Pop Recs

Pop Recs began in 2013 as a pop-up in Sunderland's old tourist office, run by the band Frankie & The Heartstrings, and has become one of the city's cultural anchors — a record shop, café, gallery and live-music venue rolled into one, in a restored Grade II-listed building on High Street West since 2021. It runs as a community interest company, still band-run, putting on gigs and giving Sunderland a room that does several jobs at once. Go for a record, a coffee, or whoever is playing that night.