Record Shop Story #2: Rook Records, Hackney Wick
This new addition to London's record scene specialises in second-hand imports, and is run by two mates who share a passion for anything 1973
‘When I go to a record store, I don’t want to go in thinking “I’m going to leave with these records today”’, says Louis Rooney, co-owner of Rook Records. ‘I want to go in, see what they’ve got, have a listen to stuff, get recommendations… and go on a sort of discovery journey.’
It’s a comment that sums up the kind of serendipitous experience that you find when you venture into Rook Records, in London’s Hackney Wick.
It’s not a shop you’ll find in passing. It’s a destination in its own right, tucked away on a studio and storage complex, with the West Ham (and former 2012 Olympic) London Stadium peeking through the gaps between the lofty old warehouses. Unless you happen to be heading to one of the adjacent recording or photography studios, you’re unlikely to stumble across Rook.
But once you get there, stumbling across rare second-hand vinyl is a certainty. This is a place that’s bound to satisfy the cravings of any curious crate digger.
A mecca for imports
In many ways, this storage unit-cum-record store feels less like a traditional shop and more like a staging post for vinyl coming in from various parts of the world, and continuing its journey into different individual collections.
‘All the U-Haul boxes you see in here are records we haven’t processed yet,’ says Louis. ‘We get a palette of records every six weeks from Human Head Records in Brooklyn, and we’re also always importing stuff from a guy we know in Denmark, and from Face Records in Japan. There’s always new stock coming in, and we like to keep the stock really fresh.’
Co-owner Julian Gascoigne picks up the thread: ‘Yeah, although we’re getting about half our stock from UK collections now, the other half we’re importing. In the UK, you tend to get a lot of classic rock records–which we sell, of course–but as a shop we try to specialise in soul, jazz, reggae, Latin, disco etc… so you can’t just rely on what comes through the door. The imports from the US and Japan are important for all that stuff.’
![Some tasty records here, including a still-sealed copy of The Meters’ Cabbage Alley and Tommy McCook’s Latin Goes Ska Some tasty records here, including a still-sealed copy of The Meters’ Cabbage Alley and Tommy McCook’s Latin Goes Ska](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f335559-d7fd-443c-b15a-83b9a922fe31.heic)
It’s this focus on rare imports and originals that’s the reason you’d make a special trip to Rook. You need a good hour or two here to dig through the crates–which range from plentiful bargain bins and 45s to rarer albums costing much more (examples on my visit being a still-sealed 1972 US pressing of The Meters’ Cabbage Alley, for £80, and Tommy McCook & The Skatalites Latin Goes Ska from 1964, for £300).
Rook is clearly building a reputation for stocking records that are off the beaten track. ‘We had Gilles Peterson in recently, and he wanted to know what we had that was weird and rare,’ says Louis. ‘I pointed him towards a record we’d bought from this New York artist called Ka. We’d had to pay someone to go and buy a few records from him, as he only does these occasional hand-to-hand vinyl sales outside his home. I wasn’t sure if it would be Gilles’ thing, but he was into it.’
It’s all about ’73
‘We’re both really into 70s music,’ says Julian.
‘1973 in particular,’ jokes Louis. I probe for more.
‘It was such a terrific year for music, mainly for soul, so it’s a bit of a running joke between us,’ says Louis. ‘That year you had records like Jon Lucien’s Rashida, Hamilton Bohannan’s Stop & Go, Millie Jackson’s It Hurts So Good and Les McCann’s Layers. All absolutely incredible records. I could add a load more too.’
Neither of them were alive in 1973, so I want to know how they first got into 70s soul and funk, and the earlier jazz that they stock, too.
‘It was born out of our joint love of hip-hop, really,’ says Louis. ‘That was kind of where it really started for us. Hip-hop is just such a good gateway into all this other amazing music. It’s funny how artists like Bob James famously reacted badly to being sampled so heavily, but now I think he’s come full circle and realises that, at this point, multiple generations of people are revisiting his music because of it.’
‘Now it’s swung the other way for us,’ Julian adds, ‘I don’t buy so much new hip-hop now, but I love digging further back to all the sources.’
This is a point that’ll ring true for many hip-hop lovers. Certainly when I first got into hip-hop in the late 80s/early 90s, it made me look at my dad’s jazz records in a whole new light. And I still love finding those tracks that’ve been sampled today, but also so much fantastic other music that was made alongside them.
Plugged into a global network of sellers
It’s striking that Louis and Julian have the kind of mutual understanding where they occasionally complete each others’ sentences. They’re music nuts through and through, and met at university in Sussex, at a DJ competition (‘Which Louis won… because the mixer was broken’, rues Julian).
They lived together for a bit in Brighton, before Louis’ work took him to various places overseas for almost ten years. Until late 2022 he was working as the Commercial Director for Discogs, where his job was ‘to support the seller community globally. So I grew this really solid network of record store owners around the world. It was incredible.’
Meanwhile, Julian had established a previous incarnation of Rook Records in 2016, selling new releases online. He built it up, and by the time of the pandemic, was shifting plenty of records. ‘Covid was horrible for lots of people, but it was great for business, as everyone was at home buying records,’ Julian says. ‘But then it took a bit of a dip afterwards, and a lot of shops found it much harder.’
‘Around the end of 2022 we just decided to bring these two things together, and make Rook Records a second-hand specialist store instead,’ says Louis. ‘I was bringing that used global network sales side of things and Julian had built all these abilities on the processing and logistical side of things. Initially it was supposed to be an online-only venture, and when we moved here it was mainly for extra storage. Now the shop has become the focus because we want to try and create that community feeling, get people in the door and have a bit of fun.’
In-store events and a label on the way
Rook Records now host around one event a month, as well as regular all-vinyl DJ in-store mixes, which they film and put out via their Youtube channel. ‘The last event we had was “Ladies Love Vinyl,”’ says Louis. ‘We had a full female line-up of some of our favourite DJs from around the UK. A couple came over from Copenhagen as well–we partnered with a non-profit female DJ academy and agency in Denmark. And we had wine from all-female wine producers. So it was a really holistic kind of theme.’ It’s a good example of how Rook is trying to bring all elements of the vinyl community together.
Next up at the shop is, of course, Record Store Day on 20 April. Rook won’t be selling any of the new RSD releases, being a second-hand record shop, but are still listed on the RSD site as taking part in the day itself. ‘We’ll have DJs on the day, and we’re doing a big sale too–20% off across the store’, says Julian. ‘So when you’ve picked up your new RSD releases, you can come along here, hang out, listen to a DJ and find some used great records.’
Louis says they plan to lean into hosting even more in-store events in the next year or so, and Julian mentions imminent plans to launch a new ‘edits’ label, too, putting out upbeat Afro and Latin records on 12-inch. ‘It’ll be kinda like old-school, nothing fancy–simple white label releases.’
Clearly these two have a game plan, and I sense that the 2024 iteration of Rook Records could be the start of something much bigger. Watch their next move…
Run-out questions
Why the name Rook Records? ‘We were originally going to call it Grey Dove, due to some stupid in-joke, but decided that was shit,’ says Louis. ‘So in the end we stuck with the name Rook, that Julien had been using before, which was mainly because his brother had come up with a cool logo for it.’ [Julian still DJs around London under the name Jay Rook].
First records you remember buying?
Louis: I think it was DJ Shadow’s Preemptive Strike.
Julian: Mine was a Wookie EP with ‘Back Up To Me’ on it and some other mixes.
What do you mainly sell? ‘Soul, funk, jazz, reggae, latin, afrobeat, hip-hop, disco, house, rock… All second-hand.’
What record shops inspired you? ‘I used to work in Rarekind Records in Brighton’s North Lanes,’ says Louis, ‘and Euan there has been a great mentor to both of us. Plus we love Human Head in New York and Mr Things’ Pressing Matters shop down in Hastings. One of my favourite stores in the country - Mr Thing is like the human Discogs.’
Coolest record in the shop right now? ‘Probably Woeful Studies by New York rapper, Ka. Or Hamilton Bohannon’s Stop & Go, up on the wall–not super pricey, that one, but a real must-have for any soul heads.’
Best recent gig you went to? ‘The We Out Here festival, probably–always such a great line-up there, and we sell there too.’
And finally, what did I buy? I filled a notable gap in my collection with the 1972 Buddah Records pressing of Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack, and Herbie Mann’s The Beat Goes On from 1967. Naturally, I didn’t expect to buy either before going in…
Sleevenotes
Where to find it
9B Riverbank House, 455 Wick Lane, London, E3 2TB
Paid parking outside. Nearest stations are Hackney Wick (Overground) and Bow Road (District, Hammersmith & City lines). Both are about a 10-minute walk from the shop.
Open Monday-Saturday 12-5pm.
Online
info@rookrecords.co.uk
This article was excellent! I loved the overview and deep-dive with the record store owners, learning their origin story, and what sets them apart. I'm absolutely adding Rook Records to my list whenever I visit London soon. also loved the layout of this article as if it was an actual record with sleeve, liner, and run-out notes. well done, Rich.
Fun stuff, Rich! I enjoyed laying out your article as if playing a record (sleeve notes, run-out questions!)....To quote the late Eric Carmen, "go all the way"---"drop the needle" at the start, and 'bout half-way thru, "flip it over"! Just a 'gestion!
I also loved your use of the word "import"--you certainly make it clear you're in the UK, but from the other side of the pond (and with my years in radio, plus around 6 in retail records), our use of the word, of course, meant any other corner of the planet (this one)....mostly, though, UK "imports"!
As I've written about many times, my '70s love of records, coupled with the added "liner notes" of the day's rock press, I always made my weekly way to a local newsstand that always stocked NME, Sounds, and MM....I'd buy 'em all! It didn't take me long to find Houston, TX area record stores (early '70s, when I was in high school) that carried.......you guessed it, "British imports" as we loved to call them!!!
I don't write about records per se, as collectibles, but when I mention artists' output (in terms of records), I'm much more focused now to use words (like "import") that don't assume all my readers are in America! Fun to read, Rich! Thanks!