​ IT was where you heard your first wax on Stax, listened to the Dells on the Chess label or just took a frothy coffee with your friends and enjoyed a little California dreaming.
It was the Left Bank record shop at 17 Paris Street where the Beatles met Zappa and everyone else in between.
For many the Swinging Sixties started in Exeter on February 23, 1963, when Richard Wilson set up what was to become one of the top record shops of pop music's golden age – classical upstairs, coffee on the top floor.
Now 50 years later Richard, former staff and customers are coming together on February 23 for a reunion to remember old and happy times.
They are all meeting up at St Matthews Hall off Lower Summerland, Newtown, that evening.
"If enough people are coming I'll even buy a barrel of beer," said Richard, who now lives in Cornwall and is a practitioner of the oriental healing art shiatsu and a qualified, advanced bricklayer.
He said: "February 23 is precisely the date in 1963 that the Left Bank opened thanks to my wife Charlotte dreaming up the idea and coming down, eight months pregnant with our third daughter Natasha to find Tony Fulford and his father at the estate agents almost directly opposite.
"The rent was a very reasonable £1,000 a year on a 21-year lease, the length of which would be unthinkable now.
"Not only was the rent £1,000 but so was the value of the opening stock of records, LPs, EPs (extended play) and singles.
"After eight years that became £30,000 so expansive was the record business, the welcome from the local people and the nature of the marvellous staff whom I am inviting back for the celebration.
"Their response, which is almost total, suggests they saw it as a halcyon era in their lives as it was for Charlotte, myself and our four daughters, Julia, Amanda, Natasha and Lucinda."
The store's real golden era was the early 1970s.
"By 1972-3 we had a turnover of £185,000 with an enthusiastic and wide range of customer," said Richard.
"I stocked in-depth pop and rock but also folk, classical, ethnic, light, orchestral, jazz and the spoken word. So good was the service from the major companies like EMI and Decca, I could offer to obtain a record within 24 hours.
"We opened only a few months after the release of the first Beatles' single and just before their first LP but the biggest seller, by some way, was Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters which topped 600, although I remember feeling very daring when my opening order for The Who double album was 150.
"It was heart-warming to discover about 10 years ago at one of their concerts in Worcester that Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, of Show of Hands, bought records at the Left Bank.
"Initially an integral part of the shop was a café upstairs – which led to Exeter University students asking if they could hold folk sessions there – and so the Exeter Folk Group sprang up. I think a kind of relaxed charm was the principal feature of the shop."
The Left Bank was sold to the shop Pitts in the late 1970s. David and Michael Wallace, who had the leasehold of Pitts in the High Street, took on the name and goodwill as well as some of the staff.
Sadly Left Bank, and Pitts, have joined the list of long-lost Exeter music haunts, like Caterpilla in Well Street and North Street, home of the short bloke with a beard and the tall bloke with a beard; Henderson's; Destiny One, Millets, Opus and the much lamented Martian Records in Gandy Street, founded by Ian McCord and Martyn Alford in 1989, who have all become memories for golden oldies.
Former customers or staff of Left Bank who would like to attend the reunion should text on 07565 539764 or call 01392 874475 and leave a message.
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