Bridport, UK | Bridport Music set to close this month: A record store is winding down as it gets set to close its doors for the final time – after more than 40 years in business. Bridport Music will shut on October 26 and Steph and Piers Garner, who run the shop, have thanked all their customers over the years. The couple say they’ve put their ‘hearts and souls’ into running the business but are ready to move on to the next phase of their lives after more than four decades. Mrs Garner said: “We have had many lovely, loyal customers over the years and we want to say a big ‘thank you’ to them. We will miss it – it’s been a big part of our lives. We have brought up three kids in this time, paid off a mortgage and now it’s time for us to move on. It’s hard work running a business – but we’ve managed to make it work.The size of the shop, and its potential, will make someone else a good living. It’s time for some fresh blood.”
Norwich, UK | Tributes paid after death of well-known record shop owner: Robin Watson died aged 75 on September 27 after being diagnosed with cancer some years earlier. Mr Watson, who was born in Essex, first set up Robin’s Records on Norwich market in 1971, at the time operating just one day a week. He had been selling records at markets across the country, but, after growing fond of the city, decided to set up home in Norwich, opening a permanent store on Pottergate two years later. He weathered years of change in the industry and overcame obstacles – in 1977, thousands of pounds worth of stock was destroyed by fire – to become a popular spot in the city for music lovers. His wife Gillie Bexfield described him as a warm, generous man who loved his family, music and cooking, and who was something of a wine connoisseur. “He was just lovely,” she said. “He was generous, he was always loving, upbeat and cuddly, and just good fun to be around…”
Anastasia Island, FL | Join in celebrations at St. Augustine Beach: Two community events are on tap at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre next week. The Fall St. Augustine Record Fair will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. It will feature live music, family friendly activities, food and drinks and more than 25 music vendors. Thousands of music-related items including new and used vinyl records, posters, turntable equipment and supplies, memorabilia, collectibles will be available for purchase. Activities will include the “DJ 101 Session for Kids,” hosted by DJ Dorian Lopez, who will also do sets throughout the day. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from several on-site food trucks as well as the Amphitheater’s own concessions.
UK | Does HMV have a future on the UK’s high street? When HMV opened its first store on London’s Oxford Street in 1921, it kick-started the company’s journey to selling music and film to the masses and becoming an iconic entertainment brand – both in the UK and abroad. However, the struggle to stay afloat on the UK’s high street became evident back in January 2013, when a period of decline saw the retailer collapse into administration – placing 4350 employees at risk of redundancy. The following April, restructuring firm Hilco came to its rescue with a £110 million deal despite HMV having £176 million in debt – including £20 million in tax owed to the HMRC. Just five years later though, HMV filed for a second administration. When it collapsed again a few days after Christmas 2018, Hilco blamed the “tsunami” of retail competition that HMV faced. Rick Smith, managing director of insolvency specialist Forbes Burton, said HMV “simply had too many unprofitable stores, not offering anything new and not reacting to the changing retail landscape as quickly as they should have done”. “There is also the high rents and business rates that are still strangling many businesses on the high street…”
UK | A vinyl revival can free today’s bland music fans from their streaming ‘safe space’: Records encourage experimentation rather than the numbing balm of algorithmic suggestion. As a teenage runaway I slowed myself down considerably by taking my entire record collection with me. It must have looked comical; this slip of a girl with only the clothes she stood up in – and 50 slabs of twelve inch vinyl – teetering through the streets of London looking just a tiny bit conspicuous. When I eventually returned home, my parents were concerned as to whether or not I was still in receipt of my virginity, but all I could fret about was that some rotter at the YWCA had made off with my banana-sleeved Velvet Underground LP. Two years later I got a job at the New Musical Express because I fell in love with a record sleeve just as much if not more than I did with the disc within – Patti Smith’s Horses – and was inspired to write quite a lesbionic teenybopper flight of fancy about it. If streaming had existed, I doubt very much that this would have happened…
The Beatles Announce New Limited Edition Collection Of Newly Remastered Seven-Inch Vinyl Singles: From 1962 to 1970, The Beatles released 22 UK singles; of those 44 A and B-side tracks, 29 were not included on the group’s British albums at that time. These singles, plus an exclusive new double A-side single for the mid-1990s-issued tracks “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” are newly cut for vinyl from their original mono and stereo master tapes by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios for a new limited edition boxed set. The Beatles: The Singles Collection presents 46 tracks on 23 180-gram seven-inch vinyl singles in faithfully reproduced international picture sleeves, accompanied by a 40-page booklet with photos, ephemera, and detailed essays by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett. The collectible set will be released worldwide on November 22 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe.
Rock-Ola Produces the Vinyl Record Collector’s Dream Jukebox: American manufacturer Rock-Ola has announced the debut of the brand-new 45 rpm Vinyl and tube pre-amp’ powered Bubbler, a revolutionary high-tech update on the world-famous Bubbler series of Jukeboxes. As a unique fusion of cutting-edge sound technology and timeless design, its aesthetics and appearance have been designed to evoke the Golden Age of Jukeboxes. Its manufacturer, Rock-Ola, is globally renowned as the only authentic American Jukebox manufacturer on the planet. The company is highly regarded for its ‘Bubbler’ Jukeboxes, famed for its mesmerizing, multi-colored tubes with ascending bubbles. These became one of the most successful and best-selling series of Jukeboxes in history. This latest model is an evolution of its most enduringly popular design as it combines authenticity and new technologies producing the ultimate in sound experience!
Small but perfectly formed: a love letter to the EP, the unsung hero format of the music world: An album is about who an artist is; an EP is about who they want to be No-one calls albums “LPs” any more, do they? Except your dad, maybe, when he remembers romancing your mum to all 10 saucy tracks from Rod Stewart’s magnum-oh-god-no-pus ‘Blondes Have More Fun’ back in 1978. Even the ugly term “vinyls” is now more socially acceptable than calling a record an LP, presumably as you slip on a burgundy roll-neck and puff contemplatively on your wooden pipe. Yet the term ‘EP’ has remained in common parlance – and we’ve had some bangers this year alone, from Brighton wonk-pop purveyors’ Squid’s ‘Town Centre’ EP to the return of rap titan Missy Elliot, whose ‘Iconology’ EP served as a reminder of her boundary breaking approach to hip-hop. In the streaming age, when albums often come stuffed with as many tracks as possible, artists spreading their bets on the maximum number of different playlists, it seems more important than ever to celebrate the short-form record.
