Featured Store: 101 Collectors Records

101 Collectors Records in Farnham was established by Andy Hibberd in 2002. He toyed with the idea of calling it ‘Andy’s Record Selling Emporium’ or ARSE for short. It would have been interesting to have seen the logo. Common sense prevailed and he settled on the current name.

Current owner Richard Stone and his partner Tara took over in 2022.The duo are helped by shop manager the most wonderfully named person in the music industry ‘Kenny Record’. If you call in the shop you will always see ‘Kenny’s Picks’ the titles that Kenny suggests you check out that week.
Richard still works as a stonemason most of the week with Tara. It is ironic that he spends his time either chiselling rock or selling it.

I asked him ‘What has it been like going from a valued customer of the shop to the owner?’
We took over 101 from the previous ownership, we a made a few changes to inside, changing the central isle to hold vinyl. Other than the mandatory teething problems any shop would go through we started to build our own era of 101, this has progressed nicely, we’ve decorated the inside, it’s amazing what a coat of paint and some lovely flags can do, we’ve also introduced our own art into the shop, which ties in nicely as we have all previously attended UCA Farnham in the past.

Having now settled in after two years, partaking in three successful RSD and multiple special events we look forward to moving forward do more outstore events and collaborating with local venues and artists. We have also been introducing new never stocked genres to the shop such as Hip Hop, Rap, Electronic, Modern Pop, Video Game soundtracks and to our delight have been able to expand the Metal/Heavy rock section to one of the best curated around.

Our first day of trading involved nerves and till teething problems but the joy of being to provide the same service to Farnham public that I had gotten so much out of was a real thrill. We love the stories and musical journey that every individual customer brings to the store.

One of our favourite days was when we took part of Frank Turners successful 12 gigs and 24hrs world record attempt on May 5th 2024. It was in conjunction with local venue West End Centre, Aldershot.

I asked Richard for two records you are enjoying or looking forward to on Proper:

The Linda Lindas – No Obligation (11th October)
Their first album by the Los Angeles was much loved in the shop. The staff and I are looking forward to having it on repeat. Released on Epitaph Records it is coming out on coloured vinyl.

Crobot – Obsidian (14th September)
We are big fans of the Pennsylvanian hard rock band. We do strong trade in the Stoner Desert rock, and Crobot have been well represented in the past.

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