New start for Offbeat Records on Zaagmolenkade

What started as an experiment in the basement of a vintage shop quickly grew into a popular spot for music lovers. Offbeat Records, the second-hand record shop owned by Chris O'Riordan and Boaz van der Kleij, now has its own premises at Zaagmolenkade 208 in Noord.

The shop built a reputation in recent years with carefully selected imports from the US, Japan, Africa and Europe. The collection is broad and quirky: from 60s jazz and 70s soul & disco to 80s wave and 90s electronics. It created a loyal clientele of collectors and music lovers and a premises that was soon bursting at the seams.

"The new shop offers over four times more floor space and is almost twice as high, which means we can also accommodate our entire Discogs (online shop) collection in the shop," Boaz mentions. "We paid a lot of attention to the interior design. For instance, we have built our own sound system based on a multi entry horn and we are doubling the number of listening stations. Everything is aimed at giving visitors the ideal record shop experience."

Besides selling vinyl, Offbeat organises club nights, in-store parties, movie nights and regularly hosts radio shows at Operator Radio. The new venue also offers new opportunities. "We plan to organise listening nights with experimental bands and live acts. And we also want to do 'in focus' sessions, where we dedicate an entire evening to one artist we think will be of interest to people," says Boaz.

Offbeat's strength has always been the combination of music and people. "Since day one everything has been about the community," Chris stresses. "With us, you are always offered something to drink, we talk about music and see it as a personal mission to make you go home with something the person had never heard of beforehand. I think that's the most wonderful thing."

The opening will be celebrated on 11 October with a festive in-store party. From then on, Offbeat will be open Wednesday to Saturday.