Hits Record Shop

HISTORY

The shop first opened at the beginning of June 1985 when I took voluntary redundancy from Capital Radio in London. That had been my career, and I had worked there for the previous twelve years since the station went on the air on 539 metres Medium Wave, in October 1973.

For some years I had been selling records at record fairs such as the Brighton Record Fair and had well and truly got the retail bug. The attraction of the Arcade units in Redhill was that you just rented the shop for a week at a time, and back then the rent in 1985 was £45 per week.

For the first three weeks the shop was in a smaller unit on the right hand side as you entered the Arcade from Station Road, next to Philip The Florist, but it soon became obvious that more space was needed and I managed to transfer to a larger unit on the left hand side.  

There was an early piece of good luck when I heard that Cloakes was closing down. They were in the shop near The Harlequin which later became Tru-Fi. I bought several record racks from them and from then on we could display the stock better.

To begin with, I had been running the shop myself six days a week, but it soon became rather a lot for one person so I started getting help - see Staff page 

After just a few weeks I received an offer from out of the blue - to be the ship's DJ on the SS Canberra for a two week cruise around the Mediterranean. That was the holiday of a lifetime!

Late summer 1985 is a time I will never forget.

Chris the young DJ

In 1987 I started up the Hits Mobile Disco and ran the two businesses in parallel. I had been deejaying at  youth club, then at University in Scotland and had run a disco in Thornton Heath called Doctor Sureshot's disco from 1969 - 1973. We bought a new Bedford Rascal van from Bakers in the Brighton Road and had it signwritten 'Hits Record Shop + Mobile Disco'

This is a later Suzuki Carry van bought specifically for the disco business

In 1990 the novelty of owning my own record shop had worn off, and I accepted an offer from Mr Brian

Hawkins of West Wickham to purchase Hits Record Shop.

For several years after that, I made my living deejaying with the Hits mobile disco.

The early 2000s were a bit hectic as for some time I had regretted selling the business, so in 2001 I bought the shop back from Brian. Sadly it didn't work out though and I finally sold up again in about 2004 to Antony Ierston. He has yet to pay me the money owed.