A smaller shop but always has choice vinyl and CDs. A large selection of Manchester artists and a…read morelot of really cool artwork on the walls. All of the employees I've encountered are too guys who are there to make sure you find what you're looking for.

Whilst Vinyl Exchange and Piccadilly Records stock an incredible range of music from americana,…read morepsyche-folk and rock to blues, soul and punk-funk, Vinyl Revival is more of a specialist store that deals with everything related to Manchester's musical history. We're talking rare and hard to find posters from The Hacienda and Factory Records, limited edition 12"s and promo pressings of early Stone Roses, Smiths and New Order and every album by A Certain Ratio, Durutti Column, Buzzcocks and Magazine. If you're after something in particular - like Barry Adamson's* brilliant imaginary soundtrack album Moss Side Story - just ask and there's a chance they might have one or know someone that can get you one. It's that kind of store! * Who's Barry Adamson? The charismatic bass player in seminal post-punk band Magazine, early member of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and now a full time solo artist and soundtrack composer of course!

Excellent selection and friendly employees that will help you find what you are looking for. Check…read moretheir website because it is updated daily with their current stock. They also have a handy pick up desk downstairs if you order online. It's a good mix of CDs and vinyl so give it a shot when you're in town.

I've lost count of the amount of time and money I've spent in Vinyl Exchange over the years…read more Suffice to say, it would probably mount to quite a lot! Housed in the heart of the Northern Quarter, it's a two storey building solely devoted to secondhand music from indie, power pop, psyche-rock and folk to electro, hip hop, rap, disco, funk, soul and nu wave. Upstairs is devoted to racks of nearly new, secondhand and promo CDs and DVDs whilst the basement is packed with all kinds of vinyl from rare 7" and 12" to albums and box-sets. Prices are reasonable, the staff are friendly and passionate about music and you can trade and sell records and CDs. It was here I managed to track down copies of Mo' Wax Headz 1 and 2, Sonic Youth 'Beat On The Brat' 12" and Miles Davis's seminal Bitches Brew album one lucky afternoon!

A good mix of CDs and vinyl that also tailors to the more eclectic tastes. Friendly employees each…read moretime I've visited. Deals in new product mainly. If you have more eclectic tastes this is well worth your time.

Sizzling Soul Fabulous Funk…read moreBrilliant Broken Beats Awesome Abstract Hip Hop Fantastic Free Jazz Dazzling Dubstep Sweeeeeet Lovers Rock Beautifully crooned Country Amazing Americana Classic Chicago House Tantalising Techno Pogo-ing Punk-Funk Perfect Pop Gorgeous Psyche-Folk Blistering Garage & lots of cool Rock & Roll Don't mean to get all High Fidelity on y'all but Piccadilly Records is the Northern equivalent of Rough Trade East. They have aisles of incredible vinyl on 7", 12" and long-players, tons of new and re-issued CDs and listening decks where you can check them all out. Even better, most of the staff are deejays so can give you the lowdown on the tracks that are the most fly. They also host in-store gigs from emerging and established artists. What more could you want?

Clampdown record is a well-organized shop with a solid selection of harder to find titles. As I…read morebrowsed through their indie and Manchester sections, I saw a lot of titles that are well sought after. Pricing was fair and the clerk (owner?) behind the counter let my partner and I browse without any of the bother you sometimes get in record shops. I would mark this as a must visit when visiting Manchester and hunting for vinyl.

Great record store right in the heart of Manchester city centre. Small store, but lots of vinyl to…read morechose from & reasonably priced. If you love Japanese or audophile pressings, this is a store you will love. I also found a section dedicated to bands from Manchester like Oasis, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays & New Order ect which is cool to see from a store based in the city centre. If you are after signed LP's you are in look as Clampdown Records features a nice little section dedicated to this type of collectible. Overall this is a great little store that I have visited every week I pop into Manchester & have bought quite a bit of stuff from here. The owner is friendly & very knowledgable about his stuff. I was asking one time I visited about Japanese vinyl as I had heard their pressings are superior when compared to American or UK pressings & pretty much gave me the full rundown of which periods this is true of + things to look out for. Great store with a very honest, helpful owner.

Stones Throw Breakin' Bread…read moreSoul 7 Soul Brothers Kay Dee Prime Numbers Jazzman Ever since 1993, Fat City was one of Manchester's premier music stores for funk, soul and hip hop fans. Originally based in Afflecks Palace, it soon gained a reputation for selling dope tracks and moved into a bigger space on Oldham Street where they could display more stock. Run by a team of dedicated deejays and b-boys, Fat City decided to start their own label in the late nineties with the purpose of releasing more quality hip hop, funk and soul. Alongside dozens of 7" and 12"s, they released a handful of great compilations like Mystic Brew and Stars on 33. Around the same time, they hooked up with local hip hop label Grand Central and began running their own successful club night Friends and Family - with deejay sets and live performances from guest producers and artists. Sadly, the recession hit Fat City in 2009 and they decided to close the shop in August and concentrate their energies on their website and club promotion instead. I still prefer shopping for vinyl in person but if you're a deejay or record collector looking for quality funk, soul, hip hop, rap, reggae, disco or electro - Fat City is well worth a look. Their prices are reasonable and they have lots of stone cold classics! Personally, I'm waiting for them to get more copies of Sexual Harrassment's awesome no wave album I Need A Freak. Haven't heard it? Man, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLGy6UHpCaQ&NR=1

A welcome addition to Harrogate's Montpellier Quarter!…read more Wall of Sound used to be located in Halifax and was a decent place to find collectable vinyl. Now proprietor Elliot has relocated to a small area half way up the stairs in Space's new multi-stall complex just off Parliament Street. The whole place is worth a look - fun stalls and a cool bar upstairs. But nestling between is a vinyl junkie's mini-paradise. The accent is on older music - 60s and 70s, country rock, psychedelia, blues, bluegrass, west coast... You'll find some punk and indie in here too, and it's worth spending some time browsing through the racks as well as the amazing slices of premium vinyl on the walls. CDs are available but vinyl dominates. You'll also find some cool collectors stuff - there was an AC/DC promo boiler suit last time I looked for instance, and some really excellent posters for various other bands and stuff behind the counter. Elliot is on hand to offer his well-informed opinion - and he knows an awful lot about the music he sells I should add - and remains a music enthusiast who is happy to share a story over a tune or two. If there's stuff you're after give him a list and see how he does. I did that and within a week he'd found me a couple of bits of vinyl I was looking for. Quality service. With a lack of music collector's shops in the area this place was greeted with utter delight my myself and my friends. The stuff inside is really good and with a friendly and knowledgeable chap in charge I just wonder how much of my money I'll end up spending in here as there is always something interesting to buy...

Another place of pilgrimage. IYKYK. Ah, what an honor it is to be able to see Pete (owner) & chat…read morewith him during trips to Madchester. It's a used shop that sells vinyl, cassettes, etc. It's like stepping into a library of well-maintained musical archives. I never leave empty-handed and love being able to purchase something pressed in the UK rather than the U.S. It's kind of important when it comes to the music of some of my favorite artists of the area (The Stone Roses, Oasis, and so on). A legendary piece of music history that's simply a must-visit establishment. Prices are super fair.

Great used records, and a superb collection of CDs, cassettes, and DVDs…read more Not your typical trendy record store, so you won't find any newer music here. A true gem for true music enthusiasts. And what a marvelous jazz and country collection btw. Extra points by chatting with the legendary Peter Howard, AKA Mr. Sifter. It was a dream come true to visit this place!

One of the last remaining secondhand record shops in Liverpool is Hairy Records. Situated at the…read moretop of Bold Street, it's a gloriously ramshackle shop that has literally dozens of racks of old vinyl. The window is a great indicator of what you'll find inside with well thumbed copies of early Dylan, Neil Young and Van Morrison records alongside old classics by The Cure, The Smiths and The Specials. It's not all rock and pop however, as inside there are literally hundreds of brilliant soul, funk, disco, motown, northern soul, girl groups, reggae and krautrock albums. If you can't find what you're looking for, ask the friendly owner and there's a chance he might have a copy somewhere. I only chatted to him for five minutes and it was clear his passion and enthusiasm for music was infectious. In the week, Hairy Records is quite quiet so you'll have time to look through everything without being disturbed. At weekends however, expect to be elbowed by local musicans like The Zutons and The Coral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJrGKqYYfdY

Liverpool's selection of independent record shops is so bad, considering the city's monumental…read moremusical heritage, it's almost laughable. Hairy is one of the few left and is probably the biggest and best known. Its collection of vinyl is tremendous with stacks and stacks from all genres and eras that you can happily spend days rooting through them all. But like all specialist shops - particularly record shops - there is always a catch. Remember High Fidelity? Remember the father innocently asking Jack Black if he had a copy of 'I Just Called To Say I Love You'? Yep, just be careful.

Review for CeX Arndale Manchester - A Wasted 24 Hours and a Damaged Device…read more I regret to say that my recent experience with CeX Arndale Manchester was not only deeply disappointing but also a telling symbol of why this company may not exist in the next 20 years. I handed in a pristine device, expecting a straightforward evaluation, only to have 24 hours of my time wasted, only to be told that my phone was "not sellable." More disturbingly, the device was returned to me with two fresh marks/scratches that were not there before. The damage was done, quite visibly, and the person who returned it to me a female staff member seemed unaware or indifferent to the fact that the device had clearly been mishandled during their assessment process. This kind of carelessness is not just unacceptableit i s corrosive to any customer-facing business. The irony here is tragic: the very company that prides itself on being a marketplace for used electronics seems to be accelerating its own obsolescence by treating both customers and their devices with such disregard. If this is how CeX treats the people it relies on to sustain its inventory, it's no wonder many consumers are moving toward decentralized tech trade-ins and platforms that operate with transparency, speed, and respect. In an age of intelligent automation, blockchain-based transactions, and next-gen peer-to-peer resale models, CeX's archaic and inconsistent service model epitomized by the careless behaviour I witnessed today is writing its own demise. It's no longer just about product margins; it's about trust, precision, and a future-ready approach. On all of these, CeX failed. This experience has left me unhappy and disillusioned, and unless there's a radical shift in professionalism and process, this may well be my last dealing with CeX.

No phone line to speak of and the whole company continuously selling broken or counterfeit goods…read more Breech of UK consumer laws and consumers rights in that there are no advertised direcr communication methods and All std rate company phone lines now direct you to their website form which you will not receive a reply from in a reasonable time espaicially if you require a return/refund. It also says use social media handles for "urgent enquiries". This is a shambles and the social media handles are inactive and also rely on you being 14 and having access to these trash sites. Sold ps1 time crisis in such bad condition it wouldn't boot, sold a dualshock 3 and what came was decidedly not a dualshock. Had to spend bus fare and leave early turning up unannounced to get it sorted, costing me time and money when I tried for hours to sort it remotely, like you know, the way I purchased! There is another number to ring and that is actually a premium rate number, bet they have that active though further breeching UK law. Reported to trading standards this morning.