It’s with great sadness that I learned of the recent death of my close friend and ex-colleague, Glyn Callingham. Glyn came to work at Ray’s Jazz Shop where I was manager and took over that role when I left. He was born and raised in Southwark with an elder brother, Dennis, who introduced him to jazz. His teenage years saw him as part of the mod scene in London’s Soho: the Flamingo, the Marquee and later Ronnie Scott’s figured large in his life.
He bought many of his jazz records from Collet’s, then on High Holborn, a shop which leaned towards the more contemporary, modern areas of jazz than Dobell’s, and he was a regular when I started work for them, just after their move to Shaftesbury Avenue in 1975. We got to know Glyn socially about this time. A stylish dresser, Glyn bought clothes from places like Austin’s on Shaftesbury Avenue and worked for Westaway & Westaway, the Scottish knitwear and tartan shop in Great Russell Street opposite the British Museum.
When Collet’s was taken over by Ray Smith in 1983, it was soon evident that we needed another member of staff to augment the existing team of Ray, Bob Glass and myself. When we mentioned this in passing, Glyn jumped at the chance and we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We all had our areas of expertise within the music and Glyn’s was firmly in post-war modern jazz, about which he was immensely knowledgeable. He also impressed American visitors by recognising their tartan scarves and asking them if their ancestors were, for example, of the Macfarlane clan and if they had visited the Vale of Leven during their stay.
He soon became an important addition in establishing the reputation of Ray’s Jazz Shop and he was instrumental in making it the place to go, especially given his Soho connections. This was reflected in Georgie Fame’s tribute to the shop in his song Vinyl.
Glyn succeeded me as manager and soon after, the basement was converted to house a Blues & Roots department, under Mike Gavin, as the shop continued to thrive. About this time, Glyn collaborated with his friend the designer Graham Marsh to produce a series of books. They started with The Cover Art Of Blue Note Records (two volumes) and further ones included West Coast and East Coast cover art. They comprehensively showed how the record sleeves reflected changing trends in the music, in style, art and image. They were all highly regarded, pianist Horace Silver endorsing the first Blue Note volume with his introduction.
When Ray’s health deteriorated, the shop was taken over by Foyle’s and relocated to their Charing Cross Road bookshop, with Paul Pace as manager. Glyn left and started at Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln Inn Fields, where his friend Johnny Tompkins worked, staying there for a number of years and becoming quite an expert on Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress, amongst other things. He continued to contribute to the world of music through Nick Duckett’s Rhythm and Blues Records label, with input and advice in the compilation of albums.
Our close friendship continued over the years, despite me living away from London. I visited and met him regularly, either at his house in Southwark or in Soho, where he was a regular at the French House, Gerry’s or Bar Italia. He suffered from ill-health over the last period of his life but was always welcoming on my visits, showing his warmth, humour and insight as we wandered out for lunch or a drink, discussing a wide range of shared interests, from films, especially film noir and French new wave, to J.M.W. Turner’s paintings, post-war South London to crime thrillers, the resurgence of his team, Crystal Palace, and inevitably to the issues associated with advancing years!
He will be missed by many and our thoughts go out to his family – Kate and their daughters Ruth and Hannah.
Glyn Callingham, 11 August 1948 – 5 December 2025
(Glyn and the staff of Cadillac, Ogun, Collet’s & Ray’s in 2006 can be seen in Matthew Wright’s article on 50 years of Cadillac Records.)
