Banquet Records

Friendly, knowledgeable staff. Great selection of vinyl and always a pleasure to visit. Online side of things is too notch too. From what the store used to be back in the day, the modern day incarnation is light years ahead. Long may it continue.

Their online stock control is a total mess and has been this way for years. Things that are listed as in stock are very rarely available, I have been told before to ‘give a couple of alternatives in an order of preference, so as to account what's in stock and available’

I ordered two items recently, one of which was a Banquet exclusive preorder but the other item was ‘delayed’ so I bought it elsewhere. I asked for it to be refunded and leave me just with the preorder exclusive. Turns out they’ve cancelled my preorder item and sent me out the item I wanted to cancel.

Usually in store is better but the last time I went I ended up with the wrong vinyl disc for the album I paid for. I went back in to get the correct one to find out they don’t have it. Presumably someone else got the wrong disc as well. Another refund.

I won’t be ordering anything from them in the future unless it’s a Banquet exclusive pressing. They are totally incompetent for everything else.

Mixed experiences. When they have something actually in stock, shipping is fast and items are well packed. They get hold of a lot of exclusives and signed copies which you can't find elsewhere.

HOWEVER... a lot of the website listings seem to just be a scrape of whatever the distributors have on catalogue. Items show as "in stock" which are definitely not in stock at Banquet. But only get updated to "awaiting stock" AFTER you have paid for an order (and presumably when it gets sent to the distributor, and they realise that their catalogue is out of date)

Have just cancelled an order which I've been waiting for since Feb 2022 (now August 2022). Had no issue with cancelling and getting a refund - but would suggest that if you're looking for something which isn't a new release, you email or call first to check that they have stock in hand.

I think that this is now my favourite record shop. I have found that their customer service is great and whenever there has been any problem the response to my emails has been fast and helpful. Highly recommended.

I was queueing for tickets to see a band and the staff were very informative the whole time. Also, the staff inside were very lovely and polite - they explained everything to me very well and didn't make me feel like I was being rushed despite the massive amount of ppl you guys had to work with. Thank you for being a lovely ending to that long journey :)

This record shop may be good as a physical place to shop but I would order online with caution / an understanding of what to expect. They don't carry much of the stock they have listed and the delays to orders from suppliers is often weeks into months with limited if any communication.

Great little independent record shop. Good choice of records ( particularly indie labels) and friendly staff. They also arrange regular events/gigs in the local area which I would really recommend.

A very cool old school record shop with a huge selection of vinyl and great for browsing. Some comments have raised issues about records being listed on their website as being available but then having delays. I had this with one part of an order which is obviously disappointing, but to be fair the web site does say it might be the case that it is in stock with their supplier and not in the shop which can lead to a wait. I subsequently cancelled the outstanding part after a couple of weeks and it was acknowledged and refunded within 15 minutes from sending a mail so excellent service during the busy run up to Christmas. I would strongly recommend spending some time looking through the boxes of records and enjoying the bins in the shop. Clearly the friendly staff are very into music. Cool place.