Groucho's first opened its doors to the Dundee public in the summer of 1976. A tiny shop on the Perth Road - two young lads - 2 record collections and a bank loan of £500. Rent - a fiver a week. First days takings - £74.41 selling albums by the Beatles, the Stones, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, Hendrix, the Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Weather Report - all at the top price of £1.80. Afghan coats, cheesecloth shirts, joss sticks, frisbees, comics - you get the drift.

By the summer of 1977, Punk had reached the far North and the shop was transformed by the Pistols, the Clash, the Jam, Buzzcocks, Wreckless Eric, UK Subs, T-Shirts, Badges, Posters, Bondage Trousers and Bum - Flaps. Groucho's started earning the reputation as the place to go for the youth of today. If there was a new trend we took it on.

Then came Thatcher to toughen us up a bit. Dark days indeed. The friendly landlord forced a move in 1983 to the fringes of the town in the Overgate centre where things gradually changed as punk died with nothing to really take it's place (a full-blown new romantic would have been beaten to a pulp in five minutes in Dundee).

Groucho's kept with the Indie scene, Psychobilly, Industrial, Mod, Reggae, Goth and a selection of strange looking clothes and shoes that led to the opening of alternative clothing store Breeks for a couple of wonderful years in the mid eighties.

MOVING ON

Eventually the size of the shop dictated that we drop the new stock and concentrate on second hand as the Compact Disc revolution took hold. No more reps - wonderful! With a combination of very keenly priced CD's, DVDs, vinyl albums, 12" singles, 7" singles, videos, cassettes, collectables, books, magazines, accessories and hand picked staff with sound knowledge. Groucho's has become an institution in Dundee, especially after the move in late 1999 to much larger premises in the Nethergate, opposite the newly re-built Overgate centre and right at the gateway to Dundee's Cultural Quarter.

Now the only independent record store left in the city, Groucho's has managed to survive in an ever changing market by giving people what they want, a truly traditional customer friendly shopping experience.

For a number of years we have run record fairs in Dundee's Marryat Hall where we specialize in classic 7" singles from the fifties and onwards - all lovingly restored in original sleeves and priced very sensibly. In the album racks you'll still find the Beatles, the Stones, Hendrix, the Doors, the Clash, the Jam with plenty of young customers following in the footsteps of their parents by shopping at Groucho's for the best deal in town.

Come up and see us some time if you dare to enter a shop that would have you as a customer....