Photograph
Collectors Records Underground Market
1982

“Great picture. This was the entrance on Brown Street (concreted over long ago). The shops on the right were demolished to make way for Tescos. Collectors Records was just one of several record stalls located in the Market Centre, usually known as the Underground Market.”

“Seconded. Superb Pic. There were 2 stalls I particularly recall in there. 1 was a geniune collectors stall (+ I think they had a sister one in Blackpool as well) and 1 which sold bootlegs (Vinyl & tapes) Remember getting lots of Joy Division stuff from there. I got a pic disc of ''Ideal for living'' for £12 which, back in 1983, was a lot of saved pocket money! Those were the days....”

“i think this is where they later built that booth for piccadilly ticket office too... and piccadilly records was just opposite.”

“This was the entrance half way down Market St. The other entrance was smaller and had the leather shop and Oasis by the stairs. I think there was another smaller entrance as well. Great memories even though i got mugged in the photo/badge shop, as the old lady who ran it kept her head down and carried on knitting!! I only had about 5 quid on me.”

“I remember 'Stolen from Ivors' was situated somewhere near the entrance.”

“Jeez, takes me back! The shop to the right is now the Tesco so when you're downstairs in Tesco you're in the old underground market.”

“Saved up and bought a leather from the Rock Shop opposite Oasis. Spent the next couple of hours locked in my bedroom with some enamel paint trying to perfect a masterpiece on the back of it. Had the Damned along the bottom, barbed wire around the sleeves, a Crass chinese anti war symbol on the shoulder and the Adicts Monkey/Clockwork Orange face in the middle panel.....bloody hell !”

“The rock shop you refer to was called Roxy, they had lots of leather and leopard skin, also in the underground market was a tattoo guy who was called cockney Paul (I think)”

“met the Angelic Upstarts at the Punk stall on a saturday morning, signed me a copy of I`m an Upstart, Mensi and his geordie mates....”

“A lot of blurred memories of the record and clothes shops around here at this period. Buying my tickets for The Mayflower Club being one of them.”

“i remember one of the stalls had all the record sleeves on the wall, you could spend hours just looking at those!... but every time a new single came out in those glorious punk years, that was my first port of call without a shadow of a doubt.”

“That or the 'singles bar' upstairs in, now, was it Virgin or HMV?”

“Roxy was the first shop on the right in this photo :
images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/...
Plenty of fit birds worked in there including Joanne Walley (Kilmer) apparently, quite a sight for a sweaty hormonal schoolboy ! Couldn't afford to buy any of their stuff . Habeas Corpus was another clothes shop in the basement I used to work at occassionally later on, sold Worlds End tat. I remember the record shop selling mainly second hand punk singles, in fact I flogged a few to them when I got skint ! I think the girl that ran it has a shop in Blackpool now ? Essential Saturday afternoon hang out (the underground market , not Blackpool !)”

“I was and still am a friend of the owner of Roxy, who was a mate of my dad's, and I have just recorded a song with John Hyatt from the Three Johns which has a long working title of "Post Punk Pre Raphaelites at Roxy" and was partly written as a memoir to the days of the old underground market.”

“I seem to remember a basement entrance down one of the side streets lower down Market street, lots of clothes shop down that end!”

“wow - i bought the ideal for living 7" down there (wish i'd picked up a box etc)
i'm trying to remember the name of the record/posters/tickets shop which i think was on st anne's sq. was it paperchase - used to go in there for tickets to gigs at the apollo i think”

“While we were all down there buying coloured vinyl and leather jackets... check out what everyone else in Manchester was doing..... www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manches...”

“I used to work in the Punk/Indie shop in the Underground Market-Discount Records. I'd forgotten about the Upstarts appearing there. I do remember we had Adam and the Ants (early days) twice and the Rezillos once. Racking my brains to think of who else came. We used to sell tickets for the Mayflower and Russell Club. I used to drive for The Fall too (very early days) Habeus Corpus was run by a couple called Jill and Semi. Yes the ticket/poster shop in St Anne's Square was Paperchase.”

“Loads of us punks used to just hang out at discount records (the one with loads of single covers on the walls) It became a sort of meeting point for punks from all over Manchester. I am sure that there were so many people just hanging about there was very little room for real punters to get in! I can't have been good for business! then on a Saturday afternoon (only till 3 in them days) we would all go in the pub just to the left of the side entrance can you remember what that was called?”

“We always went to the Sportsmans bar on Market St and then maybe onto the Cafe Lahore just off Church St for a dayglo curry.”

“the collectors records did have a stall in Blackpool also there was a sister shopping mall oasis which is still going in Birmingham the original underground market was owned by the coop”

“Used to hang about here all the time with my mate Pete the muppet , was owned by a guy called dereck I think his wife was a blonde quite attractive lady, they had another stall in the market hall, south pier Blackpool ????Great memories!”

“Yes Mancunian he was called cockney Paul , now there's a blast from the past”

“I used to hang around at Collectors Records. The owner was Yvonne as I remember. Every saturday we were down there listening to records and having a cuppa.
I loved the underground market, all the passageways and small shops.
Discount Records was my favourite for new wave / Punk. All the fascinating singles covers on the wall.
I got a bit of a hiding outside the Roxy in '79 as I remember. Punched in the face and knocked down the stairs, landed on my elbows and had some great brusies.
Sad when they closed up the market.”