Roker Records was opened in October 2025 by Iain Wakefield: a record collector with more than 5,000 LPs of his own, author of World Records (2021, 450 pages, 700 photographs of collectors) and The Record Collectors Club Volume One, and host of the 54-episode Record Collectors Club Conversations podcast. Landscape architect Monday to Thursday. Counter Friday to Sunday. A small floor on Fulwell Road, full crates, broad genres.
Indie, rock, folk, electronic, jazz, metal. Pre-orders for forthcoming releases and label-exclusive pressings. Stock turns weekly. If you have read about it in The Quietus and it is pressing now, we have probably ordered a copy.
Bought direct from collectors. Condition-checked at the counter, priced for what they actually are. No bulk job lots. The used section is small for a reason: every sleeve has been read.
Bring a representative crate, send photos, or book a home visit for a larger collection. Iain has cataloged 5,000 records of his own and spent years interviewing collectors. The collection-buy counter is run by someone who works through the box.
A curated shelf for customers who want guidance rather than a search bar. Iain picks the records he would hand a friend, refreshed monthly. The shelf where everything is here on purpose.
Most record shops are run by someone who has run a record shop. Roker Records is run by someone who has spent years asking other collectors what they wished a shop would do differently. Iain Wakefield built a personal collection of more than 5,000 LPs, then published World Records: Conversations with Record Collectors in 2021: 450 pages, more than 700 photographs of collectors he found on Instagram. The Record Collectors Club: Volume One followed, sold by Piccadilly Records in Manchester. The podcast came next: 54 episodes by early 2026. The shop is the latest page in the same project, not a different one.
We are on Fulwell Road, ten minutes from Roker Beach, fifteen from Seaburn Metro. The only independent record shop in Sunderland north of the River Wear, in a unit previously held by a shop called Pied. Open Friday to Sunday on purpose: the days customers have time to flick through a crate. Monday to Thursday Iain is at the architecture practice, recording the podcast, and going through the previous weekend\'s buys.
ROKER RECORDS · FULWELL ROAD
“I had queues down the street as I opened my new record shop in Sunderland.”Iain Wakefield to the Sunderland Echo, October 2025
Three hundred records sold across the opening Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The shop has run weekends-only every week since.
Most shop-buyers price a collection by the top sleeves and the easy genres. The Roker buy is different. Iain checks pressings, prices by what the records actually are, and pays what they are worth. The reason the shop buys this way is the same reason the shop exists: five thousand records of his own, two books of interviews with other collectors (World Records, 2021; The Record Collectors Club Volume One), and a podcast on the same subject. He has read your collection before.
Fulwell Road runs north from Roker seafront toward Fulwell and Seaburn. The shop is a ten-minute walk from Roker Beach and Roker Pier, fifteen from Seaburn Metro. Free on-street parking along Fulwell Road and the side streets either side. Plenty of cafes within a hundred yards.
The Mon-Thu closure is deliberate. We trade three days a week on purpose: the days customers actually have time to browse. The rest of the week the podcast is running and collections bought over the previous weekend are being catalogued.
The Fri-Sun pattern is intentional. The shop is positioned for the days customers actually browse music: the weekend, when there is time to flick through a rack and listen to a side. Monday through Thursday, Iain is running The Record Collectors Club podcast, working on the third book, and going through collections bought over the previous weekend.
Both. Bring one record or bring a houseful. For a representative crate or fewer, pop in to the counter on Fri-Sun. For anything larger than about three boxes, email info@rokerrecords.co.uk with photos and a rough genre breakdown, and we will arrange either a counter visit or, for very large collections, a home visit.
Across new and used: indie, rock, folk, jazz, electronic, metal, classic pop, blues, reggae, progressive rock, classical, world music, and a rare-and-collectibles shelf. The shop is small but the genres are broad. If we do not have it on the day, ask at the counter and we can order it.
Yes. We ship to more than forty countries from the online store. Klarna, Apple Pay, PayPal and card all supported at checkout. UK orders go out by Royal Mail tracked; international orders by tracked-and-signed from Royal Mail or DPD depending on size.
Free on-street parking along Fulwell Road and on the side streets either side. The shop is a ten-minute walk from Roker Beach, fifteen minutes from Seaburn Metro, and a short drive from the A19 / A1018 coast road. Plenty of cafes nearby for a stop afterwards.