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Last updateFri, 29 May 2015 4pm

Rock ‘n roll may be here to stay but not on vinyls, CDs

The Union Jack is ever present this month in Guadalajara: on billboards, posters, street corners, in hotels and newspaper advertisements. With Great Britain as this year’s invited guest to the city’s May Festival, everything British is in. 

But when the month is up, the British flag will fade from sight – except for the one displayed permanently on one downtown door.

Mr. Floyd’s record and T-shirt stop has been flying the Union Jack for more than 20 years. Inside you’ll find vinyl and CDs of the shop’s namesake, Pink Floyd, and hundreds of other rock and blues musicians and bands — from the 1950s up to the present.

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Roberto Sanchez Valdez began his love of rock and roll as a teen in Mexico City listening to The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and other bands on Radio Capital and Radio Exito.

“In those days, if you listened to rock in Mexico, they called you a marijuanero,” he says.

Sanchez eventually took to listening to blues and then jazz and has a decent assortment of blues CDs and albums: Leadbelly, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner and dozens more.

He began selling in street tianguis, and in the 1980s opened a stall inside the sprawling San Juan Dios market selling home-made cassettes and, later, CDs. His downtown store had two competitors hawking rock in the 90s: La Manzana Verde and El Quinto Poder. But those closed years ago, he notes. 

Now he sells more T-shirts and band patches than discs. And while you can find some decent Stones, Beatles and other 60s and 70s icons in his racks, the younger crowd buys those bearing Megadeth and other metal band logos.

“I’ll probably have to close before the year is out,” said Sanchez. “There’s just not enough sales anymore.” But he still sells on Sundays in the huge Baratillo market on the east side of town and his records will be there.

If you, like Sanchez, still enjoy your music in disc form, drop by for a chat and pick up some good buys on vinyl or CD. Mr. Floyd is located at the corner of Liceo and San Felipe, (two blocks from the Rotunda), open 12:30 a.m. to 8 p.m,, closed Wednesdays and Saturdays.{/access}