About HW Audio Ltd

HW Audio Ltd is probably now the largest independent music store in the UK, with separate departments for musical instruments, PA, disco and karaoke. But it wasn't always the case...

HW originally specialised in the sale and hire of disco equipment in a small hifi shop on 156 Bradshawgate, Bolton and is probably one of the longest established shops who were set up in the 70's disco boom. The business expanded to 174 St Georges Road in 1979, with the basement being a manufacturing area for cases and speakers. A few years later the adjoining premises were bought, doubling the sales area. A guitar and drum shop soon followed on the 1st floor, and soon became popular with local musicians.

Five years ago, we moved a short distance up the road, to a building which latterly was a car showroom, but originally was one of Bolton's cinemas. The building has been sympathetically restored, and new mezzanine floor installed. The store is now one of the largest of its kind in the UK.

The musical instrument department is now run by Robin Hartley, an experienced guitar teacher, and professional player in 2 bands, one of which is Mirrorball (original material), who have a large cult following, the other is the Lemurs, a 60's covers band and Cameron Baxter, a great bass player with the Red Box Conspiracy , who play gigs in and around Manchester. Check out the bands on www.myspace.com

When karaoke first started to be popular, Richard Harfield, Sales Director and cellist, decided that this was a market that HW should be in and soon we were making up and selling several laserdisc systems per day, the demand proving so great that manufacturing facilities were set up and amplifier and mixer production commenced, with exports all over the world.

With the increase in business, a separate karaoke division was set up, the karaokeshop, and this is run very efficiently by Karaoke/ Harmonica Dept Manager Phil Crompton (all round musician), assisted by Anthony Hindley, who in his spare time is an accomplished pianist and keyboard player, whose band the Mr So & So are soon to support prog-rock gods Marillion in the Edam festival, near Utrecht, Holland in early 2007. Make a date in your diaries.

HW has always been strong on PA, and the department has all that is best in PA, with makes like Dynacord, EV, Das, Allen & Heath, Shure, etc all stocked in depth.P.A. sales are dealt with by a team headed by PA& DJ department manager Sam Ubysz (club dj at Life Bars) assisted by David Harfield. Export sales and research are handled by Elodie Perrier, a native French speaker and pianist.

HW Music Megastore can now claim to be the largest independent music store in the UK.

Service is dealt with by Roland Lumby and Richard Bland. Installations large and small are undertaken throughout the country, specialising in induction loop systems for the hard of hearing.

In the media

We were featured on The Big Breakfast, as their research showed that more karaoke discs were sold in Bolton than any other place in the UK. And who are we to argue?

The show featured our unique KaraokeCab which features a built in karaoke machine and is signwritten with the HW/Karaokeshop.com website.

We were then featured in the Sun newspaper and Auto Express and then were featured on RTL 1, Germany's leading TV Station on their magazine programme Explosiv!

We have also been on Granada Tonight, on ITV with a special studio appearance of the karaokecab, its driver, Steve Pitt and the founder of Karaokeshop.com, Richard Harfield.

We were on German TV channel ARD 1, on the programme "Brisant" which again featured our karaoke cab.

We were also in the Weekly News where there was a feature on the Karaokecab and also in Saturday 4th December's Daily Sta