Backbeat Records

Backbeat Records has traded from East Crosscauseway since 1981, one of the longer-running secondhand record shops in the city. The stock runs to tens of thousands of items across vinyl, CD and cassette, packed into a narrow single room that regular customers have described as nearly impossible to browse without shuffling past the next person. Genres range from rock and soul through jazz and classical, with turnover driven by trade-ins as much as new stock arriving from collections. The shop keeps to a straightforward counter-service format rather than the café-and-listening-bar model some newer record shops have adopted. It sits on a side street off Nicolson Street, a short walk from the university and the secondhand bookshops nearby. The shop remains independently run from the same premises it opened in.