A SHORT HISTORY

In the heady daze of 1976-77, a new DIY culture was blossoming, music and fashion were changing fast, and everyone wanted to be part of it!
From a newsagents selling records, an idea was born, the shop split into two and by 1977 Vibes Records was officially opened as its own store, by Tony Andrew, quickly becoming the main hub for likeminded music people, from hippies, rockers, disco-popsters and of course punks!
Creating our own label, run by Tony and Paul Cox, releasing sort after singles from Fran Barrie, and The Reducers, Aswell as becoming a distribution hub for countless new bands, Whitefire, Trickswitch, Benedict Arnold's Nightmare, plus many more who were going down the DIY route.

Very quickly Vibes became THE place to be in the North West, hosting PA's from many of the day's stars. Distribution became a big thing too, helping to start other Indies gain traction in the high street by supplying new release stock to shops such as Crash Records (Leeds) EGS Records (Yorkshire), Music Zone (Stockport), Golden Discs (Oldham), X-Records (Bolton) plus others.

The 80s was insanely busy, as many great stores were, we specialised in many genres too, from rock to northern soul, pop to blues & folk, and by the late 80s rave & acid house and the cray Madchester scene (there's a book in here somewhere I'm sure!)

By the 90s everything changed, vinyl was fading out, Cassette too, Cd was king, the music had also changed, Grunge, Indie, and House music, a new decade, a new era, it all sounded great and it was just as exciting as it had ever been!

However, by the 2000s we'd seen many changes, new ownership, downloading, bank crashes, high street struggles, it was all real, and we suffered as a consequence of it all, our biggest issue was disputes with our bank, who were becoming less and less supportive, in hindsight our decision to leave them (after the bank crash) was a bad one....it's a long story, anyway, despite our love for music, the shop, our custom, despite our amazing plans for the future (yes we could see the new vinyl revolution coming) nobody would help fund it, there for, we just couldn't carry on at that time on the high street!

Closing the physical store in 2011 was the hardest decision, but here we are, continuing the legacy online, trying to be honest, trying to push new and old music your way, the love and passion remain!

Over 34 years we had the best staff ever, I wish we had more photos, thank you all, you all know who you are, be proud, it was a great journey, now it's just a small family run enterprise, and that is ok 😊

More Photos to Follow!