(562) 498-2757
(562) 498-2757
Well, as you may have heard, Zed Records is now GONE. It was a great time while it lasted and will be missed by the thousands of customers who came through the doors as well as all the employees that "worked" there. The changing environment in music, the internet and our lives made it impossible to stay afloat and reality finally set in after 25 years of utter chaos.
Feel free to add your memoirs of Zed Records in the guestbook at the bottom of the page. There were some crazy times and thousands of stories that can be told. Bands from Black Flag, The Exploited, Misfits, Adicts, Toy Dolls, PIL, The Damned and countless others called Zed their home whenever they were in town.
I spent the best years of my life in Zed Records and sometimes it seemed like the records and the music were just an excuse for the people that worked there and the customers to get together and party. It was a dream that lasted for a quarter of a century and probably shouldn't have lasted a week. Thanks to all the people who came in and bought records over that time and helped us to continue for so long.
I hope you kept all the Misfits, Minor Threat and other obscure 45's you bought there for $2 and you all get rich on Ebay!
RIP Marlene and Papa "Z". You both were the reasons we made it so long and are both missed a lot.
Thanks for the memories.
Mike
Zed Records History In 1974, Marlene and I opened ZeD Records in Long Beach, CA. I was paying $90 a month rent for the little place that we painted bright blue with a huge British flag on one side facing the street. [ I lived there for the first year] When the first Damned, Sex Pistols and Ramones singles began to trickle through in 1977, we made a commitment to go headlong into importing UK punk 45's and LP's and try to keep up with the onslaught of great music. Needless to say, after working up a collaboration with local radio stations like KNAC and KROQ, such classics as the Normal's, "TVOD" and the B'52's "Rock Lobster" became so sought after that people were beating a path to one of the few places where you could get the songs.. ZED RECORDS!! Even if the other stores stocked the tunes, Zed always had the colored vinyl and picture sleeves that the collectors coveted. This is because we imported all of our product from a shop inLondon that reported to the charts and got special favors and the fact that we used to call US bands DIRECTLY to get most product (I waited several minutes for Danzig of the Misfits or Ian of Minor Threat to finish a tune at rehearsal before getting an order in).
There was a great local scene then (and now) with bands like the Angry Samoans, Fear, Circle Jerks, The Screamers, Black Flag, Agent Orange, The Crowd, Human Hands and others providing lots of fun sounds and great local shows. One of the classic local compilations (still available on CD) that we had great success with in cooperation with POSH BOY was the legendary Beach Blvd. A lot of the bands even played IN the store including the likes of FUGAZI, Rage Against the Machine and others. During the thriving and musically overwhelming PUNK ROCK era, Zed managed to expand and began distributing badges, stickers, t-shirts etc. Working closely with Joly of Better Badges and the now defunct Bonaparte Records in Croydon, England, we built a global reputation as well as a huge stockpile of sticker designs and records and t-shirts that remain as popular today as the time we brought them in! Bands like the Subhumans, Operation Ivy, Fear, Crass, the Adicts and dozens more are probably MORE popular now than when they originally were active. Since the little blue building, Zed has moved into a strip mall 1 mile south of the San Diego (405) Fwy in Long Beach. It's at 1940 Lakewood Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90815 (562) 498-2757 We are still carrying a lot of the old school punk as well as lots of independent stuff. Lots of CD's, 45's, 12" etc. etc..
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