Good article Ophira. I was once served by Pete Burns in Probe and avoided the tongue lashing he often gave to customers whose choice in music he disliked. Thankfully my John Cooper Clarke record was given his seal of approval.
The thing about record shops is they can only sell to customers who own turntables, you'd like to think an increase in shops might also increase that customer base and ultimately benefit everyone, but what do I know.
The word "independent" has become meaningless hasn't it? Sick of reading about the latest "independent" restaurant opening it's fifth branch on Bold Street, which, as every month passes, has started to offer the same kind of dining experiences as the Trafford Centre or Cheshire Oaks.
Reading this post I can't avoid the "ear worm" of Roy Castle's "Record Breakers" TV theme music running in my mind: "If you're the biggest - the smallest - Want to be the Tallest ..." etc. A record shop wants to be the BEST, and this isn't necessarily the same thing. INDEPENDENT is the Key word,and the same applies to BOOKSHOPS. It's almost impossible for an Author less well known than JK Rowling or Steven King to persuade one of the Big Name bookshops [eg Cornerstones or WH Smith] to stock and sell your book, but an Independent shop such as Write Blend or Dead Ink will gladly take you on. Plenty of room for ALL the Independents here in Liverpool and anywhere else!
Totally with you on your reminiscing about 2nd hand vinyl... As cool as Probe were, my meagre pennies were spent in Backtracks & Scene Of The Crime. ✌️❤️👍
I'm happy with lossless digital formats of music - and as David Bowie told us 'who pays for that?'
All I need is a cheap amp (£100 second hand would get you something good enough) and some half decent speakers and headphones. Bear in mind, we could all spend a million quid on a decent set up - I'm sure it would sound amazing - but we are all limited by finances and make do with what we can afford.
Who wants to buy Pink Floyd, Beatles or any of the big bands music these days? New bands, I'd buy a CD at the gig, but vinyl takes up too much room. I'm not giving my money to EMI for stuff I've already bought - or music that has earned them millions already.
If I ditched my CD collection for vinyl I'd have to get a job as a politician - that way I could steal money without ending up in prison.
I'd need an extra room to store 10,000 albums - or a few 1TB SSD's that I could fit in a pocket.
Bear in mind in 50 yrs time charity shops will have your collection if WW3 does not destroy it.
Problem is, (or at least as I see it) too many of these shops are simply "niche" and they all seem stuck in the same groove (no pun intended), I can actually remember when certain record shops had their own customer base, and they focussed mainly on what they liked but kept a couple of sections aside for the general public, speaking as a semi-retired "headbanger," I used to love nothing better than a train ride into town to visit Penny Lane Records, I well remember sending a family relative to the Church St Store (the one upstairs, which - I think - is now an opticians in order to get a copy of Rush: All the World's A Stage, as a Christmas present. You were often able to get info on any local bands playing in the area, and could also book your coach journey to see any bands playing in far away places like Deeside Leisure Centre (where you had a choice; Stay where you were for the encore, and risk frostbite in your feet, as the cold from the Ice Rink would eventually seep through the plastic mats, or chance moving to the side and hope you wouldn't get thrown out by security. Nowadays, I tend to see the likes of RSD as nothing more than a desperate sales gimmick to try and add a few more numbers to a company's sales sheet
Good article Ophira. I was once served by Pete Burns in Probe and avoided the tongue lashing he often gave to customers whose choice in music he disliked. Thankfully my John Cooper Clarke record was given his seal of approval.
The thing about record shops is they can only sell to customers who own turntables, you'd like to think an increase in shops might also increase that customer base and ultimately benefit everyone, but what do I know.
The word "independent" has become meaningless hasn't it? Sick of reading about the latest "independent" restaurant opening it's fifth branch on Bold Street, which, as every month passes, has started to offer the same kind of dining experiences as the Trafford Centre or Cheshire Oaks.
Reading this post I can't avoid the "ear worm" of Roy Castle's "Record Breakers" TV theme music running in my mind: "If you're the biggest - the smallest - Want to be the Tallest ..." etc. A record shop wants to be the BEST, and this isn't necessarily the same thing. INDEPENDENT is the Key word,and the same applies to BOOKSHOPS. It's almost impossible for an Author less well known than JK Rowling or Steven King to persuade one of the Big Name bookshops [eg Cornerstones or WH Smith] to stock and sell your book, but an Independent shop such as Write Blend or Dead Ink will gladly take you on. Plenty of room for ALL the Independents here in Liverpool and anywhere else!
Totally with you on your reminiscing about 2nd hand vinyl... As cool as Probe were, my meagre pennies were spent in Backtracks & Scene Of The Crime. ✌️❤️👍
I'm happy with lossless digital formats of music - and as David Bowie told us 'who pays for that?'
All I need is a cheap amp (£100 second hand would get you something good enough) and some half decent speakers and headphones. Bear in mind, we could all spend a million quid on a decent set up - I'm sure it would sound amazing - but we are all limited by finances and make do with what we can afford.
Who wants to buy Pink Floyd, Beatles or any of the big bands music these days? New bands, I'd buy a CD at the gig, but vinyl takes up too much room. I'm not giving my money to EMI for stuff I've already bought - or music that has earned them millions already.
If I ditched my CD collection for vinyl I'd have to get a job as a politician - that way I could steal money without ending up in prison.
I'd need an extra room to store 10,000 albums - or a few 1TB SSD's that I could fit in a pocket.
Bear in mind in 50 yrs time charity shops will have your collection if WW3 does not destroy it.
Problem is, (or at least as I see it) too many of these shops are simply "niche" and they all seem stuck in the same groove (no pun intended), I can actually remember when certain record shops had their own customer base, and they focussed mainly on what they liked but kept a couple of sections aside for the general public, speaking as a semi-retired "headbanger," I used to love nothing better than a train ride into town to visit Penny Lane Records, I well remember sending a family relative to the Church St Store (the one upstairs, which - I think - is now an opticians in order to get a copy of Rush: All the World's A Stage, as a Christmas present. You were often able to get info on any local bands playing in the area, and could also book your coach journey to see any bands playing in far away places like Deeside Leisure Centre (where you had a choice; Stay where you were for the encore, and risk frostbite in your feet, as the cold from the Ice Rink would eventually seep through the plastic mats, or chance moving to the side and hope you wouldn't get thrown out by security. Nowadays, I tend to see the likes of RSD as nothing more than a desperate sales gimmick to try and add a few more numbers to a company's sales sheet