Featured Store: Olaf’s Record Store

Olaf’s Record Store opened in October 2020 – perhaps one of the less good times to open a retail store – only to find we were shut down less than a few weeks later due to Covid. That first day open was a strange experience with the shop busy with vinyl buyers desperate to shake off their cabin fever but slightly nervous of going into a small shop with other mask-wearing enthusiasts.

Strange times… Miserable lockdowns aside, the shop eventually re-opened temporarily at 59 London Road, Sevenoaks on the site of one half of Sevenoaks’s long-standing “Compact Disc” shop run for many years by Martin Salisbury. Despite COVID restrictions the shop immediately proved popular enough. We’ve since moved to our current home 15 cm up the road at 57 London Road in our orange and red liveried premises. That colour scheme elicited a somewhat disgusted “it’s a bit garish” comment from the owner of a posh shoe shop up the road so it’s probably the right choice.
The shop is run by Olaf Parker – a long-standing amateur record trader, one-time fashionista, chef and Jarvis Cocker lookalike; Pat Gilbert – well-known music journalist, Clash authority and one-time Mojo editor, and Mike Williamson, a retiree who was wondering what to do with himself and who quite likes mending record players. As the name suggests, Olaf is the face of the shop. The shop stocks used vinyl and carry a good range of new vinyl.

Being neither large nor a student town, Sevenoaks tastes are probably a bit more conservative (perhaps with a large “C”) than in many places with “Rumours” and Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” being our biggest sellers. No surprise there. We’ve participated in Record Store Day, National Album Day and Black Friday since 2021 with RSD in particular becoming bigger and bigger for us. We’ve also been staging out-store RSD events at our local, The Anchor, which have included some great appearances from the likes of Matt James (Gene), Andy Crofts (The Moons/Paul Weller’s band), Laurie Wright and The Molotovs who graced the tiny stage just a few weeks before supporting Blondie at Cardiff Castle. We’ve had a few interesting visitors in our short time open including multiple visits from Lawrence (Felt/Denim/Mozart Estate etc.) who took great interest in the shop’s woodwork, Dr John Cooper-Clarke with Johnny Green and local legends Orbital It also seems the shop has become a meeting place for gentlemen of a certain age wishing to talk about music and put the world to rights which is a (mostly) unexpected bonus. There’s more personal interest from customers than most other sorts of retail. As for the future, well, we’d finally like to get organised.

We’re enjoying the new LP from Half Man Half Biscuit (a name that can’t be said without hearing John Peel’s voice, as is “Bogshed”). The release we are excited by is the forthcoming album on Transgressive Records by The New Eves. The album titled New Eve is Rising is out on 1 August. If it is anything like their live performances then it is going to be a corker. Already there is a huge buzz about this Brighton four piece.

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