NO MOLE JAZZ - CLOSING DOWN 19TH NOVEMBER | FLY

Originally sited on the island block between Gray’s Inn Road and Pentonville Road, it was within spitting distance of Kings Cross mainline station.

This was quite a large shop and had row upon row of albums split up into all the different genres of jazz you could think of. As it was a mere cigarette smoking distance from my workplace at the time, nearly every other lunch hour (remember them?) was spent in the shop searching for Gilles Peterson’s ‘Jazz With Attitude’ playlists.

The Pentonville Road shop was subject to the eagle eyes of property developersand it closed before the days of home PCs (never mind the Internet and mp3s). So whilst the block has been boarded up for 10 years awaiting the Channel Tunnel Rail Link redevelopment windfall, Mole tunnelled under Gray’s Inn Road to relocate at No. 311. The old shop still has a banner announcing the news of the move, which is looking very bedraggled now. The banner doesn’t cover up the original logo of a Mole cartoon character on the shop sign happily blowing his sax on a mound of freshly dug earth.

With the move to 311, Mole (the cartoon character) put on a little weight and the shop’s character also changed. The CDs that we looked down upon in the old shop as ‘upstarts’ took prominence. The new shop that was much smaller and vinyl addicts got sent upstairs to the unloved first floor for a much-reduced selection.

Whilst you can’t stop progress, it was never the same. The staff remained as helpful and as knowledgeable as ever but like policemen, they seemed to get very young.

Due to their incredible knowledge, I was always in awe of the staff. Due to its location next to a mainline train termini, jazzheads from all over the country would visit the shop and spend serious amounts on all jazz variants. My few quid spent on the ‘Second-hand Fusion’ section over the last 20 years may have helped, but never matched the extremes of serious collectors from early jazz blues to Japanese Blue Note import collectors (these vinyl treasures weighed nearly as must as they cost).

I suppose until recently, their main competition was Ray’s Jazz that was just off Shaftsbury Avenue. This is another shop that had served the jazz community for decades that closed down in the Internet/MP3 era. Thankfully, Ray’s found a new home nearby on the first floor at Foyles book shop on Charing Cross Road.

Similarly, Mole Jazz moved from its Kings Cross base soon after Ray’s. The new home was also on the 1st Floor, above Classical Music specialist Harold Moores. However, this proved to be only a stopgap before the end. It was only the other week one of the staff was playing Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ so there was no let up in appreciation of the music, but the black plastic bags didn’t have the trade mark Mole logo printed on them anymore and the record purchasing experience was much the worse for that.

At the time of writing there is very little vinyl left, but I’ll visit again before the 19th to say one last goodbye. Tell us of your memories of Mole Jazz?

Links:
Mole Jazz, 1st Floor at Harold Moores, 2 Great Marlborough St. London W1F 7HQ tel. 0207 437 8800 “Closing Down Sale Final Day - 19 November Everything Reduced!”
Ray’s Jazz, “Now at Folyes”, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB www.folyes.co.uk
Ronnie Scott’s Club - Jazz Record Retailers
Vinyl Vulture - The Diggers’ Guide To London [Note: for the past 3-4 years, Reckless Records in Camden High Street was another one of my record buying haunts. This closed down in September and is another great loss. Again the staff were always helpful and you’d never know what their disparate preferences would have on the shop stereo. The day after it closed, there was great activity outside the shop and it was ‘Swifty’s Wax’ but it was only for the benefit of a film crew and it’s now very closed]

Hi, I’ve been buying jazz records and old soul music now for over 35 years its a shame that record shops like Rays I remember going into Collettss in New Oxford St. in the late 60s and chating to Ray and the best shop I know and its not been beating yet was dobells, I spent many a happy Saturday sorting through the records and giving poorJjohn a head ache asking him to shelved them for a week . On one Saturday I remember he was drinking red wine and got me drunk, and Ben Webster was sitting in a chair and the only thing I could say was hi the good old days when you could pick albums for 16 bob not 50 quid.

hello ,

i contact you cause i seek a song in lp record vinyl : ” midnight the stars and you” by ray noble ( 30’s years ) if you have the song in lp in mint or vg++ i’m interested for buy you the record .

thank you if you can answer me .
great salutations
emmanuel

I never visited Mole upstairs from Harold Moores, but I used to go to the Kings Cross shops. In the later days before he was, I believe, sacked, “Pete” who had been a big cog in the wheel seemed to get incredibly bad mannered and sarcastic. He was getting to be like Basil Fawlty but without the charm. he was once so patronising and sarcastic to an American man and his wife I thought there was going to be a transatlantic boxing match in the Grays Inn Road.

He was got rid off, but I expect a lot of the damage had been done by then. It was sad, but I have no idea what turned Pete into a bitter twisted middle aged man.

Luke

to be quite honest all those shops got what they deserved we as jazz collectors never failed to support ie spend money in those shops and you always felt like a second class citizen when you walked in rays/dobells was the worst you need to see those 2 respective dealers today its not pretty i can tell you that thank god for the internet at least we dont have to see therese depraved dealers jazz just seem to attract them
hugh

Good Morning,
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Cameo

Hi, seems the record shops that dealt in jazz and 50s R&B are long gone now they killed them selves by chargeing stupid prices for records while buying them for nothing, I should know, I sold enough. In 30 years only once did a dealer said I under payed you for records and that was Ray in Rays jazz shop so, they got what they deserve - no customers and closed down..

Hey, I’m only 15 but i know my dad was totally in love with Mole Jazz and his Mole jazz tshirt, As he has now lost both of these things i was wondering if anyone could help me find where to buy a mole jazz tshirt. I offered to make him one but apparently its ‘not the same’ Would appreciate it any help.
Thanks

Mole Jazz was one of the best jazz record stores in the world at its apex. Ed Dipple was the heart and soul of Mole and when he passed away, everything changed. He left this mortal coil more than 10 years before the shop’s ultimate demise. It’s funny that the only bad comment above is by a lowlife who was the bane of every London record shop owner’s existence. It is the internet and especially eBay that has all but destroyed the spirit of the hobby of collecting jazz records.

I used to know mole really well and agree with the last writer Thomas Burns. Ed Dipple was ideed the heart and soul of the business. If he happens to read this note he might like to tune into Radio 3 on December 6 ‘Between The Ears’. there’s going to be a programme about mole jazz and its founder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/betweentheears/

Over many years in the past I bought vinyl records by post from Mole Jazz. I now have a huge library thanks to the guys at the Kings Cross shop. I visited a few times and loved it, although mostly I bought by post.
I wish all who have been coneected with the store well and it is sad that yet another icon has closed.

yeah mole jazz, i used to love that place, going there to find breaks and great jazz, it was a new learning curve to us hip hop boys sifting through all that jazz, must admit though i used to take my portable record player, with a great needle i might add, but the mole jazz staff didnt entertain it very well, how else was i meant to know what i liked…didnt want to take record after record up to the counter……got countless bargains at the shop, they always had loads of strata east and mainstream lp’s cheap…but they were double grumpy gits and sometimes says it all about this country, some of the service you get at shops is dog shit, do they want our money or not….
but again i will say, i do miss going into mole jazz

I had a pretty stressful job back in the 80’s/90’s in the newspaper industry ensuring that the plant was ready for the night’s run. But most Saturday afternoons was able to leave work at about 4 pm, dash down Gray’s Inn Road, park anywhere close to the KC shop and spend a happy hour unwinding in Mole Jazz, usually leaving with one or two LP’s or later on CD’s. They often seemed to have Ben Webster or similar music playing and it was here that I first heard Scott Hamilton who became a favourite of mine. I must say I always found the staff OK, but maybe it was before the days of ‘Pete’. Happy times, long since gone. I have bought several albums from their ebay shop, but when I last looked at their site some months ago, they had nothing listed.

Sorry to hear MOLE is gone!But I for one hold no love for Ed Dipple,my personal experience with Ed,was of a free loader…he never picked up a chek,not even for a cup of coffee.He paid you next to nothing for an album,,,,,He even scrounged a couple of albums,and eventually I was paid for them.But MOLE JAZZ did indeed make a lot of people happy with thier stock of Jazz.G d bless MOLE,even though I disliked Ed!