Before Rock On opened in August 1971.

I commenced collecting records seriously soon after I moved to Bournemouth in May 1968.
There were more than a dozen junk shops in and round Bournemouth at that time, most of these dealt in ‘house-clearance stuff and this often included records. As a consequence most of these shops carried a small selection of secondhand records, mainly 45s, but also some 78s and a few LPs.
Used 7” records at that time tended to cost anything from one shilling(5p) to one shilling & sixpence (seven & a half pence). At these prices, it was easy to acquire a dozen or more 45s at a time (12” singles did not exist until about 7 years later). Good Rock’n’Roll or Soul records even then were hard to find, so whenever I came across some gem (say a Chuck Berry 7”, especially on the London label), I would tend to buy it, even if I already possessed another copy. At that time condition was just as important as it is now, so I focused mainly on records that had not been played to death.
Around this time, I came across a small classified advert in NME for a magazine called RECORD MART. This turned out to be a small A5 monthly advertising collectable records. Basically one could pay a small amount, about one shilling for a single line of copy to list a record you wanted to sell. The format was similar to that still being used today in the ‘For Sale’ record listings advertised in the back of RECORD COLLECTOR magazine.

I immediately took out a subscription for Record Mart and and began to learn about values & demand for old records. In August 1969, I spotted a record listed in the magazine that I wanted, no that I really really NEEDED! The cost was 18/6d + post & packing (95p total). At this time a new 7” single cost 8/4d (42p) in a record shop, so to pay almost £1 for an old record was a major step.
I sent off my cheque and less than a week later, the postman delivered my record. It was a single on the `London label “Mr Lee” by The Bobbettes. I’d never owned this record, nor even known anyone who had one. I could just about recall hearing it on AFN, back in the late Fifties.
I could remember that it was a bouncy rockin’ record with an unusual & unique sound, so I just had to have it! The moment that I dropped the needle on that record, I was overcome by a knockout wave of nostalgia! Listening to this record, instantly took me back 10 years to 1959, when we used to listen to a programme called “The Rockin’ Sound” every Saturday afternoon at about 4.00pm. This great one hour show consisted entirely of fantastic (then current) rock’n’roll records coming to us over the airwaves direct from AFN, Stuttgart.
In my hometown of Dublin, AFN came in Loud & Clear. [I later learnt that daytime reception in most parts of the UK was rubbish]. MR LEE is a great record and it completely blew my mind! Although I’d not heard it for 10 years, it sounded SO familiar, yet like no other record that I owned.
THIS RECORD CHANGED MY LIFE!
The hit of nostalgia was so intense, that immediately I knew exactly what the future held in store for me. I was going to buy & sell old records, cool old records, fantastic old records, records as great as “Mr Lee” – On the spot I resolved to become a record dealer!