One of two proper record shops in Harborough, and the more established one, Pendulum is a great…read morelittle shop full of character, with knowledgeable, helpful and friendly staff. They may not be able to compete with the big web retailers, or even the local supermarkets etc, on price, but it is worth paying that bit more for the levels of service offered. They will happily order in titles they don't currently hold in stock, and turnaround is usually within the week. One of the remaining independant stores that makes Harborough the fascinating market town that it is, I hope they are around for a long time to come.

Hmv in Stratford is easy to find and as usual as with all their stores they sell music,games, dvds…read moreand other bits and bobs. This store is very very narrow which is for the size of other stores a bit dissappointing. But never the less it still holds up quite well. Being narrow means if two people want to pas each other you quite literally have to turn sideways to pass its that small. Once past that problem its clear the store requires more room. The tills are set back to aid with room on the left of the store on the way in. Recent releases of cd etc are at the fron of the store. And as you go further back you find more music, dvds and the game section. Right at the back of the store you will find an area which sells headphones and speakers from makes such as Bose, Sony and philips. I pod accessories are also available too. The store gets 4 out of 5 as the staff being helpful and the amazing amount of stock they cram in makes up for the store being stupidly small.

Danger - do not go there if you are already running out of shelf space…read more CDs and DVDs are cheap enough (£3-5) that you _will_ crack and stock up, and still not pay a fortune. This is the place to go for alternative music, and those indie films you only ever see at the Picturehouse. It's also the right place to get those classic tracks you only ever heard on the radio.

Fopp! Fopp! Just the name sounds interesting and weird. This store isn't as weird as the name…read morethough, it is actually a relatively normal record store on Sydney Street in the city centre. Fopp was set up 25 years ago and although it sells the same sorts of things that every record store does, it holds an element of originality and has a retro vibe to it. It was at risk of going under recently but HMV lent a helping hand and saved Fopp from disappearing off the face of the earth, which I am quite pleased about. It's selling point is really just the retro atmosphere and slightly funky logo but it really is the same as HMV. I just love the idea of anything remotely nostalgic.

A small indie record shop covering dance/electronic/hip-hop an' all that. It's dominated by vinyl-…read moreI'm afraid I use CDs, so I'd looked through the shop's entire CD stock in 5 minutes flat, though I did find some good promo stuff which I was happy to pay £1.99 for. Neatly arranged, friendly staff, vinyl listening posts, everything you'd want from your local specialist.

A huge range of vinyl for everyone, diverse range of music genres have spent many an afternoon…read moreearching for house classics and soulful tunes

excellent `music instruments` shop…read more NOT A RECORD STORE!!

downstairs has `best` stock in boxes. plus large selection…read moreof cd`s not expensive do have `rareities` upstairs is average stock. 50p each. well i saw `krokus` [hardware] LP excellent nick a number of others . so you could get a bagful . I HAVE BEEN BUYING/SELLING FROM RECORD SHOPS ACCROSS THE COUNTRY SINCE 1982. Collector from 1975. I believe that the Shop does Not exist anymore., and Nick has been retailing as an Online source these days.

Pied Piper Records closed in 2010, although Nick Hamlyn continues to trade on the internet using…read morethat name. Nick loved running the shop for the 24 years it was open and hopes that it is missed. Sadly, the age of the music shop would appear to be over certainly Pied Piper Records was losing huge amounts of money during its last years.