A much-loved record shop that has been run by four generations of the same family has had "a place in history" in Liverpool for over 70 years.
Located on West Derby Road in Tuebrook, The Musical Box record shop dates back to the 1947 and first sold toys and LPs to customers before it became the business the city knows and loves today. Thought to be Liverpool's oldest surviving record shop, the business has seen the life and the area change around it through the decades.
Diane Cain, 85, grew up in the Lake District until she was 12, as her dad worked at the Sunderland Flying Boat factory. The shop was originally owned by Diane Cain's uncle Jack, but when the family returned to Liverpool, Diane's mother, Dorothy, later bought the Tuebrook shop.
Read More:
- Fascinating photos will transport you back to London Road 32 years ago
- From Lily Savage to Love of Dogs - Paul O'Grady's stellar career
As part of our Liverpool ECHO How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Dianne about her childhood growing up in the shop and how the business has changed through the decades. Dianne, 85, told the ECHO: "The shop was always classed as fancy goods, it wasn't a record shop completely.
"My uncle Jack, my mother’s brother, bought it in about 1947 when he came out of the RAF. He had also another one on Muirhead Avenue, a modern one. My mother was the record enthusiasts, she loved music and he said I'll sell you the one in Tuebrook, the shabbiest one, the oldest one, the building went back to 1879."
The family of four - including Diane, her parents and her younger brother - later moved into the shop, living above it. Diane said her mother Dorothy lived there until she died in the 1990s.
Diane said: "Living on top of the shop was fine, only our kitchen was downstairs and our sitting room and dining room was upstairs. It was very old but it was nice being in the heart of a busy area, because West Derby Road was quite busy.
"Tuebrook was full of shops. There were butchers, grocers, there two shops in Tuebrook, two cinemas, it was lovely. We could go to the pictures whenever we fancied and everything was so different, now it's all supermarkets and that kind of thing.
"Everything was round about us and when i got married we had a shop in Old Swan as well and I lived over that." Dianne said she sold her first record working in the shop around the age of 13 and whilst she disliked selling spare parts for Meccano toys, it "never felt like work" when she was selling records.
Diane said: "All of my friends came into the shop and you knew everybody, it was so personal. Your customers were friends and we sold cigarettes, birthday cards, toys like Dinky's, Hornby, Meccano, Bayko building sets.
"People would come in to buy loose cigarettes." Diane has fond memories of her early days in the shop, such as staying open over Christmas time to make sure all the toys were sold.
As her mother's passion for music grew, the business became solely a record shop. Diane said: "I loved the era of the 45,I loved choosing hits and advising the disc jockeys what I thought would be a hit.
"It was such good fun and I never thought of it as work, it was where I spent my life. Every month you'd get an advance list of what was being released on record and then you'd do you order.
"You'd decide what you thought would sell. You would be picking hits and asking can we have so much of this, will this sell and taking risks."
Dianne remembers American soldiers coming into the shop asking for Hank Williams records and later Elvis Presley, who the family had never heard of and initially Dianne's mother thought "would never sell" - but it did.
Dianne said: "We thought what sort of a name is Elvis Presley, but one month on the advanced list from HMV, there was the name. It came in eventually a few weeks later in a big box packed with straw so they wouldn't get broken and we played it.
"It was heartbreak hotel. It was so unlike anything you'd ever heard before.
Do you have a story for our How It Used To Be? Let us know in the comments section below.
"In our life, originally all the music came from the USA, you didn't have local music. Our local records tended to be cover versions.
"Then The Beatles became so would famous, because they write the songs. My heroes have always been the songwriters."
Throughout its history, the shop has counted the likes of Bill Shankly and The Beatles before they hit the big time. But last week, another famous family also popped in to The Musical Box.
Join our Liverpool memories and history Facebook group here.
Diane said: "We had lots of guests and people turning up and last Saturday we got Elvis Costello. He just turned up with his family, with his gorgeous wife, Diana Crall, she is a famous jazz piano player and singer.
"It was absolutely amazing and they were so lovely, they were just like our friends. We just talked about everything.
"We had his father’s LP because his dad used to sing with the Joe Loss band, Ross McManus, so we gave him that to take home. It was a wonderful day, I was very tearful about it, it was a joy."
For more nostalgia stories, sign up to our Liverpool Echo newsletter here.
Today, the business is run by Diane's son Tony and his wife Paula, with her grandsons also helping and running the social media accounts. The family are currently renovating the upstairs into another shop floor to display souvenirs from the shops history.
Last year, the business celebrated 75 years in Liverpool. And Dianne is proud that the family business is continuing into the next generation.
Dianne said: "We get grandchildren of people who bought their first record from us and remember what it was. It’s like having a place in history, people do say that about our shop. I just love it."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
Read Next:
