Audio

A spin around Northern Quarter’s newest record shop with a witty name and a treasure trove of vinyls

You're sure to find some real gems in here.

Danny Jones - 16th March 2024

We recently popped our heads into the wittily named Withy Groove Records, the new vinyl exchange and all things music that quietly opened up its doors late last year but is now one of the latest hidden gems in the Northern Quarter.

Opening up on the edge of Shudehill on the edge of NQ and just down the road from the Withy Grove Stores buildings (hence the clever little name), the new basement record shop technically began trading in December 2023 but has only just had its front signage completed and the name put above the door.

We especially like the new striking Haçienda-inspired lettering, not that we’re biased towards black and yellow logos or anything…

But seriously though, this little den of old discs, vintage vinyl and music memorabilia is an absolute must-visit for any audiophiles out there.

From the moment you step inside to see the walls lined with countless circles of PVC, iconic album covers and old gig posters, you immediately feel like you’re walking into a player’s paradise and ready to discover a diamond in the rough.

If you’re a regular vinyl collector, the experience will feel familiar and there isn’t necessarily any one thing that makes it feel different from other independent record shops other than the fact it is literally like a bunker built by someone who left society before the invention of the compact disc.

Founder Paul, who owns the unit situated just next door to Rambo’s — Manchester’s iconic and longest-running tattoo parlour — set up Withy Groove as nothing more than a passion project from one music lover to another, i.e. this city as a whole, and we fully expect Mancs to fall in love with this one too.

Housing everything from 60s and 70s rock and roll classics, a healthy stock of psychedelia and genre-bending artists like Frank Zappa, to deep cuts throughout the Manchester music scene, a dedicated ‘rare and collector’s items’ section with some serious valuable issues and more, it’s a gold mine.

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Beyond both lesser-known and legendary LPs, you’ll find plenty of 45s in the several boxes of seven-inch singles, books, frames, as well as t-shirts, merch and even an old pair of maracas that Bez would be proud to shake about with the best of them. There really is a bit of everything.

If you like those somewhat rough and ready spaces that don’t need a whole lot of bells and whistles to what they do best, which in this case is buy and sell records, then Withy Groove is a great place to gander the next time you’re feeling all muso and fancy some old fashioned analogue shopping.

In fact, still in their early days, it couldn’t be any more old school in here as it’s strictly cash-only at the minute — but, once again, given the whole vibe of the shop, there’s something very nice and tangible about the physical music experience it taps back into.

If you’re heading out for a really good find on Record Store Day 2024, we definitely recommend you venture into here and, better still, there are some really good new releases and special prints on this year’s list.

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Featured Images — The Manc Group