A&B Sound Closes Its Doors
November 15, 2008
Man .. I know that as you get older things change but sometimes you really want them to stay the same. I just read that A&B Sound, once Western Canada’s largest music retailer, has filed for bankruptcy and has closed its doors for good.
When I went to UBC in ‘86 there was nowhere, and I mean nowhere, else you went to buy your music from. Take bus #10 from UBC down to Granville and walk over to the mecca of music at 556 Seymour Street was the Saturday routine … I was often accompanied by Scott Perry and Sam Chow (2 Quesnel boys who went to UBC also). We spent countless hours perusing the albums .. YES .. albums! Without having a lot of cash to spare you had to be selective. It felt soooo good to have your final choices placed in that orange, white, and green plastic bag. We’d grab a quick bite at McD’s or some such place and hit the #10 to return to UBC where Scotty and I would fight over the turntable to see which record was going to get played first .. my ZZTop or his U2.
This shot below is instantly recognizable to anyone in Vancouver in the 80’s.
Gonna miss ya A&B!
Hey, Darren, you made a mistake. I didn’t actually go to UBC; I just lived there
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Yeah, the old fun times. Seymour St used to be record row, with Track Records, Sam the Record Man (later on), A&B Sound, Odyssey Imports, A&A Records and Tapes, then keep walking to the next block, and Collectors RPM was on the corner.
Comment by obs — November 16, 2008 @ 5:18 am
Yeah .. I was going to mention Odyssey Imports cause you spent quite a bit of time there. Big Skinny Puppy and Ministry fan I seem to recall.
Comment by Dalong — November 16, 2008 @ 10:01 am