{"id":325366,"date":"2025-08-07T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/325366\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T14:10:12","slug":"liverpools-oldest-record-shop-appeals-for-memorabilia-of-its-long-lost-second-city-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/325366\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool&#8217;s oldest record shop appeals for memorabilia of its long-lost second city store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Musical Box in Tuebrook is appealing for customers to help in finding archives of its long-lost second store.<\/p>\n<p>The shop on West Derby Road, which has been run by four generations of the same family, can proudly claim to be Liverpool\u2019s \u2013 and England\u2019s \u2013 oldest record shop.<\/p>\n<p>Dating back to 1947, it\u2019s been a go-to for generations of music lovers ever since and served famous customers including teenage mates John Lennon and Pete Best.<\/p>\n<p>But the much-loved Tuebrook shop wasn\u2019t the only one opened by current owner Tony Quinn\u2019s nan Dorothy.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1003\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Diane-at-the-Old-Swan-Musical-Box-2-e1754573985579.jpg\" alt=\"Diane at the Old Swan Musical Box\" class=\"wp-image-223943\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There was a second Musical Box on Prescot Road in Old Swan, between 1960 and 1979, which was run by Tony\u2019s mum Diane.<\/p>\n<p>Now 88, Diane still remembers chatting to Merseybeat star Rory Storm when she was working there, as well as Ken Dodd and a very young Holly Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>When the Old Swan shop closed in the late 70s, Diane returned behind the original counter in Tuebrook until she handed over the reins to Tony, his wife Paula and more recently their son Craig.<\/p>\n<p>Last year Paula and Craig renovated the upper floor of the West Derby Road shop, turning what used to be Dorothy\u2019s living room into an extra sales area and music museum.<\/p>\n<p>They were keen to document The Musical Box\u2019s incredible history, but sadly very few artefacts of the second shop could be found.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-upstairs-museum-at-The-Musical-Box-with-original-Rushworth-and-Dreaper-chairs-e1754574001479.jpg\" alt=\"The upstairs museum at The Musical; Box with original Rushworth and Dreaper chairs\" class=\"wp-image-223941\"\/><br \/>\nPaula explains:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDorothy had a shop in the entrance of the New Premier Cinema, which was on Prescot Road in Old Swan, then after that closed they moved to 552 Prescot Road, adjacent to Edwards Jewellers which is still there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTony\u2019s grandad Charles was an amateur photographer, he even had his own darkroom upstairs in the West Derby Road shop, and when we were renovating we found boxes and boxes of negatives and old film reels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe trawled through them a few times, looking at hundreds and hundreds of different images of the shop and family trips. We found a few interior shots of the Old Swan shop with Diane on but we couldn\u2019t find a single one of the exterior or the signage and we can\u2019t understand why.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really haven\u2019t got much at all connected to the Old Swan shop, so now we have the little museum we want to try and get some more archive material.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"778\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Musical-Box-in-the-60s-e1754574008769.jpg\" alt=\"The Musical Box in the '60s\" class=\"wp-image-223940\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re appealing to anyone who might have photographs of Old Swan (or even the Tuebrook shop) from back in the day to please get in touch because we would absolutely love to see them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could be that someone might just have taken one accidentally, with the shop in the background \u2013 anything would be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paula says if any material is unearthed they plan to exhibit it alongside other memorabilia in the museum, where two original chairs from Liverpool\u2019s famous Rushworth and Dreaper music store tearooms take pride of place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve already got a big display and we hope to keep adding to that,\u201d she says. \u201cWe did it at first for the family not realising the wider effect and how much people would absolutely love it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s such a nice place for people to sit and it\u2019s become a social hub where people come in and rekindle memories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has photos or other archive material of The Musical Box can contact Paula via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/themusicalboxrecordshop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<br \/>\nFind all the latest Liverpool news <a href=\"https:\/\/theguideliverpool.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out what\u2019s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North \u2013 visit<a href=\"https:\/\/thenorthernguide.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0thenorthernguide.com<\/a>\u00a0and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thenorthernguideuk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Musical Box in Tuebrook is appealing for customers to help in finding archives of its long-lost second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,5554,2766,393,126,4884,2348,179,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-325366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-features","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-history","15":"tag-liverpool","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114987887982982154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}