X Records

You know how bland corporate conglomorates are taking over the world till everything you hear sounds like liquiefied Rihanna and David Guetta? We’ll all be trudging around in a motorhead t shirt we got for £46 from Topshop but we couldn’t name a single track but it doesn’t matter cos it looks good with my leggings…
Well if you want to actually go to one of those mythical amazing record shops that is actually about MUSIC… with knowledgeable staff, no crappy 2 for £10 on Coldplay, no posters of bieber or force feeding you Adele, no cardboard cut outs of x factor rejects. Just one comfortably grimy place where you can find stuff you care about and won’t find in HMV.
This place is a treasure trove, I always make sure I pop in every time I’m back in town.
Great for obscure, deleted titles, niche artists, real bargains, knowledgeable staff who don’t want to be your best friend or sell you chocolate at the till. This is the record store that you wish you had as a teenager.
Not so good for: posh shelving, Family Guy t shirts, recessed spotlights, buying ipads, novelty mugs.

X Records is a real forgotten gem of a record shop which should certainly be on the radar of anyone half serious about their records.
Basically, as no-​one ever remembers this place exists outside of Bolton, you can find loads of ace deleted stock, usually at knock-​down prices because the owner doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. That means stock that is not available anywhere else, not marked up as a ‘rarity’.
There’s a decent array of styles and genres, with modern releases nestled up against an extensive metal and hard rock selection. There’s also a load of decent reissues on the shelves.
Tucked away in the back is a dedicated dance area where you’ll find shaven headed lads nodding furiously along to kiddiecore donk or whatever they’re listening to that given week.
Thanks to some changes in staff (be it that they left to pastures new or were ‘let go’), X Records has sadly lost its way slightly and these days, it seems to be afloat thanks to Kiss memorabilia rather than selling records to enthusiastic teenagers.
That’s a shame as this is a shop that has done wonders in shaping me and my musical tastes over the years.

DJ Shadow would have a field day in X-​Records.
From the outside it looks like your average, old skool music store. Walk down to the basement however, and you’re greeted with the sight of thousands of 7″ singles, 12″ EPs and 33″ albums stacked floor to ceiling on weight-​bearing shelves. Look around and you’ll notice there’s thousands more records housed in boxes and crates all around you. Some of them are clearly marked Hip Hop, Reggae, Northern Soul and so on, others are simply marked Sale and have reduced stickers on them.
Gloriously, X-​Records sells a combination of new and secondhand vinyl, making it a bit of a one-​stop destination for collectors and deejays. Naturally, there’s some records that were destined for landfill but dig carefully and you’ll find plenty of gems from Patti Smith and Television to Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Can. Prices are low, most of the stock is in great condition and there’s lots of deleted and obscure titles in-​between popular albums.
As for the kind of music they stock, X-​Records sells everything from prog-​rock, punk, indie and heavy metal to country, folk, blues, hip hop, rap and ska to free jazz.
DJ Shadow’s score to Dark Days:

Great c. d/​vinyl/​dvd/​paraphenalia shop in Bolton town centre. They have Kiss paraphenalia everywhere, it’s a really great shop with lots of stock, upstairs is the dvd’s paraphenalia, metal cd’s and mainstream rock cd’s– downstairs is the vinyl, t-​shirts, punk/​ska, soul, pop, jazz and other cd’s. At the back of the basement is a hip-​hop/​rap vinyl section with decks to try records out. The majority of people who shop here are alternative, but you do get the tracksuit wearers coming in for the MCing dvd’s. Staff are friendly, you never know what you may find!

Great selection of rare and unusual cds. X Records is an ideal place to pick up a rarity or hard to come by cd and the staff here are friendly and very knowledgable. If you are after something hard to come by and you cant get it in here the chances are you wont get it anywhere