Plastic Wax Records

Plastic Wax has been going for years, so my boyfriend tells me, and it’s Bristol’s biggest record dealer. As you’d expect, the main focus is on vinyl including 7″, 12″ singles and LPs, and some rare and specialist items — although they also have a growing range of CDs and DVDs.
Now I’m no expert in record shops like this, but I find Plastic Wax a bit confusing, whereas true musos or obsessive collectors could probably lose several hours between these suitably shoddy-​looking walls.
If you have any unwanted records, Plastic Wax also buys (or exchanges), and it’s also worth looking out for their regular clearance sales.
If you’re into buying vinyl, or you’re looking for some rare release, this is definitely the first place to go to see if they can help. If chart and mainstream CDs are more your thing, pop down to Fopp and they can sort you out.

Plastic Wax Records fulfills my High Fidelity visiion of a music shop. Its rather shabby and exudes that «we’re all about the music vibe». I have to say, I am unashamedly a music download gal, I don’t even buy CDs any more because everything I do is on my laptop. However thank god that places like Plastic Wax Records still exist where the staff are know about music and aren’t just bored teens taking on a Saturday job. Even if you don’t actually play vinyl, its worth having a browse just to spy some weird and wonderful music and it sells secondhand CDs and DVDs too.

A must visit for any music lover in Bristol. A truly odd, one-​off haven for those that like to get their fingertips dirty by flicking through thousands of record sleeves. Not recommended for those that buy their music from supermarkets.
Coming across like a mix between the shop in Black Books and Champion Records in Hi-​Fidelity, you get the feeling that it would be cool to smoke in there if it wasn’t so illegal. But the real beauty of Plastic Wax is in its chaos. There is very little in the way of organisation, categorisation or décor. Making one feel as if they have been put in a grubby white room and had a warehouse-​full of old musical gems poured over one’s head. As any self-​appointed musical scholar will tell you, that’s a compliment! Stick with it, you’ll get used to the layout after a few laps and will be digging crates in no time.
This is a place born from a love of music and a penchant for hoarding. There is nothing contrived or predisposed, and the result is clearly what happens when somebody with an obsessive approach to collecting music is allowed to open their own record shop. A stroll past the window will unveil to you old records by The Smiths, The Small faces, the Jam, Dead Kennedy’s, Michael Jackson and Madonna. That’s just a taster. A stroll and a browse through the shop will take you on a genre defying tour of plastic, wax and cardboard.
I defy any collector to take a visit and leave without a few records tucked under his or her arm; paid-​for of course!

Plastic Wax Records is located on the lower end of Gloucester Road and stocks an impressive selection of vinyl records and CD’s. They claim to be Bristol’s biggest record dealer, so its well worth a visit if you are into this kind of stuff.
Inside it is a little shabby and looks like someone attempted to do it up but gave up half way through. Records are organised pretty well so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem finding what you are looking for. If, however you are having problems, staff are more than happy to help you.
They also do a record exchange so you can trade in your old ones for something else if you so wish.

Plastic Wax is very much my sort of record shop. They’ve got stacks and stacks of second hand CDs and vinyl covering a variety of genres — I don’t think I’ve seen such a range anywhere else in Bristol. The place has a very stripped down feel to it. This is more or less just a room with lots of boxes with lots of records in — exactly as things should be. Buying music is not a lifestyle choice here. The lack of effort at decorating the place isn’t mirrored in their organisation though. The gigantic stock is well ordered, making it easy to find stuff.
The prices aren’t too bad, and if you keep an eye open for their clearance sales and you may well be able to pick up something on the cheap. They buy as well and claim to offer decent prices though I can’t say I’ve ever sold anything to them. Plastic Wax Records can be summed up as a first class record shop with loads of stock.

Feels like a permanent record fair in here, with vinyl lovely vinyl stacked in genre order all over the floor and secondhand CDs at hand-​flicking height. Great for finding anything more than a few years old. Their dance music vinyl section is particularly strong.
Go out the back and up a spirally staircase and you will find more vinyl and also lots of secondhand musical equipment and instruments for sale, from amps to guitars.
Bonus is that it is open quite late as you will get sucked in here…

Gets 3stars because they don’t carry new vinyl to complement the older records. But what a choice!
I browse in the back room because thats where the gems are but you never know what bargins may be lurking in the ‘marked by price’ sections!
If you don’t have anything in mind when you stop in you’ll need a good 30−40min to browse.
Also carries cds and tapes.

Possibly Bristol’s best independent record shop, with a considerable selection of CDs and vinyl from an eclectic range of genres, and a fairly good offering of DVDs. This is primarily a good place to hunt for second hand bargains, and the staff are very keen to help you find what you want, though I have had little success in recent times. The cataloguing can be a bit confusing, but there are bargains to be had if you dig deep enough.

Plastic wax records is the kind of record shop that you would expect to find in a place like Brooklyn, hidden away with lots of graffiti on the wall outside. It sells secondhand CDs, videos, vinyl and DVDs. The kind of place that if you’ve got a lot of money you’ll spend a long time foraging through the stacks. But if you don’t like foraging, the guys who run it are really nice and will probably be able to tell you if they have something in or not.