Taking some time out before a gig at St George’s Hall on November 3rd, 1978, British punk rock/mod revival group, The Jam, paid a visit to the ever-popular family run Pearson’s record shop in Bradford.

Appearing on the scene in 1959 at a stall in John Street Market, Pearson’s record shop was the place to be, as music fans clamoured to buy the latest 78rpm records they'd heard on Radio Luxembourg as well as the new-fangled 45s and Eps. The stall was such a winner, that shortly afterwards Pearson's opened their first-ever shop in Manchester Road.

Then, in 1967, came the Kirkgate venture. It, too, was a success, and was followed by openings in Brighouse and Leeds, but the prospect of demolition in 1972 prompted a move to smart premises at the top of Rawson Square, on the same side as the market. There the business occupied three storeys and had around 8,000 sq. ft of display and storage space.

A sad postscript to the Pearson story appears in a cutting from the T&A dated July 17, 1980. It reported that a winding-up order had been made on Pearson's Records in Bradford on June 30 and the first meeting of creditors had been called for July 22.

I wonder what the most popular band to emerge from the initial wave of British punk rock thought of the shop in 1978?