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Just got back from a short vacation on Malta.

I may have stumbled across the oldest shop still selling records and equipment on which to play them. These guys claim to have been in business since 1885! Today they sell CDs, DVDs, related equipment as well as used 78's originally sold out of the store many years before.

http://www.damatorecords.com/About%20us.html

In addition to that, they were involved recording records in Maltese language in 1931 & 32. They paid the artists to travel to Milan and recorded them there. The artists got a small royalty and the D'Amato shop got some records with local content, with the hope of boosting their sales of gramophones.

Most recently they were involved in producing, selling a CD compilation of Maltese music which includes several tracks originally recorded for them in Milan and sold out of their store in the early 30's.

The cover of the 2 CD set is pictured below. It is a discography in itself. Two discs, pictures, much information about the original artists in a 30+ page booklet with the cover and all pages trimmed along the outline of the gramophone, (unfortunately they chose a crapophone) horn.

Pictured below are:
- Me in front of the shop
- Front of the CD set & accompanying booklet
- One page of the booklet showing the storefront in 1931.

How cool is that!!!!. Did you by chance take a photo of the store front window as it is today???.First question I would have asked is.......where is the basement????...... .

gramophone78 wrote:How cool is that!!!!. Did you by chance take a photo of the store front window as it is today???.First question I would have asked is.......where is the basement????...... .

I could not take a picture of the store front as it is today because it was rather recessed with minimal light when I was there. ON display though were several copies of the disc set pictured below, opened to stand on thier own at about a 30 degree angle, (the cover is heavy cardboard) surrounding a brass horned Zonophone. Several HMV 78s hung on the walls next to the windows along with 45s and LPs.

Another disappointment was that the owner was not there. I was only able to speak to the shop assistant, a nice young man who had not a clue about the significance of the place. The young man told me that the shop had been in continuous operation "since the 1860s or whenever they started making these things". (the 78s).

Lovely concept but Ohhhh, the machine on that record cover is a modern made-in India Crapophone.

estott wrote:Lovely concept but Ohhhh, the machine on that record cover is a modern made-in India Crapophone.

Yea, so many cool things about this story but the crapophone on the cover of the CD box is not one of them! There are so many other options...

Oh well it was still pretty cool to go into a record store that was selling HMV machines and 78s and is still in operation...

Is that you just outside the door?

JohnM wrote:Is that you just outside the door?

If you mean the person with the black shirt and brown/orange windbreaker tied around his waist, (not the headless dummy under the "SALE" sign), yes, that's me.

No, I meant the dummy!

Valecnik wrote:

JohnM wrote:Is that you just outside the door?

If you mean the person with the black shirt and brown/orange windbreaker tied around his waist, (not the headless dummy under the "SALE" sign), yes, that's me.

Good to see a face to match with the name...

I cant help but wonder if the store front photo dates closer to 1921 than 1931. There's still a big variety of horn machines shown, along with several hornless table top models. I cant see anything with the swan neck tonearm that was introduced in 1925, & AFAIK the machines shown wouldn't have been available after around 1926/27.