When Cob Records opened its doors in Bangor in 1979

A newspaper cutting from December 1979 captures the arrival of Cob Records on Bangor High Street, bringing discounted albums, second-hand vinyl and hard-to-find imports to the city’s music lovers.

The feature, published in the North Wales Weekly News on 6 December 1979, reported that the new shop at 320 High Street had opened the previous Saturday and was already doing brisk business in records and tapes.

Cob was an established name by then. Founded 11 years earlier, the business had built a reputation through its Porthmadog shop and a thriving mail-order service, with more than 30,000 regular customers around the world.

For owner Dafydd Wyn Jones, Bangor was a natural next step. Customers from the city had already supported the Porthmadog business, and a Bangor branch would make it easier for them to browse and buy closer to home.

The expansion also included a new shop in Wrexham.

The newspaper pictured Jones alongside Hefin Jones, manager of the Bangor branch, beneath the headline: “Cut-price Cob open new record shop in Bangor”.

Cob’s appeal was its combination of competitive prices and an extensive choice. The business reported carrying more than 1,000 tapes and record titles at discounted prices, alongside a comprehensive stock of around 6,000 different titles.

Its range covered rock, folk, jazz, country and western, and classical music. Customers could also order records that were not on the shelves, while imported releases offered access to music that could otherwise be difficult to obtain.

For anyone browsing the racks in 1979, the prices make fascinating reading today. A single album with a recommended retail price of £5 could be bought for £3.50, while a £6.99 double album was advertised at £5.49.

The surrounding adverts provide another snapshot of the era. EMI wished the new shop success and highlighted artists including Pink Floyd, Queen, Diana Ross, Cliff Richard, The Shadows and Hot Chocolate. Another advert promoted records by The Clash, ABBA, Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand.

Second-hand records were another important part of the business. Cob stocked around 2,000 used albums, with part-exchange available for unwanted records or tapes in good playing condition.

The shop also sold music books, songbooks and sheet music, with subjects ranging from guitar playing to the Beatles.

Behind the expansion was a business that had grown far beyond its beginnings. The report explained that Dafydd Wyn Jones had previously worked as a coffee-bar assistant in Porthmadog. Repeated requests from young customers for particular records encouraged him to begin dealing in second-hand vinyl.

What started as a sideline developed into an international mail-order operation. Overseas visitors discovered Cob during holidays in North Wales and continued buying after returning home, helping the company build a particularly strong following in Scandinavia.

By the time Bangor’s shop opened, retail sales accounted for 70 per cent of the business.

The bold bilingual opening advert announced “NOW OPEN” and “YN NAWR”, with extended December opening hours and no lunchtime closing. Along the bottom was a promise that summed up the shop’s appeal: specialists in finding records that were difficult to obtain.

More than four decades later, the page offers a glimpse of music shopping before downloads and streaming—when finding a favourite album meant browsing record racks, placing a special order or discovering something unexpected on the High Street.

Source: North Wales Weekly News, 6 December 1979.