ROLL THE END CREDITS

"Thank you" ...To all our customers who have supported us over the years and the crews who put in the effort.

@ Vinyl Villains... Ricky (Our first assistant + Ex-Rhythm Rack), Robert Firth, Lee, Alexandra Simson, Paul Kirk, Marc Marnie (Stagefright Photography), Mark Mellie (later of with Professor Plastic) ,Joe McEwan, Carol Melrose, Ken Morton, Marten Claridge (Fiction Writer)... then later

@ Hog's Head / Compact ...Alys Black, John Dow, Natalia Grabianowska, Stuart Mack, Tim Keppie, Elana Romahi, Deborah Mohr, Judy (Ex-Tap O Lauriston) , Emma Young, Johnny Burnett, Julia Davies, Jo Jackson, Ali Lauder, Juliette Evans...

@ Replay (Galashiels) ... Kelvin Norris, Emma Young, Emma Walker, Martin, Lindsay and all the helpers. Also a special mention to Bob!

External help...

Thanks to original accountant Neil Richie. Also, Jenifer Ewing, Pat Clipstone and Margaret Hay.

But even before all that...

@ Ingliston Market and later owner of Reptile Records and now Crispycat Recordings, David 'Sombre Reptile' Reilly ..

@Record Shack - Shackeil (Sorry if spelling is wrong) thanks for letting me help you to get Record Shack set up and off the ground. It helped. (Shop now owned by David Gass)

@The Other Record Shop - Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Thanks for the job...I learned a lot, Phillip!

My former business partner ay Vinyl Villains and now sole owner of Vinyl Villains Andrew Watters. Thanks for being part of the future and the past. It won't be forgotten.

"You have all played your part in the huge success of Hog's Head and Vinyl Villains".

A very special thank you to Lisa Clipstone, who's idea it all was in the beginning.

But.......

To the one person who made it all possible...

Steve Mackie ('Gilded Cage' Falkirk) the former Manager of Edinburgh's original Punk music store 'Hot Licks' Records Cockburn St Edinburgh 1975-78 approx) ... You are responsible for all of this.....you gave me my first job in a record store, Hot Licks...I think I owe you a pint now!"E

dwards 1999)

Thank you all!!

Hog's Head now moves forward into the next century ............ long live the Hog's Head !

John Edwards

Elana

ABOUT HOG'S HEAD MUSIC

Hog's Head Music is a major on-line used CD and DVD buyer. You can sell your unwanted items to us. The idea being that if you go to one of the on-line sellers to make a purchase or a high street store and then you decide that you no longer want the item that you bought from them, you can then sell it on to us. The site is mainly a UK user site. The average buy back price is based upon the new price of the item in the UK and it's used condition. This usually works out around £2 - 4.00 for an 'as new' condition, £10 - 15.00 CD . We only buy goods in good condition.

Hog's Head Music is located in the city of Edinburgh. We have been in business for many years. At present there is no on-line data base of items for sale. If you are looking for anything in particular send us an e-mail.

At Hog's Head we deal in Rock, Metal, Indie, Alternative Dance, Traditional and Folk, Industrial and mainstream artists. We also have small sections of Jazz, Blues and Soul. We do not deal in chart pop music. We buy individual items or collections. Payment is in UK pounds although we will be dealing in Euro's eventually.

If you would like to speak to one of our buyers, ask for Tim Keppie on +44 (0) 131 667 5274.


Hog's Head Music is located at 62 South Clerk Street within the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Hog's Head is a business and exists mainly to make money for it's owners. So that they can drink huge amounts of ale, fart and belch loudly at everyone! Cheers!!

Having said that, the owners and the assistants are all true music fans. They believe that a good store should provide the best service achievable and pay the fairest prices for anything that they are offered by the customer. Quality is a priority. We try only to buy and re-sell CD's, that are in the best of condition. (Although there is a 'No Risk' bargain bin).

Hog's Head History

The trail of Hog's Head reaches back to around 1982, when unemployed Edinburgh slacker, John Edwards, teamed up with another slacker, Andrew Watters. John had previously worked with numerous other music outlets dating back to 1974 -5. He was the singles buyer for the legendary 'Hot Licks' punk store in Edinburgh's punk hang out, Cockburn Street. John was also a singles buyer and temporary manager for 'The Other Record Shop' in Edinburgh's Royal Mile around 1978 and assistant manager at their Stirling arcade unit in the early 80's. He also assisted at the birth of Record Shak, Edinburgh's longest surviving second hand record store.

Above : Police "Vinyl Villians" Bootleg.

Vinyl Villains was named after this Police bootleg record which belonged to John. The spelling of Villains on the sleeve is actually wrong!

Andrew, who had no previous interest in the music business had just left university, was planning to open a used book store. Andy and John, were introduced to each other at a family wedding reception. John who was tinkering with starting his own music business, suggested that the two should discuss the idea of a quality second hand record shop. Edinburgh has had many second hand record shops over the years, 'Grey Friars Market' in Forrest Road and 'HeadQuarters' in Lothian Street, next to the University being two of the earliest in the 70s. Cockburn Street Market had a stall also. Later, there was 'Deja vu' in Tollcross and 'Easy Rider' (formerly Greyfriars Market). Then in the 80's 'Record Shak' and 'Backbeat' opened up. Backbeat was owned by John Bruce who played guitar for Blues 'N' Trouble and who blues legend B B King proclaimed as being the greatest white blues band on the planet. (We won't dispute that).

In the early days of second hand record shops, the idea was to pile it high and sell them quick. You would often find 10 of the same title rammed into over crowded boxes. This made browsing, for the music fan, a tedious and lengthy experience. In the dead of winter your hands would become numb while trawling in the larger emporiums. No thought seemed to be given to cleaning or grading the condition and prices. The money paid to the customer for their precious belonging was a very small amount. John and Andrew decided that it was time the trade was brought up to date and improved. The policy was and at Hog's Head still is, that every customer must be offered the fairest price possible. The stock must be prepared for re-sale to the highest quality by close inspection and cleaning.

Above : Left. 1984. The first frontage. Centre, Sorting the days vinyl and tape purchases for processing.

Above Right : The days stock gets processed for resale. At the peak of the vinyl collecting wave, around 1985 - 90, (When these pictures were taken) the shop was so busy, that there were often three people working flat out cleaning, restoring, valuing, pricing, and pre-sale filing. The staff typically comprised of : Two counter assistants, three back shop stock processors and a valuer.

Above : Right. Mark Miele (Who. went on to open Professor Plastic's Vinyl Frontier) & Robert Firth. If you have ever wondered why nearly all of Edinburgh's record shop browsers looked the same during the nineties, then look no further. Robert built em' all using the original Vinyl Villains designs! Both Mark and Robert were members of Vinyl Villains original staff. Robert went on to start his own joiner firm in the late 90's.

"On our first day of being open we had hardly any stock, around 1000LP's. Ten minutes after the door had been unlocked, the shop filled up with loads of people. It was really quite scary. We thought that we would sell out of everything that we had. People were coming up to the counter and buying piles of what we later found out to be rare records. They told us that we were selling things at much too low a price! We actually had no idea of the value of what we were dealing in at that time. I've no doubt that there will be quite a few people who sold stuff to us in the early days and who were paid crap prices. We never intentionally underpaid anybody. We had to learn really fast. If there is anyone out there who felt ripped off, may I take this opportunity to apologise. It is a day that none of us will ever forget". (John Edwards)

So it was then that Vinyl Villains was born. At first the two hired a small stall at Edinburgh's Ingleston Sunday Market selling bootleg concert tapes. Within six months a major main street site had been secured. John using his own record collection, some 1000 albums and Andrew, his total savings of £1000. The site was at 5 Elm Row Edinburgh and is still used by Vinyl Villains and now owned and run by Andrew Watters. John, detecting that the new CD technology was advancing rapidly, decided to move on and in the early 90's decided to open a Compact Disc shop called 'Compact'.

Compact / Hog's Head

Hog's Head' began life as 'Compact' in January1993 (As in Compact Disc), but later changed to Hog's Head in 1996 when John and Andrew decided to split their business in two. This to give both partners the total freedom of being independent, allowing them to develop their own style of enterprise. An image that John had always loved, the hog head on the cover of seventies progressive rock band, Blodwyn Pig's 'Ahead Rings Out' album on Island / Chrysalis Records ("I hope Mick (Abrahams) and Chris (Blackwell) won't mind") inspired the change of name. The image is used on this site also.

At first the store was dealing in used records, tapes, videos and CD's. Later though, as the market began to rapidly move toward CD's, the decision was taken, that within a year, the shop should become Scotland's first CD only, second hand shop. The shop now also deals in DVD and Video.

The day to day running of the shop was originally shared between John and assistant Alys Black. (Who went on to study to become an SPCA officer, we think) (Alys if you read this get in touch and say hi).

Later, John Dow, (later of internet cafe and web site designers Dow-Carter and now living in Auzzie, joined forces, with the intention of opening an Internet Cafe called 'Universal Access'. The cafe never saw the light of day due to unforeseen delays caused by Edinburgh District Councils' planning department. (It took them over three months to approve the use of six computers in the premises of a disused shop).

The planned internet access site was relocated and incorporated into Hog's Head's premises at 62 South Clerk Street. The venture was abandoned after a year due to the lack of local interest and the fact that most of the students living in the south side of the city have free internet access at their university. This was all before the computers was as common as the DVD player in the home.

The shop was re-named Hog's Head Music and John was joined by Tim Keppie who worked with Sound Control, before opening the ill fated 'Kill City' Indie music emporium, in the Stockbridge area. Sadly, due to a mixture of difficulties, mainly location and lack of support from the local population (Stockbridge), the shop was forced to close down. In 2002 Tim, who had been working on the staff at Hog's Head for a few years, became a junior partner .

The shop continued to thrive through the 90's, During the late 90's the shop began selling t-shirt's to an increasingly merchandise hungry teenage population. The shirt bonanza lasted almost 5 years before burning out early 2005.

Today Hog's Head Music is a thriving and successful local enterprise. The shop specialises in used CD's and DVD's. In 2008, John, one of the founding members of Vinyl Villains Record store back in 1985 and owner of Hog's Head, will be retiring and Hog's Head Music will be in the capable hands and ownership of Tim Keppie.

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