Macari's London

[Skybone]

Sad news for all fans of browsing music shops in London... Macari's are closing down their Charing Cross Road shop, and relocating to Sussex.

http://www.macaris.co.uk/

[Chiliwailer]

Bought my first bass there.

Pleased for the owners, sounds like a nice lifestyle move away from a very uncertain looking West End. 

[Angel]

Meh. London's been pretty dead for instrument buying for well over a decade. I used to take a day off to go and browse all the music shops 20 years ago. It was like having a day pass to Aladdin's cave. Those days are long gone.

Same with record shops - the happy days of three mega-stores - Virgin, HMV and Tower records. I'd spend an entire afternoon browsing those three.

[Happy Jack]

This has been coming for a long time. Neither of their two shops was particularly profitable and the latest round of rent reviews has made it quite uneconomical to stay in business in the West End.

Besides, most of their profit has for ages been coming from http://www.macaris.co.uk/colorsound

Because they were the originals, they can still sell Tone Bender pedals at £439 each ... and guitarists will buy them!

 

[Mykesbass]

Ooh, coming my way! I wonder which town?

Just seen - Haywards Heath, next town up from me.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Mykesbass

[ezbass]

That really is the end of an era. It was more of a tourist attraction (trap) in recent years, but I remember a pro accordionist friend of my parents talking about Lou Macari when I was a kid, back before Denmark St and the environs became a place to be regarded as a tourist and treated accordingly.

[louisthebass]

52 minutes ago, Chiliwailer said:

Bought my first bass there.

Same here, there was an afro-caribbean girl who played saxophone with a popular London based Jazz outfit based on Art Blakey's Messengers sold me my bass, and also told me the story about Mark King working there for a time.

[chris_b]

When I was at school I could get the bus to right outside Macari's shop in Wembley. The brothers probably split their time between there and the other shops, but I remember the same one being there most times I went to visit. I don't recall them having anything particularly interesting on the wall, mostly middle and low cost starter basses, but at the time any bass looked good to me.

[Woodinblack]

56 minutes ago, Angel said:

Meh. London's been pretty dead for instrument buying for well over a decade. I used to take a day off to go and browse all the music shops 20 years ago. It was like having a day pass to Aladdin's cave. Those days are long gone.

Yeh, when we were kids (ie, late teens, early 20s) we used to go up to london and look at all the amazing shops and spend hours in the music / record shops.

It hasn't been like that for a while. Last time we went up we wondered really why we were there, it is just basically just more of the same that you can get in any town. For me there is still wunjos, but hardly worth the trip to london considering the time it takes to get clean when you get back!

 

[christhammer666]

only time I ever ventured in there was to try out a epiphone zakk wylde les paul. I asked if I could try it on an amp with distortion turned on they said "no its to loud". i was using a sodding 10w amp to try it on

[Woodinblack]

Problem is that whole area is being gentrified really so you don't want downmarket things like musical instruments there where you can have big branches of fashion stores.

[Silvia Bluejay]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Problem is that whole area is being gentrified really so you don't want downmarket things like musical instruments there where you can have big branches of fashion stores.

With the Oxford Circus/Tottenham Ct Rd shopping area just a few hundred yards away, I think it's more like they had to dig up almost the entire road because of the new Crossrail megastation/hub nearby (TCT), and only a few buildings were deemed historic enough to be left standing.

[Mickeyboro]

I reckon a big percentage of us bought our first decent guitar or bass in a square mile round Macaris. Sad times...

[Chiliwailer]

33 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

With the Oxford Circus/Tottenham Ct Rd shopping area just a few hundred yards away, I think it's more like they had to dig up almost the entire road because of the new Crossrail megastation/hub nearby (TCT), and only a few buildings were deemed historic enough to be left standing.

The history of Denmark Street book by Mike Reid has some great info about that area, and some cool stories,  from hundreds of years ago onwards - but oh my gosh do you have to read through some damn awful boring content filler to get to it! 

I’d recommend it though to anyone with nostalgic ties to the area, but you’ve been warned  

Edited July 14, 2020 by Chiliwailer

[phil.c60]

20 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

This has been coming for a long time. Neither of their two shops was particularly profitable and the latest round of rent reviews has made it quite uneconomical to stay in business in the West End.

Besides, most of their profit has for ages been coming from http://www.macaris.co.uk/colorsound

Because they were the originals, they can still sell Tone Bender pedals at £439 each ... and guitarists will buy them!

 

And the rest -  a MK1 Tonebender is ..............£899!

[ezbass]

You could spend £1500... 

At least that’s what I think Mr Macari says.

[Woodinblack]

8 minutes ago, phil.c60 said:

And the rest -  a MK1 Tonebender is ..............£899!

People who pay that for a fivers worth of componants in a metal box probably do deserve it

 

[Woodinblack]

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

People who pay that for a fivers worth of componants in a metal box probably do deserve it

3 transistors, 5 capacitors, 5 resistors, 2 pots, a battery and a metal case - £500 - srsly??

[EBS_freak]

11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

3 transistors, 5 capacitors, 5 resistors, 2 pots, a battery and a metal case - £500 - srsly??

You can't put a price on nostalgia.

Or something like that.

[Woodinblack]

2 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

You can't put a price on nostalgia.

Seems you really can!

[Monkey Steve]

Got my 4001 in there, and my (sadly now departed) Marshall Super Bass II head, back in the '80's when second hand prices were reasonable and the shops were full of interesting and odd stuff.  As I recall, Macaris always used to have "wreck of the week" in the window - some broken (often very broken) guitar that they were selling dirt cheap to anybody who fancied taking it as a repair project

These days it's more likely a quick look in the window to see what new guitars they have hanging up, although they typically have a good selection of Gibsons, 

I did buy a Dean acoustic in there a few years back, and they were pretty relaxed and helpful.

So I've always had a soft spot for them

[Happy Jack]

36 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

You can't put a price on nostalgia.

Or something like that.

Yes, but then nostalgia used to be so much better.

 

[EBS_freak]

4 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Yes, but then nostalgia used to be so much better.

 

Yup, with those capacitors that would dry out and become noisy, crappy pots etc... but it's all about "the sound" man.

[Happy Jack]

12 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Yup, with those capacitors that would dry out and become noisy, crappy pots etc... but it's all about "the sound" man.

I thought it was about the smell? And the fact that they're green.

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

I thought it was about the smell? And the fact that they're green.

Hold the phone and enough about Macari’s possibly smelly fuzz boxes (ooh, err)! When did @Happy Jack’s Spider-Man avatar make a return?