How long have you been open for and who works in the shop?

The business was started in 1991 by my brother Malcolm and myself (Laurence Pragnell), initially selling at record fairs – the black music fair at Baden Powell House in Kensington was a regular event.

We then started our mail order service and monthly catalogue (we are now on list number 209) working initally from Malcolm’s flat, then my house. The business mushroomed and it was obvoius that we needed to work from commercial premises, so we opened the shop in 1994.

How did Soul Brother start up and how has it changed over the years?

When we started it was entirely second hand vinyl, initially from thinning our own collections, then I started going to the states on regular buying trips, at its peak in the mid 90′s, I would spend 2 weeks every 3 months in America buying vinyl. Once the shop opened we started stocking reissue vinyl and a small selection of CD’s. The CD element over took the vinyl by the late 90′s.

What have you got planned for the big 20th anniversary, any events or celebrations coming up?

With the 20th anniversary coming up in the summer we are planning a number of events to make it very special. One that’s been confirmed is in Surrey on the 11th June – its in the NY bar and Grill in Cobham and will be myself and Johnny Reckless playing some stuff from our own label, soul, boogie and a bit of jazz.

This is the first event confirmed but there will be others so keep an eye out.

Could you give a brief description of what you stock and how much is first or second hand.

We stock soul, funk, jazz and a little bit of reggae and we have the most comprehensive selections of these styles, on CD, anywhere in the city. Around about 5,000 titles in stock at any one time. We also stock a lot of American and Japanese import CDs

Also 12″s and 7″s, mostly second hand, some re-issues on vinyl and a few new releases on vinyl.

What styles of music are your biggest sellers, maybe a couple of examples of records that walk out the door as soon as they go on the shelves?

Not surprisingly we sell a lot of our own label, we’d be stupid not too. In terms of recent releases the last year, the soul artist Eric Benet did very well.

Also, a jazz album we sold a lot of last year was “Water” by Gregory Porter – big album! Nu-funk is very popular , stuff like the Daptones, Charles Bradley. Again on the jazz side there are a lot of Japanese jazz albums that sell well – Quasimode and a guy called Native.

Any stories you can think of, perhaps a big collection that came in or a stand out collection of rare records?

I used to spend a lot of my times in the states, in the 90s and I bought some great collections over the years including a collection of 60s soul 7″s, all in mint condition.

But one of the weirdest stories was when we were wanting to put out a re-issue of the Hot Chocolate album but the original tapes had been destroyed in a fire, so we had to find a copy of the rare original. But, after only few days of hunting a guy came into to the shop with a copy of the album to sell!

What expertise do the staff at Soul Brother have for the lucky punter walking in the store?

You can expect a great service when you walk in through the door, between the team there is a pretty in depth knowledge of funk, soul and jazz. I’ll be 40 years in the business this year but you never know everything, something new always turns up.

We try and make sure to get on people’s wavelength and always try and give good advice.

Do you stock any specialist equipment, turntables for customers, record cleaning machine etc?

On yes, we have listening facilities for CDs and vinyl.

Can you give a little insight into your podcasts and radio show, how did they start and what can people expect?

We have been doing Solar radio for 10 years, two hours every Thursday from 8-10pm ( you can check this fine slice of music pie at solarradio.com, sky digital 0129 or on the podcast). It is myself and my brother doing it, pretty much on alternate weeks

Could you name a few sweet titles sold recently?

Reel People “Golden Lady” CD

Azymuth “Aurora” CD and Vinyl

Sean Anikulapo Kuti abnd Egypt 80 “From Africa With Fury Rise” CD and Vinyl

Gil Scott-Heron “It’s Your World” 7″ ( special Record Store Day 7″ on Soul Brother label)

Willie Hutch ‘Ode To My Lady” CD

Gregory Porter “Water” CD

SOUL BROTHER RECORDS
1 Keswick Road
East Putney
London
SW15 2HL
Tel: (0044) 020 8875 1018
Fax: (0044) 020 8871 0180
retail: www.soulbrother.com
Soul Brother label www.soulbrother.co.uk.