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Just a heads up to everyone that Movie Boulevard, THE Soundtrack shop in Leeds, has finally closed it's doors for the last time. Richard and Robert have been fighting a losing battle against the Internet and the Recession and have finally decided that enough is enough.
This is a sad day for me, they have supplied me with many "sold out" titles and many rare soundtracks since I first became a customer in the nineties, long before the advent of the Internet. If either Richard or Robert is reading this, I'd like to wish you all the best for the future, I'm going to miss the friendly service and the long chats we had about the latest soundtrack releases.
Movie Boulevard.... gone but not forgotten.
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One bootleg supplier bites the dust... 
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I called them 'Jolly/Wood from Hollywood'. These guys were great to yarn with on the telephone, were totally knowledgeable and a lot of fun. Many yonks ago they started out as an arm of the John Barry fan-club, (they were on good terms with JB) and in fact they operated from a garage for a while. I doubt if they would remember it, but they once offered me a job sometime in the '80s!!!! I picked up a lot of stuff from them.
As regards the 'boot' thing, it's worth remembering that there was a time when NO-ONE had access to ANY vaults, and we all collected what we could in those days... and of course there's that US/Europe dilemma re legitimacy in many cases. I'm sorry to hear they're gone, I used to get their monthly catalogue through my letterbox for years. They were sometimes more expensive, but, well, don't forget the money went back into the UK tax system.
Good luck to them.
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I'm very sad to hear this. I first spoke to Robert Wood way back in 1979 ( I found out about the John Barry fan club through a small ad in Films & Filming ) and that was my very first contact with anyone who shared my passion, later I got to know Richard too and kept in touch by phone regularly for many years and even met up with them on a number of occasions, most memorably at two of John Barry's concerts at the RAH in the late 90's, going out for food after and meeting at their hotel for drinks and chat and meeting other people all through the connection of Movie Boulevard ( were any of you there? ).
As I said, very sad to hear this, I'm a mirror of others here in that they were a huge part in my early soundtrack collecting life.
Like Rare Discs, you could spend a couple of hours there just chatting to them along with their regular punters that visited the store. When I was living in Leeds, I was often there on a Saturday.
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they were a throwback to the days when a trip to the soundtrack shop was as magical as the soundtracks we bought.
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This is sad news.
Movie Boulevard, previously Discount Soundtracks, was born out of what was the original John Barry Appreciation Society back in the 1970s.
To help other Barry fans (as well as fans of other composers) keep up to date with the latest news and get access to rare and foreign import discs, they started their newsletter and soundtrack trading business. Remember, there was a time when there was NO access to imported soundtracks apart from them and Dean Street Records (latterly Rare Discs). It grew and became one of only a handful of places where you could go to find rare and new imported soundtrack discs.
Robert Wood compiled the first comprehensive filmography of John Barry, and our first insights of biographical knowledge about the composer. That might not seem like a big feat today, but remember, there was no internet or IMDB then. It was surprisingly hard to compile lists of composer credits in those days.
I, for one, waited with great anticipation for my monthly mailing list.
There are many soundtrack fans, and John Barry fans in particular who, in an era long before the internet, wouldn't have learned so much, been able to stay in touch with the latest news, or get their hands on rare and imported discs, were it not for their efforts.
What started out as two soundtrack fans helping other soundtrack fans build their collections turned into a good shop - until the internet boom.
And, unlike web site shopping, shopping at Movie Boulevard involved good long chats with other passionate soundtrack fans.
I know they became known for selling bootlegs in their later years, which blighted them in some eyes. It's unfortunate in many ways, and was probably a survival mechanism.
But I still feel sad. This marks a sad passing of something. An era. I'm reminded of the film Monte Walsh, a film about the decimation of employment and the passing of traditional jobs in the wake of change.
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Though I haven't been in touch with them for a while, I too am sad to hear about this. Like some others on this thread I recall many phone conversations with Robert and Richard, back when I was living in Scotland. Never managed to make it to their shop, though.
- James.
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Just a heads up to everyone that Movie Boulevard, THE Soundtrack shop in Leeds, has finally closed it's doors for the last time. Richard and Robert have been fighting a losing battle against the Internet and the Recession and have finally decided that enough is enough.
This is a sad day for me, they have supplied me with many "sold out" titles and many rare soundtracks since I first became a customer in the nineties, long before the advent of the Internet. If either Richard or Robert is reading this, I'd like to wish you all the best for the future, I'm going to miss the friendly service and the long chats we had about the latest soundtrack releases.
Movie Boulevard.... gone but not forgotten.
Sorry to hear this Chris. I was in their shop in the late 80s and I bought the Lionheart LPs Vols 1 + 2, ah those were the days!
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Sorry to hear the passing of this store.
A good few years ago I used to use them a lot as a route to more difficult-to-find titles, particularly when I was really first starting out seriously getting into film music.
I used to love browsing through their catalogue, looking for for something I was looking for. I only spoke to Richard once on the phone (I'm not too keen on talking on the phone) and I always told myself that I would try and get to their ship whenever I was in Leeds. But, I never got to Leeds.
If your reading these comments guys, thanks for helping me get to where I am now, listening almost exclusively to a music genre I love.
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When I was a student back in '89, I used to visit them at Baker House. This was before they were a shop. (Baker House is an office block, and they were mail order only then.) But they let me browse anything and listen to anything before I bought it. And they told me such good stories.
In fact, in '89 they offered to give me tickets to the Jerry Goldsmith concert happening. I couldn't go though. (They couldn't use theirs.)
Then, when Barry did his first concert of the latter era, they got me in as a guest at the the after concert party, where I managed to spend a little time in conversation with Barry.
When they moved into Cherry Tree Walk and became a proper shop, me and my pal Nigel helped them move in, in return for goodies. We had a great evening that day. They played us some of the tapes they had been given over the years including their complete Masquerade and My Sister's Keeper tapes, complete with voices between takes.
I believe Richard has the only surviving film print of Muloorina, on 16mm with sound. However, as he once told me, "It's probably shot by now".
That was when they had two units and business was booming on laser disc. Later, when the laser disc thing died, they downsized to one unit.
And then there's when they used to do the record fairs.
So many memories.
Cheers
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When I was a student back in '89, I used to visit them at Baker House. This was before they were a shop. (Baker House is an office block, and they were mail order only then.) But they let me browse anything and listen to anything before I bought it. And they told me such good stories.
In fact, in '89 they offered to give me tickets to the Jerry Goldsmith concert happening. I couldn't go though. (They couldn't use theirs.)
Then, when Barry did his first concert of the latter era, they got me in as a guest at the the after concert party, where I managed to spend a little time in conversation with Barry.
When they moved into Cherry Tree Walk and became a proper shop, me and my pal Nigel helped them move in, in return for goodies. We had a great evening that day. They played us some of the tapes they had been given over the years including their complete Masquerade and My Sister's Keeper tapes, complete with voices between takes.
I believe Richard has the only surviving film print of Muloorina, on 16mm with sound. However, as he once told me, "It's probably shot by now".
That was when they had two units and business was booming on laser disc. Later, when the laser disc thing died, they downsized to one unit.
And then there's when they used to do the record fairs.
So many memories.
Cheers
Hi Woolston,
Just as a matter of interest when exactly did the shop open ? I visited them (I thought) in the late 80s but I'm not sure what year ? I would have thought it was '88 or '89 ? I had been staying on the Uni of York campus with a friend of mine who was a mature postgrad student, and we took the train down to Leeds one Saturday morning.
Actually, I am pretty certain it was 1988 because I well remember that when I returned to Ireland that Saturday it was just in time to watch England hammering Ireland at Twickers, I remember Chris Oti got three tries and I think Dean Richards also got one!
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Just got off the phone to Richard, he's just got out of hospital after suffering a stroke, most likely brought on by all the recent stress. Apart from closing down the shop, it's only 13 months since his 28 year old daughter Lizzie died, so all in all he's had a dreadfull year.
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Just got off the phone to Richard, he's just got out of hospital after suffering a stroke, most likely brought on by all the recent stress. Apart from closing down the shop, it's only 13 months since his 28 year old daughter Lizzie died, so all in all he's had a dreadfull year.
That's sad news Chris, my best wishes go out to Richard.
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Just got off the phone to Richard, he's just got out of hospital after suffering a stroke, most likely brought on by all the recent stress. Apart from closing down the shop, it's only 13 months since his 28 year old daughter Lizzie died, so all in all he's had a dreadfull year.
Ooops, double post!
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