anthem which was written around that time and whose second verse goes "...May he sedition hush/and like a torrent rush/Rebellious Scots to crush/God save King". "Liberty" is a beautiful rebel ballad, while another sturdy 18th Century anthem "Ye Jacobites By Name" displays a pacifist sentiment. Don't get the impression that it's a serious academic or political thing though. There's also joking, hilarity and humorous folk ditties like "Side By Side" and "Abigail". Many songs were already familiar to me from The Dubliners, and are presented here in not-too-dissimilar versions: "The Old Triangle", "Tramps And Hawkers" and "Maids When You're Young". The two bands were of the same time, there's no point trying to figure out who sang what first, after all it's traditional material. The sea shanty "Lowlands Away" is presaged by a lively jig on tin whistle. There are also some atmospheric ballads like "Dream Angus" (a lullaby) and "The Great Silkie", about a mythical mermaid-like creature of Scottish lore. "Lyceum Blues" is a humorous Brit blues cliché-mocking song with bluesy harmonica. The record ends on a high note with the jokey "Maids When You're Young" and another traditional Jacobite song "Bonny Dundee" - the crowd joins in clapping and singing along, and everyone seems to be having a good time. The album is a good representation of the band's live act, jokes and all, and the performances are good, but I guess a studio collection might have made for a better introduction. It is available on CD as a two-for-one together with "Sound the Pibroch"(1972), but there also seem to be enough original vinyl copies around for those who are interested...
