If our survey was for the best record shop of all time, one of my irst votes would go to Timebeat Records in Basingstoke, circa 1988. It was located in a strange netherworld between concrete mall and residential suburb and was the irst collectors’ shop I regularly visited. Timebeat was jammed to the gills with 7”s and LPs and, as it grew in popularity, opened a poster shop upstairs, too. While their stock was all a bit rock- and punk-oriented for me, I never once encountered the collector-shop snobbery that was so prevalent in those days, especially to any visitor under the age of 40.
My best Timebeat purchase? I’d say the 7” double-pack of Talking Heads’ Take Me To he River, snapped up partly for Psycho Killer on the bonus disc and partly for the band’s Pete Frame family tree illustration on the inner gatefold. I also still have a promo edition of the Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack LP. I have no idea what possessed me to buy this at the time, but I’ve never let it go on account of he Police’s now-overlooked, dark, brooding instrumentals.