Gloucestershire, UK | Vinyl record store closes: A popular music shop which has grown a loyal fan base in the Five Valleys and beyond has closed its doors for the last time. Sanctuary Music made the announcement on Facebook and its following 50 per cent off sale to move on its stock saw the business almost cleaned out. Ash Hunt and Adrian Coubrough, who ran the haven for vinyl record-lovers from the shop on the Nailsworth Mills Estate, posted a message to customers on their social media channel. “A huge THANK YOU to all of our loyal customers! News of our closing down spread far and wide and our 50 per cent sale has gone so well that we have sold out of ALL new vinyl! What is left of our pre-owned records will be going to Stroud Auctions for their next sale of Vinyl on 1st April,” said the Facebook post. The message followed the initial shock news earlier this month: “We are very sad to announce that after a period of uncertainty due to personal circumstances, Sanctuary Music will be closing down…
Melbourne, AU | Melbourne’s Polyester Records to close after 37 years: Polyester Records, one of Melbourne’s most beloved and longest-running record stores, has announced it will cease operations this coming March. In a statement posted to its social media accounts yesterday (January 22), the store’s management noted there were “many mixed emotions” about their time coming to a close after nearly four decades of service. “Polyester has endured in its Fitzroy home for an extraordinary period since 1983,” it reads. The store goes on to note “fond memories of the celebration of a seemingly endless amount of incredible music,” brought to them care of “[a]rtists, labels and personalities which we have surrounded ourselves with and enjoyed involvement with from not only around the world, but – particularly important for us and our community – from within Melbourne music.” …While the official closing date will be Friday, March 13, Polyester has also announced that “a series of very special event announcements to celebrate our history” are to come…
Chicago, IL | New Hegewisch Record Store Would Let Neighbors Listen To Music, Drink Coffee — If Owner Can Get It Funded: Owner Kevin Beauchamp wanted the store to be a place where music lovers can gather and share their interests. Tucked away at the southeast corner of Chicago, the working-class Hegewisch neighborhood isn’t known for record stores or coffee shops — but if Kevin Beauchamp has his way, that’s just what’s coming to the area. Beauchamp hopes his tentatively named Katalyst Coffee Lounge/Music Gallery at 13257 S. Baltimore Ave. will give residents a place they can listen to albums together while enjoying coffee. Beauchamp hopes to have it open by Hegewisch Fest on Aug. 1. The concept for the cafe and store has evolved over time, reflecting Beauchamp’s interests and his desire to reflect the needs of the community. Beauchamp originally planned for a record store only, but agreed to add a coffee shop component at the urging of the Hegewisch Business Association. Although not a Chicago native, Beauchamp grew up in the city and has lived “all over” the North and South sides. He runs the Woodlawn-based Katalyst Entertainment independent jazz and world music record label, which grew out of his experience as a house music DJ.
Washington, DC | DC Is Getting a Hotel With a Record Store, a Rotating Lineup of DJs, and Food by the Timber Pizza Co. Team: Starting in March, the Wink Hotel in the West End will become Yours Truly. There’s a new hotel concept coming to DC that’s jockeying for a spot alongside places like the Line and Eaton, which aren’t just high-end spots to stay but also spaces for locals to grab a meal or take a yoga class. Launching in March, Yours Truly is the new concept replacing the existing Wink Hotel in the West End. And it has many of the traits that have almost become de-facto in boutique hotels these days: an open-concept “living room” instead of a lobby, popular local chefs manning the dining space, yoga classes in the courtyard and, yes, Insta-friendly plants. (It’s also pet-friendly.) …The open main floor will flow into Mercy Me, the all-day, South American-inspired restaurant and bar from the Timber Pizza and Call Your Mother team. Also in the “living room:” the first DC location of Uncle Tony’s Donut Shoppe, an Orlando used-and-new vinyl store. Visitors can shop for records, as well as record players, headphones, and other gear. A rotating list of DJs will come into the store to spin, says Segal, and their music will be piped throughout the hotel.
Marquette, MI | Vinyl record show at NMU: On Saturday, a vinyl record show will be held at the Olson Library on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette. This event will take place on the first floor of NMU Library/Harden Hall from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and is presented by the NMU Vinyl Record Club. About a two-dozen dealers will be present. The public can browse through thousands of collectible and new vinyl records up for sale along with CDs, video games, DVDs, original art, cassette tapes, custom jewelry, comic books, pop culture art prints and posters. The public is invited to bring their vintage vinyl for sale or trade. For more information call 906-373-6183. To make requests/RSVP for this event, visit: www.facebook.com/events/1026770011032635/
Brooklyn, NY | Never Records project at BAM is more than just an art show: …Thanks to the early support of Arturo Vega, Marianne Boesky, Metro Pictures and others, Never Records has been an ongoing project since 2010. Originally an exhibit sponsored by No Longer Empty in the abandoned Tower Records space downtown, it works like this: Riederer finds a space, transforms it to his liking and then welcomes local artists to come in and make a recording. The performers – who range from jazz bands to poets to tap dancers to scientists to country singers – record their work with Riederer supervising the proceedings. Visitors are welcome to observe any parts of the activities (quietly, of course). The artists then sit back and customize the two album covers that will house the vinyl LP’s while they wait for Riederer to mix the sound and then cut the LP’s with a special lathe bought in Germany. Only two get made – one album goes home with the artist, the other stays in the Never Records archive. A digital sound file also goes home with the artists and “they can do what they want with it, sell it, whatever.”
How a Long-Lost Indian Disco Record Won Over Crate Diggers and Cracked the YouTube Algorithm: In 2014, Debayan Sen found a mysterious album inside of a trunk in his mother’s attic, in Kolkata, India. The red-orange record sleeve featured a picture of his mom as a young woman along with her name—Rupa—in big, bold lettering. That was the day Debayan learned about his mother’s past life as a singer. Suddenly reminded of this discovery last year, Debayan decided to Google the record. The results surprised his family: Rupa’s first and only album, 1982’s Disco Jazz, was selling for hundreds of dollars via sites like Discogs. “The day I found the record my mom said, ‘Throw it away. It is just pointless,’” Debayan remembers. “I said, ‘What the hell, you made this, why would you throw this away?’” Since then, Disco Jazz has been reissued by Numero Group, the well-established archival label. “Aaj Shanibar,” one of its four tracks, has also started to spread through the strange rabbit hole that is YouTube’s recommendation algorithm.
Johnson City, TN | Bigtone Records offers vintage studio opportunities for students: Jon Atkinson always listened to old records as a kid, and as a rhythm and blues singer and musician himself, the decision to open his own recording studio came naturally. “I was always into all kinds of roots music growing up, so I always had that music in my ear and in my head,” Atkinson said. “So, recording – it is just a part of the music; just the other side of the artist. Being an artist myself, it was an easy thing to have a studio because you can relate to the musicians, and you speak the same language as them; and you know you’re just all kind of in it for the same reason.” Atkinson’s studio, Bigtone Records in Bristol, Virginia, is different from most as they use completely vintage equipment from the late 1930s through the late 1950s. Many studios use older gear such as vintage pre-amplifiers or microphones, but most still use a digital recording set-up. Atkinson said only a few studios in the U.S. and Europe are full analog studios, and Bigtone Records is one of them.
Apple’s UK head of music George Ergatoudis on the rise of streaming, the future of albums and his years in Sheffield: Over the past 20 years, the way music fans discover new artists and songs has undergone a seismic shift. Distant are the days when radio, TV and traditional record shops held the keys to audiences’ listening habits, as the explosion of streaming services has introduced a whole new way of deciding which acts get heard through their inclusion on all-important playlists. George Ergatoudis has worked on both sides of the fence. As a top boss at BBC Radio 1 in the years before online apps truly took hold, he had ultimate responsibility for deciding which tracks got regular airplay, making him arguably the most powerful figure in the industry. Now as Apple’s UK and Ireland head of music – having moved to the tech giant in 2018 after a spell as Spotify’s chief tastemaker – he sets the trends that resonate with those seeking fresh sounds on the most modern of platforms. Ergatoudis’ deep interest in the strategic side of the business stems from the fact that he is, at heart, a music addict – a love that began in Yorkshire.
