Vinyl Demand, 92a Trafalgar Street

Formerly Vinyl Demand, 92a Trafalgar Street, Brighton
Photo by Debbie Lias

Another great favourite of mine, run with love and verve by Geoff Finch of Brighton Records Fairs fame for a number of years. This one opened up at the start of the 80s and was situated on two floors, with an excellent and fast-changing stock. I bought stacks of LPs here – many of which were real bargains.  (I think it later changed its name to ‘Discolator’.)

Vinyl Demand – 46 Sydney Street

I think the Sydney Street shop preceded the one in Trafalgar Street but my memory is curiously blank on this one.

Comments about this page

  • I can’t recall the Sydney Street Vinyl Demand, though I knew the Trafalgar Street shop well. I was in a band called Venus In Furs in 1983. Our drummer was a builder by trade (the small notice in an edition of the Evening Argus that noted we had cancelled a gig at the Alhambra (now occupied by the Ramada International Hotel) because ‘drummer breaks foot’ was not uncommon!). I once did some labouring work in the basement of Vinyl Demand with our drummer and was paid in both cash and records! Incidently, Geoff’s long-time assistant in the shop, Mark Arscot, was Venus In Furs’ manager (and also worked at or ran Red Rat Records you mention elsewhere). When we recorded a demo tape at a studio in Burgess Hill, we did not have quite enough funds, so Mark, finding the engineer to be a Marc Bolan fan, as was he, paid the balance in records!

    By Paul Martin (07/05/2009)
  • I remember it too. I was the drummer, Paul “ludo” Martin, bass and the infamous Shaun Times. What a band, what great days. To all who were around back then, the very best.

    By Mark Leech a.k.a. Dan Leechasko (10/09/2010)
  • I remember this place very well. I bought a few records here. Deep Freeze Mice being one I remember. I also remember very well Venus in Furs. I was at one time a close friend of Stuart Jones and so he introduced me to his twin brothers band. I remember buying the EP Momento Moi and loving it to bits. I am going to have a show on Brighton and Hove Community Radio and I wanted to play the title track but it’s very long. Does anyone have any other recordings that could be played in the future?

    By David Sharman (17/11/2010)
  • Yes indeed, I started this shop ‘Vinyl Demand’ in late ’79 with RikTaub, we were a partnership for about 4 years and then split. I employed Marc Arscott who worked very hard on my behalf and when we moved to Sydney Street – no: 46. We occupied 3 floors jam packed with vinyl. Fabulous days.

    By Geoff Finch (09/10/2011)
  • I used to go in Vinyl Demand after I moved to Uckfield in 1988. At that time it was upstairs only, and when one got upstairs it wasn’t like a shop at all, more like a stock room. Vinylfinch (Geoff) took a bit of getting used to (though I think I’ve got used to him by now), he had a rather stern manner. I remember that he bought all the old record library from Armed Forces Network radio, I picked up numerous early ska singles at what would now be bargain prices indeed.

    By Mike Atherton (29/01/2012)
  • Small world really isn’t it! I used to work at the aforementioned Evening Argus and used to deal with Geoff Finch for the shop and visit his Brighton Record Fairs looking for rare items. Geoff was a bloody nice bloke. I can remember buying boxes of stuff from him. It was very handy being situated in Sydney Street a stones throw away from the old Argus building. Prior to working at The Evening Argus, I worked at a place in Wood Way in Goring called Control & Readout and I think that a member of Venus In Furs also worked there.

    By Nick Linazasoro (12/05/2013)
  • I remember Vinyl Demand from its early days. Six people in there and it was crowded! I wish I had a time machine to go back and buy some of the vinyl I saw but never purchased. The racks outside the shop held 20p singles and many bargains were found… records I still possess and play. I got tons of great punk, psych, reggae records in there… The Mothers, Velvet Underground, LSD Capitol album, Capt Beefheart 7″s, Bob Dylan…. loads of stuff. One Beefheart 7″ I bought ws £7 – an absolute fortune at the time. You had to go into the shop at least once a week or you’d miss something good. Money was tight back then but fortunately I was working in my 1st job – earning £50 pw in a bank. I gave my mum a tenner a week and spent the rest on records. Years later I ended up working for Geoff for quite a few years – but that as they say is another story.

    By M Bradshaw (24/12/2013)
  • I was mad on The Who back in the ’80s and used to visit Vinyl Demand on Sydney Street fortnightly, looking for rarities and bargains. Not sure what I got there, if anything. It looks, from the office where I am now sitting, like it’s an art gallery (or Independent Rag, I can’t remember exactly). Anyway, I’ve just got the pun: Vinyl Demand = Final Demand. Brilliant!

     

     

    By James Fairbairn (09/02/2017)

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