Max Bygraves says he understands the shop's no-more-Max stance

The Oxfam shop in Canterbury has a sign outside saying it does not want any more records by the two veteran crooners - because it has so many already.

The manager says it is not meant as an insult, and says the large number of albums by the singers show how successful they have been.

Max Bygraves told the BBC there were so many of his records in charity shops because lots of people who bought them originally had died.

Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer

Staff at the Oxfam shop recently did a stock-take of all their records and found the same artists and albums cropping up again and again.

They were great records and they gave me a lot of financial pleasure Max Bygraves

Manager Kay MacEachen said: "We discovered we have an absolute plethora of Max Bygraves, Val Doonican, the New Seekers and musicals such as The Sound of Music and Oliver.

"It's a measure of their popularity and success, it's not meant as an insult and I hope I'm not going to offend anybody.

"I was brought up on Max Bygraves - Pink Toothbrush, Blue Toothbrush, Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer and all those, so I hope I'm not going to offend Max Bygraves."

Bygraves, speaking to BBC Radio Kent from Australia, where he is on tour, said the records had served him well.

"It's quite all right - don't forget we all grow older and a lot of the people who bought those records are with us no more.

Val Doonican's easy listening style proved too easy to give to Oxfam

"I'm 80 this year - if you make it there you're a survivor and not everybody makes it I'm afraid.

"They must have handed them down to people who thought 'well, it's not my music'.

"They were great records and they gave me a lot of financial pleasure."

He said he knew some people gave away old vinyl copies of his albums after replacing them with CDs because the quality was so much better.

Mrs MacEachen said vinyl was still a much-wanted format in her store.

"We love having vinyl of Donovan, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley," she said.

"Recently we sold an Elvis single for �79 so it's a good market for us.