Featured Store: Spin Sounds

Graham Jones is always keen to visit new record shops and recently paid a visit to Spin Sounds in Dorking.

It is wonderful to see a new record shop open in Dorking, a town that always felt like it should have one. Spin Sounds has just celebrated its first year, but it is a shop that nearly did not open. Whilst renovating the shop owner Lee Mayne set fire to the cavity wall whilst drilling. As smoke and flames came through the wall Lee leapt into action and grabbed his buzz saw. He cut a hole in the wall and with the help of his friend Brian they doused the flames with buckets of water. So, before Spin Sounds opened it had been hit by both fire and flood.

The shop quickly gained a great reputation for offering a fair price on secondhand products. I was most impressed with the quality of the three for £10 vinyl and the majority of the shops’ second-hand CDs are available to purchase for £3.

Owner Lee and manager Dale are both music nuts. Dale is an expert on 7” singles and has over 8,000 in his own collection. His knowledge is very impressive, and he seems to know the price of every single ever released. If I found a batch of singles in the loft, Spin Sounds would be my destination to sell them.

Over the last 6 months Lee has vastly increased the brand-new vinyl and is now selling new vinyl at a second outlet in the nearby town of Reigate.

As you enter the shop your eyes are drawn to a huge metal ’Deceptive Bends’ sign adorning the front of the counter. It is the very sign that 10cc were inspired by to name their 1977 album after. The album was recorded in Dorking at Strawberry Studios South. The band had previously recorded in Strawberry Studios in Stockport but due to the band’s success so many artists wished to record there that it was full up. The band set up a second studio in Dorking and today if you visit Spin Sounds you will find a blue plaque near the shop highlighting where the album was recorded. Last year the band popped in to Spin Sounds for a signing of the album the day the plaque was unveiled. It was an incredible day for the shop.

The sign has an amazing history. The title of the album was taken from a sign warning of dangerous curves in the southbound A24 between Leatherhead and Dorking Graham Gouldman of 10cc said in 1977: “Every day I used to travel down from London and see the sign, ‘Deceptive Bends.’ It struck me to be quite a subtle word the Department of Transport was using, and Eric Stewart agreed it was a nice title for an album.”

A few years back the council arranged for the sign to be taken down (maybe they were no longer interested in driver safety). One counsellor asked for the sign to be delivered to him. Before this happened a couple of die-hard 10cc fans nicked it. When Spin Sounds opened, they were so pleased a record shop had opened in their town that they donated the sign to him. The sign has become a tourist attraction amongst 10cc fans with many paying the shop a visit just to have their photo taken.

I asked Lee what titles of Proper he was looking forward too?
Proper have a couple of releases the staff and I are looking forward to. We are big fans of Kula Shaker so we will be stocking up on their forthcoming album ‘Wormslayer’ out on 30 January. We will be stocking the indie only crystal-clear vinyl.
In a similar vein we are fans of Shed 7 and are looking forward to the re-issue of Let It Ride which features a bonus disc full of rarities which is out on 24 October.

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