In 1970 Geoff Davies was working for an old established carpet manufacturer based in Kidderminster, looking after their business in the north west doing what most people do in their jobs. An ordinary job where one was expected to go up the ladder, but this wasn't what he felt like doing for the rest of his life. Frustrated by the lack of good record shops, coupled with the realisation he was living some kind of double life (straight man at work and somebody else out of it, a sort of "keep a straight face and you're laughing") he decided to do something about it. One night in the pub after moaning about record shops to his friend Simon, an architect student, Simon said (as they say) "why don't you open your own record shop?"

That was in autumn 1970. So with Annie, his missus, and £300 savings plus borrowings from his parents and friends, his first Probe record shop opened on Clarence Street of Mount Pleasant.

The Shop (which was tiny) appeared to be a crowded Aladdin's cave of vinyl; progressive rock; jazz; folk; blues; rock and roll; reggae and country and well before the term world music. Called by some a head shop, selling not only discs but also selling underground papers like Frienz and magazines like OZ, Freak Brothers, books on acid and pot, big ciggy papers etc. Another shop followed the centre of town a sort of hippy market store called SillyBillys (unfortunately). As well as selling the usual Clarence St. mixture and without any particular intention it became a soul/reggae specialist with lots of imports fresh from the US and Jamaica.

Around this time Geoff was also promoting bands, putting them on in venues large and small, like the Stadium and St George's Hall. As time went by and the shop became more popular it outgrew itself and soon Geoff and Annie were looking for a bigger premises, and in October 1976 they moved Probe into a more central location: Button St of White Chapel, about 30 metres from the original Cavern Club where Geoff had seen the Beatles play dozens of times.

Shortly after the new Probe shop opened, a friend of Geoff and Annie's, the late Roger Eagle, opened the now-famous Cavern, like Eric's club around the corner. Cut to early 1981, when Probe Plus started up; wholesaling and distributing independent records in conjunction with Rough Trade.

Later that year came the first release from Probe Plus Records, a single by ex-post facto after putting out 7 and 12 inch singles and EPs came the first long player - by Mr. Amir (Dawning) , Liverpool's first, if not only, reggae album.

"Probe was were you got your indicators from, learned what was cool."
-- Jayne Casey


"The whole place was loaded with incredible atmosphere - really loaded. The people there knew their shit, that's what made it more scary because I was used to weirdos but none so weird. It was fun for me flipping through the vast and seemingly impenetrable record sleevees in Probe."
-- Julian Cope, Head-on

"We were all part of one big thing, my thing about all these Liverpool guys - Bob Wooler and Geoff Davies at Probe, the Eric's guys - is that I am a sentimental twat and I love all of them, I know now."
-- Pete Wylie, ex-Probe employee