About Us

I started working in my local record shop in Banbury at the age of 16 (1981) and I immediately fell in love with the music industry.

At the age of 18 I was diagnosed with leukaemia and one of the first thoughts that sprung into my head was that I would have to give up my job, but thankfully I had a great boss at the time who was having none of it! He told me to take off as much time as I needed and there would always be a job waiting for me when I was better! One bone marrow transplant later and he (Ian Howard) was true to his word.

The company I worked for was Music Market (eventually merging with Our Price to become Our Price Music) and what a great training ground it was! The ethos was to make the customer feel welcome and to make sure a great service was on offer.

In 1987 I decided to take the leap and set up my own company and my philosophy was to simply emulate everything I had been taught at Music Market, as I was known around town by my nickname it seemed logical to stick that name above my doors.

I have come a long way from those fantastic days in the 80's and here I am in my 5th decade still completely in love with the industry! I have been very fortunate to have been invited to some great gigs/showcases/album launches along the way, I have put a few pics below in order to offer credibility to any first time shoppers with me (and perhaps to show off a little, hahaha)

I feel it is important that any customers of mine know exactly who they are dealing with and this is my way of letting you know who I am and how long I have been around the music industry.

You can also see some pictures of our office and warehouse below. All orders are packed under the eyes of icons from the music industry and knowing our new address would be Compton Park we could not have had any other album on our shutter – all orders are sent Straight Outta Compton!

Even our car park has been given a Chalky's touch, with our spaces named after legendary performers who are no longer with us. And lastly we cannot forget our beloved Blues Brothers statues - they were a familiar sight to everyone in Banbury and still stand proud in our warehouse.

Myself and my team want to offer you a great shopping experience so if there are any issues you have then please email us and let us know so we can do all we can to rectify.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you also for visiting chalkys.com.

Regards,

Chalky