Featured Store: Slab Records

James Horwood owns one of the UK’s more unusual record shops.

I asked James about the history of the shop and which of our releases he is currently enjoying

Slab Records is situated above Soundlab Studios in Loughton Essex on Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate. The studio has been here for 15 years and has recorded a number of albums that we distribute at Proper. My favourite is one we have sold many copies of, Swimming Lessons by The Skints, which is pressed on clear blue vinyl.

The shop was set up in 2018 in the space Soundlab Studios had been using as a band chill out area. James started off buying second-hand collections but has expanded rapidly over the last few years to stock new releases and back catalogue.

Slab Records now stocks more than 10,000 items in store. James told me that though he has an online Discogs store, you can’t beat rummaging through racks of vinyl in-person.

The best part of his job is meeting all the other wonderful and strange record collectors out there and hearing their stories. He is amazed by the varied ways people catalogue their collections at home. Some order by genre, some by name, and some by date of release – but his favourite was a record collector who catalogues by record label and then by catalogue number! Even more bizarre was a fellow who has kept them in order of when he bought them. So, if he buys a new record from the 70’s today, it goes as his most recent purchase and last in the collection. How would you ever find anything?

Although James believes record collectors are nuts, he notes that without them he would not have a business.

The first day he officially opened the shop was surreal. He had little in stock, except a few hundred items from a various record collections he had bought. Nonetheless, people were so enthusiastic they still came to peruse and buy.

He does not see any walk-in visitors on the industrial estate but as the shop has now been there for six years, people do come out of their way to have a rummage. They offer free parking right outside and are a mere five-minute walk from Debden underground station.

Plenty of famous faces have visited the studios downstairs, including E17, Iron Maiden’s Paul D’Annio, many top rappers including Dave, Potter Payper, and J Hus and many more. They have also recorded voice overs for Danny Dyer, and for The Only Way is Essex.

The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made It Happen

Graham Jones is the author of ‘The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made It Happen’ which has features on over 200 independent record shops that he has visited. The book was made in to a film titled ‘The Vinyl Revival’ available on DVD. Both can be ordered from Proper, independent record shops, Amazon and other online retailers.

Read about the book, film and vinyl soundtrack here