Uptown Records

In late 1993 I joined a company called 'Record & CD Imports' who imported 12" house music and supplied London's dance music stores. I drove a Transit van stuffed full of vinyl around and looked after the Soho and West End stores such as Blackmarket, Catch a Groove, Quaff, City Sounds, Trax, Wyld Pytch, Zoom (Camden), Unity and Reds records (Brixton) to name just a few. The companies directors wanted to open a record store in Soho and asked me to get involved as I had over 10 years retail experience at Simon's Records. An vacant store was found at the opposite end of D'Arblay Street in Soho and after a few weeks painting the interior and assembling the fixtures Uptown Records opened it's doors In 1994. The original staff members were myself, Izzy and Johnny Mac (owners) and Ronnie Herel but over the years we were joined by Aydin Hasirci aka ATFC/OnePhatDeeva, Seamus Haji, Tim Deluxe, Joel Chapman, Hilka (produced Judge Jules radio show for Kiss FM), Spencer Parker, Big Al, Huckleberry Finn, Daniel Lively and Jo Mills amongst others.








A regular fixture that I encouraged was having guest performances and signings from DJ's and artists with Byron Stingily, Barbara Tucker, Roger Sanchez, Brian Tappert, Dino and Terry all appearing and performing in the basement. At the weekends the basement was so packed with customers buying house music that we had to limit people coming down the stairs and regular shoppers would often find themselves rubbing shoulders with the likes of Eric Morillo, Roger Sanchez, Norman Jay, Ashley Beedle, CJ Mackintosh, Danny Rampling, Bob Jones, Smokin' Jo, Dimitri from Paris, Jazzy M, Dave Lee and Mousse T, Full Intention, Alfredo, Ben Watt, Rocky & Diesel amongst others.

I worked and managed Uptown Records for over 8 years and met some amazing people, many have gone on to be very good friends (one even became my wife.)
I eventually left Uptown in 2003 to set up FourFour Promotions.










Uptown around 1997



Me, Ronnie Herel, Barbara Tucker, Izzy and Johnny (1997)











Me and Izzy Uptown 2001



Some favourite Uptown memories :
Police raid Uptown
When Uptown first opened wanted to make an impact as we were competing alongside some of the world's finest dance music stores including Black Market who were on the same street. We decided that having an impressive sound system would help not only sell the records but also create a club atmosphere and make a statement. Jimmy Mac a colleague of mine worked for a club installations company so I enlisted him to set us up which he did with style providing a state of the art system with two huge speakers worth over £12,000. The word soon spread and as we hoped the system sounded amazing and we sold heaps of vinyl. Unfortunately the residents in the flat above us were not as enthusiastic about the latest must-have 12" imports as we were and logged a complaint with the Westminster council 'noise team.' After a few warnings and a couple of visits we tried our best to keep the volume but it was all in vain. So on one very busy day we got another visit from the 'Noise team' accompanied by a van load of police who proceeded to confiscate our entire sound system leaving us scratching our heads with no way of playing music let alone selling it!! We had to act fast so the next day we bought half a dozen turntables and mixers and set up 'listening stations' throughout the store, this not was not only a great solution but also increased our turnover and and as the months went on we noticed all our Soho rivals doing the same. Jimmy eventually got all the kit back!

You'll be closed within a month!
Linda who ran a rival store (Downtown Records) a few streets away had a bad reputation and took great pleasure in telling us in our first few weeks of business that we would "be closed within a month!" How we laughed when a few months down the line her store closed down (the empty store later became Flying Records.)

Sanchez roadblock
When Roger Sanchez was first promoting his single 'Another Chance' we asked him and his label (Defected) if they would like to do an in-store promotion. So after a little promotion on Wednesday 4th July 2001 the S-Man came down and rocked the basement playing an hour long set and signing autographs etc. The place was so packed we had to have doormen outside the store and had people passing bottles of water down the stairs to try and keep everyone cool. The whole set was broadcast live on the internet by a media company but I don't recall who they were, I would love to see it if anybody knows more or stumbles across a link or info.

Roger Sanchez - early set in the Uptown basement

Seamus Haji 'arrested'
A couple of the local bobbies often stopped by the store to pick up the latest R'n'B tracks from Ronnie and the boys upstairs. So one day we asked them to wind up Seamus who at the time had a guest show on London pirate 'Girls FM.' His face was a picture as the two of them came down the stairs asked for him then proceeded to handcuff him and lead him away on charges of broadcasting on an illegal radio station.

Uptown Logo
I was given the task of creating a logo for Uptown prior to the store opening. I can remember sketching out ideas whilst living in Farnborough with my best mate Ian and settling on the idea of a London skyline against a vinyl record. Whilst I admit not the most original of concepts (and I'm no graphic designer) the logo lasted well and I still get a kick out of seeing it around.

Mel CherenI had met Mel Cheren of Paradise Garage and West End Records fame a couple of times in London and at the Miami winter music conference. I remember him as a pleasant guy who loved to stop and chat music and was of course a great ambassador for house and dance music worldwide. One day he came past the store and we were talking about music and his book 'My life and the Paradise Garage' when he reached into his bag and with a smile gave me a hardback copy. He then proceeded to write on the inside page... Paul, Thanks for keeping the spirit of the garage alive - Music is the message & love is the answer. Best wishes Mel Cheren 7/9/2001

A very young Aydin (ATFC) Hasirci and Kerri Chandler


Spencer Parker and Harj Ram keepin' it real

UPDATE - Jan 2009

Uptown Records sadly closed it's doors towards the end of 2008. When I made a trip to London in January 2009 I visited D'arblay Street to find the premises locked up and To Let signs posted in the windows. A sad sight to see - I wonder what went wrong?