Wednesday 5 September 2012

Stockholm Retro Part 3 - Record Stores and Music Shops

Probably my favourite record store, and also the biggest in Stockholm, is the wonderfully named Nostalgi Palatset, which is an amazing Aladdin's cave full of musical treasures. Racks and crates full of vinyl, music and movie posters, memorabilia and autographs. Not forgetting the second hand record players, toys and comic books of course. It was remarkably tidy and well organised since the last time I visited about four years ago, which in a way was a bit of a shame, as I loved the old ramshackle chaos. Anyway, It stocks thousands of records in all genres Rock, Progressive, Indie, New Wave, Soul, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Swedish 'Schlager', Eurovision, Movie Soundtracks and Exotica. It has been located at 101 St. Eriksgatan since 1997 and is open 11am-7pm on weekdays, 11am-3pm on Saturday and 12 noon to 4pm on Sundays. The closest Metro stop to the store is St. Eriksplan.

Right next door is Trash Palace which specialises in Punk Rock and Heavy Metal vinyl and rarities. It has a separate entrance oustide but the same address and opening hours as Nostalgi Palaset as you can also access it from the main store. They do not seem to have a web-site, but if you are after anything specific in those genres then drop them an email. The wooden crates full of Punk Rock 7 inch singles, weighed a ton and were crammed full of great stuff. The average price for something decent started off around the SEK 70.00 mark, which works out at around £6.50, but of course the prices can increase dramatically depending on the rarity of the record. They had a great selection of Punk and New Wave and only a lack of money, lack of storage space at home and lack of a huge suitcase, stopped me from going mental and buying up a large percentage of their stock!

Nearby, just a bit further down St. Eriksgatan at number 78, you have the excellent Atlas CD Börs, which is lined with excellent tour and gig posters. However, as the store's name suggests, this place concentrates more on CDs, but they do have a small selection of vinyl in stock too.


Record Hunter is at number 70 St. Eriksgatan and is a great old fashioned store crammed full of overflowing boxes and crates, in fact there's so much stuff that you can barely see the shop assistant behind the counter. There are two floors of the stuff too... 



Just over the road from Stockholm's mightily impressive Public Library, there is Serie & Skivhandel, which is located at 104 Sveavägen. Another great treasure trove with every inch of wall and ceiling covered with posters and memorabilia. The closest Metro to this is Rådmansgatan.



Pet Sounds is probably Stockholm's best known Record store, located in the trendy SoFo district at 53 Skånegatan in Södermalm, it's been established since 1979 and is so well known there has even been a book by Lennart Persson "Musik Non Stop" written about it. They sell mainly contemporary music with an emphasis on the alternative, they also stock music books, magazines and DVDs and there is a small selection of vinyl too. It's open 11am-6pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat and is closed on Sundays. The closet Metro is Medborgarplatsen. There is also a Pet Sounds Bar and Restaurant at number 80 Skånegatan, where they put on a variety of club evenings and events in the cellar space with local and guest DJ's. The Bar is open from 5pm Tuesdays to Saturdays.



Also on Södermalm, at Götgatan 24, is the fantastic Hellstone Music store, selling all sorts of instruments but they also have a pretty decent vinyl selection. They also do some great T-Shirts, sometimes using familiar works of art, changed to incorporate the Hellstone logo. The walls are lined with posters and signed drum skins from a variety of local and visiting musicians and artists. In fact, in the documentary shown on Swedish TV about The Soundtrack of Our Lives orchestral shows at the nearby Rival Hotel, singer Ebbot Lundberg is filmed in Hellstone at one point. So, here's a little quiz, if you are a TSOOL fan and can tell me what instrument Ebbot bought that day, drop me a message and the first one to answer might get a little prize...!





All Photographs copyright Steve Worrall 2012

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations to David Liljemark..! He answered the quiz correctly and a prize will be sent. The answer was indeed a Kazoo!

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  2. We are located in a nice area in the old town and opened our store in June 6th 2013. We're mainly into jazz, blues & rock. We have a café, int'l magazines, dvd, vinyl, cd, books, merchandise and sometimes live music. Welcome to Plugged Records at Stora Nygatan 7!

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  3. Don't miss Snickars Records at Hökens gata 11, t-stn Slussen! www.snickarsrecords.com

    Buy, trade & sell second hand vinyl records – 12” - 7” - LP.
    Also have new records from local Scandinavian and selected labels in various genres.

    Main focus on black and dance music:
    Soul – Funk – Disco – Hip Hop – Techno – House - Jazz – Pop- Rock – World - Reggae etc.

    Add new arrivals daily to the shop and the webshop.
    Big amount of bargain bins in all genres, only available in physical shop.

    Welcome ;-)

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