Abbey Discs - The End Of An Era

geoffraffe

Well that about sums it up. Great post Jdee, really enjoyed reading it and it brought back some great memories. I've walked by the shop often but haven't dropped in in years. I'm looking forward to dropping in this week.

Best of luck Billy, you gave me some great laughs, some cracking tunes and some very, very fond memories over the years. Thank you

dSTAR

What a shame to see it go :-(

I remember them from the Abbey Mall. There were a couple of other record stores in there which never lasted. Used to love going in there to pick up the latest tastiest toons and stuff my pockets full of flyers.

dSTAR

Here's a track by way of a tribute to many an afternoon spent there ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HCLnwToZY

Are they going to have a farewell party?

derra

geoffraffe wrote: »

Great post Jdee, really enjoyed reading it

+1

Ronan Raver77

Very good post Jason:)

JDee

Cheers for the "thanks" - as soon as I learned of the news last week I began working on the piece for a couple of hours a day, I wanted nothing short of the most comprehensive history of the two shops that I could remember. Only yesterday more DJ names and a couple of other stories Id forgotten came to mind - Ive added an anecdote to the last section above I remembered from the 1994 staff Christmas party. Ive also put in one or two DJs that didnt slip my mind, but rather I dont remember them shopping there (but they told me years later that they remembered me working in the shop!)


I have suggested to a few DJs, Jim Kenny included, that because the closedown is on a Tuesday that we all head upto Jim in Tamango as his night has been going as long as the shop and, like Abbey, its synonymous with the Irish DJ industry. It would only make sense if Billy and Derek and the rest of the crew could be there on the night too, I wouldnt see the point otherwise. So I'll mention this to Billy too, its not set in stone at the moment.

Thank you to Mark Kavanagh for a paragraph used in the Red Records section above, I had asked Mark to email me an old article he wrote for Hot Press years ago and he happily obliged. Its for a "Retro" section of an online project Im close to finishing and I got it from Mark weeks before the news of Abbey broke, it made sense to include that history of Red Records I thought. I think Red, Mark and Tim deserve their own history put into words in full some day, and if I ever do something similar again it'll be that.

Thank you to some DJs for some very warm texts I received today regarding the post. I wrote it to piece together a very important part of my life but I also wrote it for the DJs that were there. In the words of Wham - "If you were there ... you'd know"

One of those nice texts was from Andy Preston, in mentioning the huge list of DJs above I said he was most associated with Abbey for me with his Telstar Euphoria show but the memory of him in the shop that stands out the most is one I'll never let him forget. He was standing in the shop, smiling at the counter and I noticed he was a bit bug eyed. He explained that he had just finished three 4 hour shows on - wait for it - three different radio stations all within 16 hours. If memory serves me right they were, Sunset, Power FM and overnights on - I think - Kevin's Kiss 103 where he was "Captain Andy". It was 10 am in the Liffey St branch and he looked liked he happily go and do another 3 shows.

He has given me permission to paste in his own thoughts from his FM104 blog. It is a fantastic read and you can find it below this line. I will spruce it up with one or two images later.

Remember; Storm FM (the best dance pirate we've had since Energy 94) is broadcasting LIVE from the shop this Saturday from 12-6. Ive a crazy busy weekend ahead but Im going to try and make it in for an hour, hope to see ya there.

Failing that, the last day of Abbey Discs as we know it is next Tuesday the 25th. Be there on either to witness the end of a true era :notworthy

_______________________________________________________

Andy Preston's thoughts on the closure:

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYBODY FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND WE HOPE TO BE BACK IN THE NEW YEAR DOING WHAT WE DO BEST - SELLING RECORDS, BREAKING RECORDS!

SO WATCH THIS SPACE!

BILLY, DEREK, TARA, ANTHONY, TRACEY, ELAINE, NIAMH.

Seriously, I had a lump in my throat when I read this. When I started out in this business over 20 years ago, Abbey Discs was like a toy shop to me. Well, I was only 14 when I ventured in for the first time back in the summer of 1988. I'd heard a great song on the radio called "Rush Hour" by Jane Wiedlin and I was told that Abbey Discs would definitely have it. Of course I had heard about the shop from colleagues long before I visited for the first time as it was renowned for it's reputation for looking after DJ's with discounts and having the biggest selection of 12" singles of any record shop in Dublin.




I'm smiling to myself as I remember being told by the proprietor Billy Murray upon asking for the Jane Weidlin single that "I don't have it in but it will be in next week" - a typical response to a record request that many a customer will be familiar with. So, in I went the following week only to be told again that it wasn't in. And I went in the week after and the week after until eventually it was in stock. I remember being chuffed when Billy gave me the option to purchase the 12" for two pounds fifty, which I duly did. I thought that that day I had landed myself a place in amongst the Abbey Discs DJ elite.

In those days I didn't often get to buy records as my only gig was a weekend night in the Dublin Ice Rink in Dolphin's Barn for the princely sum of ten pounds, most of which ended up in the Abbey Discs till. A few months later the resident DJ in the Ice Rink Got fired and I got the gig full time. Great I thought, now I can buy all the latest releases every week! And that's exactly what I did with the eighty pounds I earned every week, after I paid my mother the twenty pounds for my keep. Good 'aul Marie was a shrewd 'un!:) Good money all the same for a 15 year old!

Dance music was beginning to make it's presence felt in those heady days of 88 and 89, and the flavour back then was acid house mixed with american rock and UK pop - the typical mix you would hear on my show on Radio Dublin and at a night out in The Ice Rink. All material supplied by the good people in Abbey Discs!

As the 90's dawned it was clear that this was going to be the decade of dance, and where was the growing crop of DJ's going to get their tunes? You guessed it:)

Music changed hugely in the early part of the 90's as 'rave' took grip of popular culture and venues like the Olympic Ballroom, Sides and Shaft played the soundtrack of the decade to eager clubbers while pirate radio found it's niche as station after station embraced the new music phenomenon. Once again Abbey Discs was the shop of choice for DJ's and fans of the music alike. It wasn't unusual for innocent punters to stumble upon the shop in the hunt for the tunes they heard on the radio and in the club and embark on a DJ career themselves!

Whilst much of the business' success can be put down to word of mouth from the DJ's that frequented the little unit in The Abbey Mall on liffey Street, I'm convinced that it never would have lasted so long without the leadership of the shops founder - Billy Murray. It was Billy's 'Everybody's Mate' personality that kept many coming back for more and the fact that he made you feel like you were the only customer in the shop while he was speaking to you. I have a feeling that that was his way of hustling you into buying something you didn't really want to and my fathers shed is full of records and CD's bought in haste because they were "going to be huge". I didn't mind though, I just wanted to have the biggest music collection of any DJ in Ireland!

Billy first ventured into the business of selling records for a living when he opened 'Billy's Record Shop' in Finglas. The astute Murray posessed an encyclopedic knowledge of all things to do with popular music - a trait you would be hard pressed to find in any member of staff of today's music outlets - and this led to the founding of Abbey Discs in The Abbey Mall On Liffey Street and another shop in Dublin's Northside Shopping Centre. By 1992 the original shop in 'The Mall' had become so busy that another shop was opened on Liffey Street, thus giving it a more accesible base for regular record buyers. Eventually the original shop in The Abbey Mall was closed along with The Northside Shopping centre branch, and Liffey Street continued alone.



I'll always be grateful to Billy for helping me to establish FM104's Euphoria dance show on friday nights way back in 1998. I went to Billy to tell him of my plans for a friday night dance show in the hope that he would furnish me with as many of the pre release tracks and white labels that he kept under the counter. I think he was a bit sceptical of the idea at first but after the first show he was swamped with punters he had never seen before all looking for the tracks I had played the previous night! He soon changed his tune and after that I got the pick of what was hot:)

I can remember Billy asking me about Napster, the first of the free file sharing sites that I first became familiar with around 1999. He had noticed a slight downturn in business and somebody had tipped him off that a growing number of the old schoolers that had been customers since the early days of the shop were using the site. Many of these guys had indeed discovered Napster and instead of shopping in Abbey Discs, they were now downloading all their new music from Napster site - for free. While this was a worrying threat to a smalltime independent record dealer, Billy thought he would ride the storm since the majority of his customers were vinyl buyers. He didn't bank on the so called 'dance music recession'.

It's true to say that dance music became less popular in the early part of the noughties. I figured that when the management at FM104 offered my the 10 - 3 show in March 2001 that it was a good time to jump from The Euphoria Show as I could tell that the clubs that were busy were either empty or just closing and there appeared to be less and less dance music appearing in the charts or in fact working with the commercial crowds in the venues that I was working on. This meant that less and less of the DJ's that had been buying vinyl were doing so and those that in the late 90's were buying decks instead of guitars were, in fact, buying guitars again. The writing was on the wall for Abbey Discs but I always thought that Billy would pull one final trick out of the bag. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

The closure of Abbey Discs signals the end of the traditional record shop as we know it, and while I feel no sympathy for the record companies who ripped off the record buying public for years, I feel sad because I absolutely loved the idea of shopping for records. While that's something that you can still do, it just doesn't feel the same anymore. A lot of it had to do with the personal service provided by Bill, Derek, Tara and his staff. They all realised very early on that service was key to their survival amongst a small but loyal customer base and for that they reaped the rewards. Times change though and this is one service that is about to be lost in time.



I do sincerely hope that, as the message above suggests, the shop will ba back in the new year - be that from the old familiar shop in Liffey Street or a new place of business. I'll be in for one final splurge before close of business guys!

Kind regards to Billy and the Murray family. You have earned your place in the history of Irish music!

JDee

Was just on the phone with Billy there ....

Important Update:


Abbey Discs in Liffey Street is now closing this Monday now and not Tuesday. Please spread the word as I know loads of jocks who were going in on Tuesday.

We should all stand in the shop and applaud Billy and the crew either at closing time 6pm this Sat or the very last day this Monday.

A standing ovation is the least they deserve

JDee

Abbey Discs - The Commemorative Weekend Lineup

Some important dates to remember:

Tonight Friday 21st:

Andy Preston stands in for Al on FM104's Freaks On Friday and, all going to plan, will have Billy Murray live on air sometime after 7pm - the live stream is http://img.mediaspanonline.com/6061/2205889.asx ..... Andy will do the shop more than proud as always.

Saturday 22nd:

This Saturday the most professional dance pirate station Dublin has had in years will be broadcasting LIVE from the shop. From 12pm-6pm Storm 99.1FM will be interviewing some DJs in the shop and playing the songs that shaped the Irish nightclub industry. Drop in and show your face if you can.

Sunday 23rd:

During the last hour of my show on Dublin's new licensed station The 90s Network I'll be playing plenty of Abbey memories. 7-8pm on 99.5FM - if you're not in Dublin we stream at high quality at http://www.the90snetwork.com/resources/90s+Stream.asx


IMPORTANT

The closing day is now this Monday and not Tuesday as previously proposed.

Monday 24th:

The curtain comes down on a 25 year era. Let's be there during the day but especially at 6pm to give Billy and the crew the applause they deserve

Zascar

Best of luck lads, great to see such a good send off

Molberts

Jason - awesome posts, lots of memories, thank you

I started going into Abbey in Liffey Street when I was 13 for ormond mix tapes and bits of vinyl when I had money. Oh and flyers! my entire bedroom was COVERED in flyers from Ormond, temple of sound and the like. I still havent fully forgiven my mam for not letting me go see Tony De Vit in the Ormond, or myself for not just sneaking out as it wa his last set here! I was 13 though, I can see her point

The "it'll be in next week" line was a classic alright Also the "eye of suspicion" newbies got from Derek and Billy, and how you were a bit afraid to ask for certain tunes in case they thought they were sh!t, but loved getting the little nod of approval and the box from under the counter if you asked for something they thought was good!

On the "first day Billy says goodbye to you" thing - for me that was the day he said to me "you come in here a good bit don't ya?" And we had a little chat, then he took out his order book and actually wrote down some tunes I was looking for rather than just saying "tuesday bud". :P

I remember the day I heard a rumour on a saturday that Billy had a white label of stardust's music sounds better v's madonna's holiday. I'd been searching everywhere for a copy of Stardust and figured a white label remix was even better! I was working on the saturday but rang that evening and begged them to keep me one for monday. I bunked off school and went into liffey street to get it (couldn't have possibly taken time off work as I needed my record money didn't I?) and was delighted with myself, still have it (of course) with some of Billys white labels of Gemini 5 and the like.

I spent most of "school" hopping out the window to go to pirate radio shows or nerding out in record shops. Well if Billy was getting deliveries on thursday night I had to go in friday cos everything would be gone! :rolleyes: I don't regret it and I've a savage collection out of it :cool:

Awesome sales techniques - I'm sure he had piles of those tunes that you simply *had* to have if you hadn't already but you simply *had* to have especially if was the "last one bud"

I remember the day I went in to pick a record to review as part of a competition I was entering to write for Mixmag. I told Jamie what it was for and he offered to let me borrow it, listen to it and bring it back :eek: I was floored! As it turned out I really wanted the record so bought it anyway but I felt so special

Im still a working DJ today and tbh I still do love it but I miss whiling away hours and hours in record shops now that I don't have to, it was so much fun

I've wrestled people to the ground for rare records! You know when yourself and another person spot and grab a gem at the exact same time and have to battle it out, sometimes swapping tunes you already have in your arms if necessary? Ok so "gem" is probably a bit strong, especially since a mate and I didn't talk all the way home on the bus one time over the last copy of "Mr.ping & Mrs. Pong - your serve" in Virgin on the quays >.< it was a must have at the time ok? Club fm were playing it ftw! we had to have it! :pac:

Sure you can just download it now but wheres the fun in that? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the memories Jason,

The best of luck to Billy and the crew for the future.

Claire

Executive Steve

Avago wrote: »

fair play abbey discs and all the others that have fallen by the wayside, i second the comment that the communtiy aspect to record shopping is the biggest casualty

Words cannot express just how correct this is.



Big up to Billy and all the Abbey discs crew - always sad to see a record shop go... I only ever bought a handful of tunes in there over the years (too expensive / never had anything i liked) but record shops are community centres and when they die history passes.

CelticSpirit

Enjoyed reading all the posts there and your own thesis JDee It was like reading a who's who of Dublin's best DJ's.

I was first introduced to Abbey Discs by some of my mates from Ashbourne. They've probably posted on here already I'd often meet them on a Saturday and it'd be into the mall to pick up a few tunes. I didn't have decks myself but that didn't mean I enjoyed the buzz any less.

IMO the shop in the mall was a proper record shop. I never really liked the one on Liffey St. As a wide-eyed 13 yr old the mall was a real underground record shop to me. There was a real buzz about the place that I never got from Liffey St, even when the place was full of ravers on a Saturday afternoon!

It's gas but there's a café where the old mall shop used to be now. I still go in every Saturday when I'm in town and I know them all by name. I guess some things never change. I was telling them once that there used to be a record shop where they used to be, but was only really met with indifference. My point is that I think you really had to be there to understand.

I used to go in for tapes over the last few years and I noticed that even on a Saturday there were very few in there. More's the pity, it's a sign of the times that the old dance music scene, the way it was back then, fresh, new and full of character and characters like Billy seems to be well and truly dead.

JDee

What a show Andy did tonight

55 minutes of spine-tingling radio. I even caught myself dancing when Dream Lover came on

Thank you Andy - it was the tribute Abbey deserved.

I have the full first hour on MP3, if anyone wants it emailed to them in 4 parts drop me a PM.



Now for Round 2;

Today in the shop - Storm 99.1 are broadcasting LIVE from 12-6 behind the counter, its going to be brilliant radio too.


And join me this Sunday in the 90s Network - Im looking at asking the boss to let me extend the Abbey Discs Special part of the show to 90 minutes

paulduffy72

A big thank you to billy.tara.derek and jamie for all the good memories from abbey discs,me now 36 and then 15 and all in between what good tunes they gave me to promo on club fm.Best of luck with a new shop if it happens,ye can educate the next crew of dj's

Paul Duffy

P.S. if Derek wants a new shop, i will have one in on tuesday!

SRFC Ultras

Probaly not as funny a tale as those that have gone before

Many a Sat morning me and the lads trooped off to AD after a night in the Asylum or Sides and a house party to get the latest tunes we heard the night before. Then down to the White Horse for a few refreshing pints contemplating which one of us where going to nick the Napoli scarf at the end of the bar (We never did, but we loved that scarf) God bless Len Allen (RIP) he never did give us that scarf in the end but gave us many a free pint to shut the **** up, then off to the RDS to watch Rovers then back to the horse show house. Heaven on earth

The Nal

Ballax! Bought a Prodigy dvd in there, only place in Dublin that stocked it.

Sign of the times I guess.

Flipside.

Scubadevils

Wow, some great reading here and fantastic to hear about peoples experiences in Abbey over the years.

I went in on Wednesday for my last ever flick through some 12"s behind the counter. I bought about 6 or 7 and a couple of CD's. Billy seemed pretty upbeat and the shop was quite busy with people digging around for bargains - mainly random people passing by though as opposed to regulars from over the years.

I hope to make it in tomorrow for a final goodbye - Billy did get me also for the last time and mentioned that he was going to have a look for some old CD's and might have them ready for me on Monday There always had to be a bit of bait thrown to ensure you came back again!

A very sad time though, the shop really was a huge part of the scene in Dublin for a long time. It genuinely closes a large chapter of my life and drags up so many memories from over the years, good and bad.

This thread should even be nominated for a sticky?

The Nal

What time is the shop open till on Monday?

VinylJunkie

The Nal wrote: »

What time is the shop open till on Monday?

I think he just said 5 on the radio there!

JDee

Well Gar Skelly, Steve Power, Michelle T and the rest of the the Storm crew did a top, top job in Abbey on Saturday. I cant remember anyone ever doing an OB like that before in the shop in all its years and it made for a great atmosphere with a touch of sadness.

Billy's speech was very touching, in all my years knowing him Ive never seen him so emotional. I forgot how much that man could multi, multi-task, there is a brain there that simply has to be put to further use - future shop or no.

The 3 DJs Ive mentioned above were previously left out of my " DJ faces I remember" in the "DJ list" part of the piece above and I apologise for that, I also forgot about 2 very good mates of mine (Lofty and Sean) in the first draft and Id only spoken to them that day! All 3 added to the same piece on Radiowaves http://www.radiowavesforum.com/rw/showthread.php?t=16388&page=2 ..... I think you've only 24 hours to edit stuff here.

Gar, I think of all the Storm crew, needs to be singled out as a bit of a legend on Saturday - his knowledge of the whole Irish dance scene from 1988 onwards has few rivals. He has some notes and archives I want access to!

Good to see Andy Jackson in the shop Saturday too, his threat to wear his Club Fm jacket was - thanks be to jaysus - not carried out

I believe I just missed Tony Langsford in the shop when I got there and he is another name Im afraid to say I ommited in the list above, I think I looked at solely Dance DJs for the mall and then the huge CD commercial jocks for Liffey St and unfortunately some people got lost in the mix if they fell between the two. That has been fixed Tony.

Gary Matthews has been added too - he presented the original "Abbey Discs Top Ten" on Sunset. I only met him again last year in Premier and he still has an amazing CD collection.

Cheers to station manager Mikey of The 90s Network for allowing what was one hour of Abbey dance classics to be stretched to 3 and then, on the night 4! It was amazing that songs like Sound Crowd's "Think About It Please" finally got an airing on a licensed radio station - that would have been unthinkable ten years ago and shows that maybe, just maybe Dublin will get a licensed dance station yet, ya never know.

I had hinted at an in depth interview with Billy and, despite a couple of technical hiccups, what was intended to be a 15 minute chat turned into a 45 minute story - but this time in Billy's own words.

I came home to find the stream I fed into Cool Edit Pro had died after half an hour so Im hoping that I can get it off Mike from the station's log during the week. Or if anyone has a copy maybe you could PM me.

I was thinking that these tweaks and additions to my memories of the piece. will be probably ongoing for a few more days as I want to add more audio, videos and all those pics that were taken in the shop on Saturday etc. Its not really complete without a picture of Billy & Co is it?

So Ive just registered the following website as a place where we can all pool those pics, videos, youtube links (with embedded videos of the songs) into one handy link.

Ive called it welovedabbeydiscs.com

No content there whatsoever now but I'll host whatever we want to put up there as a "retro" sub-site to my own. For starters I'll paste the above piece that I did in in the next couple off weeks (thats another website project for Leo lol ) and then the pictures as we get them. I'll also paste in every comment and memory on here and from the other big thread on Radiowaves.

I'll put up Andy's first hour from 104 on Friday, all 6 hours from the Storm broadcast when I get them and the 4 hours I did yesterday evening too.

All other suggestions for what we can put on there are welcome - again, drop me a PM. Lets not wallow in the "good old days" too much but lets at least have a shower in it now again


For the week thats in it maybe we could use the logo below as our Bebo/Facebook profile pic.




So today is the day.

Abbey Discs closes at 5pm

Billy informs me that the last bit of shopping has to be done there by 4 ish as there will be then an hour of dismantling and getting stuff into boxes etc. Knowing the mad man that is Billy that could all change but its the plan at present. Im aiming (catch up sleep permitting) to be in about for about 4.

Hope to see you there one last time.

jeffk

jonny68 wrote: »

Was in there on Fri for the first time in a few years, tbh there didn't appear to be much in the way of bargains on show (didn't look at the vinyl though) in fact one CD i have was vastly overpriced, Tunnel Trance Force, i think they were charging something like €32 or something for this:eek: http://www.amazon.com/Tunnel-Trance-Force-Vol-31/dp/B0006BLIWW im sure it was that one, madness charging that much, anyway didn't stay long just popped in for a quick nose, was busy rnough by the looks of things but maybe that's just old customers like myself who went in for a nose.

LOL that's billy alright used to go in there up till around 06 and pay around €30 for future trance.Was selling it for €33 but i knew billy/derek from going in.
The two things that stopped me where getting a credit card/net connection and being charged €9(maybe less with my discount)for promos that a few other places had for 50c-€1.50

Also got loads of those German singles with loads of mixes,always said with poles etc billy should have made a killing of stuff like that(cascada.scooter,basshunter would be ones people know)

Anyways semirant over,it will be missed.Never great prices but one of those things you never expected to go
Best of luck Billy/Derek!!!!

andy jackson

credit where credit is due i think jason did a fabulous job, posting all the post`s that he did , and also makin sure every single dj and record buff from around the country (and possibly the world) knew about the sad departure of abbey . an institusion is to small of a descripstion to label the shop that we all loved and knew

well done jason - your a credit to the dj industry

and goobye "uncle billy" gone, but will never be forgotten

andy.

JDee

Thanks for that Andy but a big thanks for not wearing that Club FM jacket on Saturday

Ive had loads of people asking for it and Andy Preston's first hour from Friday on FM104 (his Abbey Discs "Dance Decades special) can be found be found here at 320 kps:

http://dl007.zshare.net/download/4d43877724c0e01669b0a0900367a4c9/1227607124/51825301/Andy%20Preston%2021-11-2008_%20FM104%20-%20Dance%20Decades%20-%20The%20Abbey%20Discs%20Special.mp3

Ive asked Leo to try to have the bones of welovedabbeydiscs.com up in a week or so, so - knowing Leo - expect it by January

More links to the other radio specials as I get and upload them

jeffk

JDee wrote: »

Thanks for that Andy but a big thanks for not wearing that Club FM jacket on Saturday

Ive had loads of people asking for it and Andy Preston's first hour from Friday on FM104 (his Abbey Discs "Dance Decades special) can be found be found here at 320 kps:

http://dl007.zshare.net/download/4d43877724c0e01669b0a0900367a4c9/1227607124/51825301/Andy%20Preston%2021-11-2008_%20FM104%20-%20Dance%20Decades%20-%20The%20Abbey%20Discs%20Special.mp3

Ive asked Leo to try to have the bones of welovedabbeydiscs.com up in a week or so, so - knowing Leo - expect it by January

More links to the other radio specials as I get and upload them

Nice one JDee thx, dying to hear all the tunes and memories and to have em on my pc with the rest of the old tunes/shows!!

francois

Article in todays Irish Times about it
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1125/1227486545322.html

Zascar

But he hasn't given up entirely on the music business. He said he was considering a new venture, specialising in rare vinyls only, possibly in the Temple Bar area.

"I'm going to have a rest for a few weeks and then think about it, I'd be going back to selling what I started out selling, music you can't get on the internet," he said.

Is there really much of a market for this type of thing? I didn't think there was much music you can get on Vinyl, that you can't get on Download....

Best of luck to him anyway!

JDxtra

Zascar wrote: »

Is there really much of a market for this type of thing? I didn't think there was much music you can get on Vinyl, that you can't get on Download....

Best of luck to him anyway!

Some DJs will always prefer vinyl. Plus most of the downloads [well, the illegal variety at least] of rare / hard to find tunes are typically of very poor quality [volume levels wrong, record not cleaned, recorded off pitch, wrong name on title etc etc]. It drives me nuts - so I source original copies of everything I'm after.

Best of luck to him though.

Executive Steve

Zascar wrote: »

I didn't think there was much music you can get on Vinyl, that you can't get on Download....

Best of luck to him anyway!

There's loads... Most dubstep labels (and plenty of dnb labels) refuse to sell mp3's

Even the legal mp3's of older tunes are just straight rips off crackly vinyl 9 times out of ten, horribly compressed and digitally distorted...

Personally I play 90% vinyl and 10% 320kbps mp3s sourced directly from the producer or else ripped from a cd.

Luke G

I would be really suprised if billy called it a day and didn't return with a smaller place, in fairness the man would sell sand to an arab, so i wouldn't worry too much...

JDee

Luke G wrote: »

I would be really suprised if billy called it a day

So would I.

From what he's told me he will be back specializing in rare vinyl in the new year. He just wants to take a long hard look at the current retail climate. I also know of no other man that deserves a good long break to relax so I hope he does lots of that.

Regarding the current music retail climate; lets call a spade a spade - how longer before the likes of HMV pull out of Ireland too? The money just isnt out there to spend 20 quid on a DVD in there when it can be obtained for free online.

In ten years time all DVD/CD shops will be looked on with nostalgia, as I doubt there'll be a single one left.

On another note I enjoyed doing Sunday's 4 hour Abbey special on The 90s Network so much that Ive decided to do one hour of dance classics that make you go "wow" every week.

Im calling it "The Wonder Years" and you can catch it on the last hour of my show every week .... 7-8pm on Sundays on The 90s Network 99.5FM

We also stream here (live content at weekends, previous weekend's content is streamed Mon - Fri)

http://www.the90snetwork.com/resources/90s+Stream.asx

More info on Dublin's newest licensed station here

http://www.the90snetwork.com/

positivenote

just wanted to add my tupence worth...

shopped there in the early 90's when it was in the abbey mail. great great days. memories of queing up to get the limited edition of the soundcrowds tallaght/ringsend release on red records... it will be missed alright. fair play to billy/derek and the rest.

Break Beat Collective (circa1994)

Stab*City

what a shame me and the lads used to travel up from limerick all the time.. great memories of us all getting off the train and practically racing up to abbey to get the top tracks that billy might only have one or two copies of.. Then back to Limerick that night on the train and party all night listening to our new tunez!! even though i was from outside dublin i was always invited behind the counter to look through whatever i wanted.. always got free cd's, tickets, vinyl, discounts and the likes from tara and billy.. picked up some absolute gems up there that i will never part with.. records that i will always hold onto my 1210's just so i can listen to then when im old.. i think the first time i was there buying vinyl was back in 94 and the last was about 2 months ago.. i hope they are planning to have a going away party.. and mention of that i must read through the post when i finish this.. so to abbey discs.. GOODBYE.. our old friend..

The Limerick City Progressive DJ's

CenadMusic

Nigel, Shaq, Dave, Jay, Jamie C, Corey Mc and Shane

hans aus dtschl

JDee wrote: »

So would I.

Regarding the current music retail climate; lets call a spade a spade - how longer before the likes of HMV pull out of Ireland too? The money just isnt out there to spend 20 quid on a DVD in there when it can be obtained for free online.

In ten years time all DVD/CD shops will be looked on with nostalgia, as I doubt there'll be a single one left.

To a T, really.

And the real loss, to music lovers, is the community-centre aspect.

i_love_toast

its mad!live in the same estate as billy and used to hang around with his son anto for years.billy-nicest man in the world-used to bring us to the beach and always on the way back stop off in the northside shop to stick stickers on cd's used to love it!if we were ever goin to town for the day as kids he's always shove a ten pound note into your pocket and say get some lunch.still stops and chats after years!cant praise him enough really decent down to earth man!!

gottahavehouse

Just letting yas know me and a few of the lads have booked radio city for Saturday 20th december from 11 o clock. were going to be playng all the best in olympic,sides and asylum classics such as floor control justified, spiritual north superman, kamilian guidance, matto grosso mystery, romero la tormenta, astronauts the nasa, mad sound disease moonboom and crunch devo. so if yas are interested in a cheap night of great classics come down to radio city were only charging 5 euro at the door and everyone that is into these type of tunes are more then welcome its gonna be a good affordable night so hope to see yas der.....

Re:tro Re:Vival Xmas Bash @ Radio City
Saturday 20th December
doors open 11pm
Entry is 5 euro
see yas der

tossy

jesus i was late coming to this news,im a little out of the loop these days!

here is a copy and paste of a little piece i wrote on another website,this is how i feel or felt about abbey discs - its a sad day.

Back in the day before you could download or burn music or before you could click on line and get some posted to your house you had to actually buy music or get it taped from someone who did,and in this day of "back then" there wasn't many places brave enough to stock music worth buying there were places like comet,freebird and borderline who specialised in rock etc and had small hip hop sections usually containing goodstuff it has to be said but your were never greeted with the warmth of welcome as you were in the mall(abbey mall),where there was entire shop dedicated to to bringing you the best of hip hop and dance records,where the records you wanted to buy were playing in the shop as you browsed.where there was no problem walking up to the counter and asking for a 12 to be played prior to buying "sure jump in there yourself mate and play it" billy would say,and sure enough you would slip in behind the claustrphobic counter and stick on the latest hi jack or krs 12" replacing the 4/4 dance beat that was playing,you would then sheepishly look up and see heads nod in approval without looking up from their record browsing!

I first found abbey discs in the mall circa 1989,i was a fresh faced fellow up form the country for christmas clothes shopping,being from the curragh i had heard of abbey discs and knew its legend but had never seen it,i had 100 or 150 pound in my back pocket for clothes and we were intent on hitting marathon to pick up the latest pair of nike airs (when the were still cool) but myself and one of the lads who was like me more musically inclined made our way to the mall,and thus the love affair with vinyl started,at this stage i didnt have a set of turntables and probably had 10 records to my name,loads of tapes though!

The mall was heaven,it was still a vibrant place back then,all the shops were occupied and the place was hoping with coffee shops clothes shops etc,but there was no doubt that the abbey discs was the mall,the record stalls extended way out beyond the bounds of the shop itself and so did the music.

The staff at that time was simple the main man billy murray and his brother derek,billy was a legend even at this stage he would sell snow to the eskimoes but would never forget a face or musical preference and derek would never remember your name lol,i was a first time customer but felt as welcome as any DJ in the city.

Abbey was also the place where you could stand toe to toe with the greatest DJ's in the city at the time we all drank from the same trough,you could meet DJ mek,mick walshe,billy scurry,johnny moy you name it in there,of course these guys got preferential treatment and access to the abbey discs red book lol.

I wasn't a dj though,i was just a music mad teenager,it would be a few more years before i considered myself a DJ and even a few more after that before billy considered me one lol.this was when the service stepped up even more you were given a place in that same fabled red book with your name on a page and the hot stuff would be reserved for your eyes only,on the unwritten promise that when you played it on the radio or at a gig you made it known where one was to get the record if they wanted to buy it.

At this stage they had expanded from the mall to the comparably huge shop across the road on liffey street which is the place most people will identify as abbey discs(im not quite sure when the mall closed!) and the staff had expanded to the likes of tara and jamie all members of the close or extended murray clan,keeping it in the family was billys moto.i always felt that abbey discs changed the day it moved to liffey street but it was a few years before that change really became noticable to me,maybe it was jsut me that was changing as i grew musically i relied less on abbey discs to feed me i was receiving promos and had discovered mail order from the UK etc albeit still before the internet days,i would have to put a phone call through to receive me order lol.

I guess these days were the begining of the end for abbey and im as guilty as the next underground music fan for neglecting them,in leu of mail order,internet,pirate music

Well thats my nostalgic warble over,just saying a few things that needed to be said.

RaverRo808

gottahavehouse wrote: »

Just letting yas know me and a few of the lads have booked radio city for Saturday 20th december from 11 o clock. were going to be playng all the best in olympic,sides and asylum classics such as floor control justified, spiritual north superman, kamilian guidance, matto grosso mystery, romero la tormenta, astronauts the nasa, mad sound disease moonboom and crunch devo. so if yas are interested in a cheap night of great classics come down to radio city were only charging 5 euro at the door and everyone that is into these type of tunes are more then welcome its gonna be a good affordable night so hope to see yas der.....

Re:tro Re:Vival Xmas Bash @ Radio City
Saturday 20th December
doors open 11pm
Entry is 5 euro
see yas der

Very cheap mate,fair play,obviously your doing it out of goodness of your heart,5 euros decent during these hard times

Da Funky Munky

Felixdhc wrote: »

This thread should even be nominated for a sticky?

+1

Scubadevils

Da Funky Munky wrote: »

+1

Good to get some support! :pac:

JDee

Just an quick update on the Abbey radio specials and when they'll be online;

Keith Mac's "The Bassline" - a show I didnt know was having a special till Keith told me afterwards. I'll have the audio and tracklisting up this week.

My 90s Network 4 hour special including a 45 minute chat with Billy is in the hands of Andy Jackson who is kindly transfering it from VHS to MP3 - that will be online next week.

The Storm FM 6 hour broadcast from the shop is in the laps of the Gods at the moment. The data is out there somewhere, hopefully I'll have an update on this soon.

I'll be bouncing all to Zshare.com when I get them to get them up quickly and then a permanent home on welovedabbeydiscs.com in the new year

JDee

Here's;

THE BASSLINE With KEITH MAC - SUNDAY 23rd NOVEMBER

103.2 DUBLIN CITY FM - MIDNIGHT TILL 2


Hour 2: Back 2 The 90’s (Billy Murray’s Favourite Tracks):



LISTEN HERE

Duke - ‘So In Love With You (Full Intention Remix)’ (Pukka ’96)

Last Rhythm - ‘Last Rhythm’ (American ’91)

Interview with Billy Murray (Abbey Discs)

Sound Crowd Orchestra - ‘Sixth Season’ (Red ’94)

The Pleased Wimmin - ‘The Pleased Wimmin Meet Betty Blue’ (Southern Fried ’94)

D.O.P. - ‘Lion (Electronic Funk EP)’ (Guerilla ’94)

New Order - ‘Blue Monday’ (Factory ’83)

Cosmic Baby - ‘Fantasia (Celestial Harmonies)’ (Logic ’94)

Orbital - ‘Chime’ (ffrr ’90)

jeffk

Cheers for posting!!
As ive said great to have stuff like this on the ole pc to listen back to in years to come

Scubadevils

JDee wrote: »

Here's;

THE BASSLINE With KEITH MAC - SUNDAY 23rd NOVEMBER

103.2 DUBLIN CITY FM - MIDNIGHT TILL 2


Hour 2: Back 2 The 90’s (Billy Murray’s Favourite Tracks):



LISTEN HERE

Duke - ‘So In Love With You (Full Intention Remix)’ (Pukka ’96)

Last Rhythm - ‘Last Rhythm’ (American ’91)

Interview with Billy Murray (Abbey Discs)

Sound Crowd Orchestra - ‘Sixth Season’ (Red ’94)

The Pleased Wimmin - ‘The Pleased Wimmin Meet Betty Blue’ (Southern Fried ’94)

D.O.P. - ‘Lion (Electronic Funk EP)’ (Guerilla ’94)

New Order - ‘Blue Monday’ (Factory ’83)

Cosmic Baby - ‘Fantasia (Celestial Harmonies)’ (Logic ’94)

Orbital - ‘Chime’ (ffrr ’90)

Cheers for this, nice to have as a memory.

Ddisco

Billy will have an Abbey Discs Stand at the Vinyl and Cd Fair in The Marine Hotel , Dun Laoghaire on Saturday and Sunday 3rd/4th January - Admission is 3euro - starts at 10.30am - Cheers

JDee

yep

Billy has sent out the following text message;

"We will have a stand in the Record Fair in the Marine Hotel in Dunlaoire Saturday 3rd & Sunday the 4th, spread the word. Thanks - Billy"

I presume its to sell off some of the remaining stock and there'll be a good few bargains to be had. As Billy said, if you know of any vinyl enthusiasts - spread the word!

JDxtra

Anybody go?

Ddisco

Goin there tomorrow

fraggle101

Good news Billy Murray fans - he is now working in Beatfinder Records in Temple bar - above the FLIP clothes shop, beside central bank. I'll have that for you on Thursday bud....

Scubadevils

fraggle101 wrote: »

Good news Billy Murray fans - he is now working in Beatfinder Records in Temple bar - above the FLIP clothes shop, beside central bank. I'll have that for you on Thursday bud....

Interesting, had a brief look in that shop a few months ago and didn't see anything of interest. Must drop in now again and say hello to Billy... still a few tunes he never got me from the early 90's, wonder how he's getting on with my list :pac:

RaverRo808

The price of some of those records it that shop though,like no doubt back in the day,the place was a godsend,but in its last few years,it was too pricey,like selling records for 20 quid that were a euro on discogs