I ran the official record store of Soviet Azerbaijan

Alex Alekperov opened his record store in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1979, long after the USSR had begun to relax its attitude to western culture. Alekperov had emigrated to the States in the ‘90s, first to Staten Island then to Philadelphia. He now works as a computer programmer in the pharmaceutical industry, and he never stopped playing guitar – he currently plays weekly in north-east Philly with the Alabama Sam Blues Band.