Monday 18 January 2010

I & N RECORDS - CRICHTON STREET

 
The late 70's saw I & N Records open their shop at 2 Crichton Street.
The top image is of the shop's location, housed where the main window opposite the bus shelter is, with the door being in the wee alcove area.
A couple of recent comments on Retro mentioned that they remember going to I & N regularly for their punk records. Well I can recall once being a bit startled to find Black Uhuru's "Sinsemilla" album there, the kind of record I would normally have had to go through to Edinburgh to buy. I felt the shop earned kudos that day!
And I can honestly say that I & N is the only shop in Dundee I ever bought any classical records from. They had a rack load of Deutsche Grammophon vinyl that I used to indulge in from time to time.
They then introduced video rental as an addition to the music, which in turn eventually became their main merchandise, doing away with records altogether.
The image under it is of the I & N record bag, which most of you will no doubt be familiar with.
Below that is an ad from 1980 highlighting various music genres they stocked.

16 comments:

  1. Great punk section at I&N. Even had it's own entrance. Spent many a Saturday buying 7' singles here.

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  2. Ah yes I remember it well.

    As a youngster buying singles in Boots for 49p. Then to Bruces in reform street. Then to Grouchos along the Perth Road for rubbish dayglo punk and badges. Then to I&N with the slightly taciturn "I" serving, for some slightly off the wall stuff. A detour along to Rockpile to see if anything interesting would turn up - rarely, to be frank. Then down to BG Forbes to have a chat with Rob. He would order you anything. Saw him opening the box with Never Mind the Bollocks in it. Sigh.

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  3. Before they located to Crichton St they had two shops,one in Perth rd and one in Hilltown.Dont know about the Perth Rd one,but the Hilltown shop used to sell lots Imports at dirt cheap prices.Iremember buying the Beatles Let It Be American Apple version with gatefold sleeve for 99p!

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  4. i'm sure they had all the 7 inch single covers on show all over the walls, and you had to know every one or you weren't "in the know" and there was a full size poster of Debbie Harry in only her short (see through) tee shirt, well before computer porn ;-)

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  5. I remember one of my first visits to I & N - I bought "Feeling Alright With the Crew" by 999. I was awe struck by the wall of record sleeves! Those were the days when 45s really mattered - not like todays disposable pish!

    Talking of pish, I recently listened to "Feeling Alright With the Crew" again, and it is indeed pish - "Emergency" was far better song.

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  6. i worked at behr's the shoe shop next door to I&N in the hilltown - the shop took all my saturday money from me. they had awesome records at good prices.

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  7. The opened a wee bit next door in Crighton Street to specialise in Punk, I remember that, great days. I always preferred Rockpile to Groucho, they guy always gave me a good deal and the record sleeves smelt of joss sticks :o)

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  8. I & N must have made a small fortune from Dundees young punks, I can remember it being mobbed on a Saturday with many Rotten and Vicious types hanging around outside posing.

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  9. ahhh but does anyone remember the the closing down sale?....i loved i&n but i also loved the fact that i bought i got a load of records and casettes in the closing down sale, possibly the same month as arnotts sale....and i got loads of bargains...

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  10. If the shop had specialised in reggae, they could have called it I & I

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  11. Malcolm MacNotellin20 March 2010 at 07:14

    If I recall correctly, I & N was named after the initials of the couple who ran it. Can't remember their names though ... or where I read that ;)

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  12. It was Iain & Norma

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  13. Can anyone remember the name of the China shop next to I&N in 1966?

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  14. Can anyone remember a decorating shop around 1965 what it was called on crichton street

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    Replies
    1. It was called Grampian (paint & wallpaper) Ltd.
      GG

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