Scotland’s oldest indie record shop comes ‘full circle’: The man behind Scotland’s oldest surviving independent record shop says the revival of vinyl records has brought his store “full circle” to how it all began 50 years ago. Garry Smith was still at school when his parents bought the shop in Perth on 30 October 1967. Concorde Music started in the former St John’s Square before moving to Scott Street in the early 1980s. Mr Smith has worked in the shop since it opened and has been there full time since he left school. He told BBC Scotland’s Stephen Jardine programme that in the early days it was easy to sell records despite the competition from large stores such as Woolworths. But his shop has had to change with the times to survive.
Record breaking indie music store in Perth celebrates 50 years of trade: Scotland’s oldest surviving record shop celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend on the crest of a vinyl renaissance. Bee Gees hit Massachusetts was the UK’s best-selling single – with the Beatles’ iconic Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in the midst of an epic five-month stay at the top of the album charts – when Concorde Music opened its doors in Perth on October 31, 1967. The shop was started by Fair City couple Norman and Rena Smith and their son has worked there continuously since he was a pupil at Perth Academy. Garry Smith, who manages Concorde with his wife Hazel and son Craig, said his parents paid £2640 to take over a liquidated music business previously owned by accordion legend Jimmy Shand and his then partners, Messrs Morison and McLeish. “My father was a great music lover,” Garry recalled yesterday.
A new 50,000 sq ft pressing plant is opening in Virginia: Furnace Record Pressing has announced the opening of a new plant in Fairfax, Virginia this January 2018. The 50,000 square foot space will have sixteen machines capable of producing 9 million records a year, including refurbished Toolex Alpha automatic record presses, Viryl WarmTone automatic 12” record presses, and Furnace-designed semi-automatic 12” record presses. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Furnace, as the company’s packing manager Mark Reiter describes, “the experience of tracking down and bringing these record presses home has been amazing. We had some tense moments. Hiding from (rumours of) kidnappers was one.”
Music man who sells vinyl from his Graham Road house to launch pop-up record store at Dalston pub: People often have amazing ideas during drunken pub chats, or think they do – but not many wake up the next morning and act on them. Benjamin Venus did. The music-mad university researcher was discussing his dream job over a pint one night in 2014, and by August Venus Vinyl had set up stall on Broadway Market. After a year as perhaps the only UK market stall exclusively selling new vinyl, Benjamin found he didn’t have the time to progress the business and took the hard decision to instead focus on online sales. The website, which Benjamin been running for two years now from his Graham Road home, is updated daily with new stock and has built a reputation as a go-to site for limited edition releases. Now he has teamed up with his local, The Prince George in Parkholme Road, Dalston, to run a pop-up record shop – and it launches next week.
New store coming to Walsall shopping centre, Eclipse Records will sell a range of music: A new store is preparing to open in a popular Walsall shopping centre. Pete Holland says his vinyl shop Eclipse Records will be the first record store in the borough for more than a year. And he cannot wait to open the store, which he has done for his daughter Ellie, 21. “Walsall has been without a record shop for over a year now. We are looking to fill that gap,” said Pete. “I have always loved music, it is a passion of mine. And that is what I want to try and get into the shop. I don’t want any particular type of person in there. I would like all comers. “I am hoping certainly before Christmas, maybe mid-November, we will be going live. “We’ll be focussing primarily on new release items, across all genres – Rock, Pop, Indie, Dance, etc – we’re aiming for an eclectic mix.
Cleaning vinyl the Australian way: Suddenly, there’s a new way to clean vinyl. It’s a spread-and-peel method developed by an outfit delightfully named, Vinyl Record Cleaning Systems (VRCS). And you know what, they’re based in the idyllic Blue Mountains, in NSW. VRCS says their way of cleaning our precious LPs and singles restores each to a pristine condition. A claim that had the horde of vinyl-loving, StereoNET staffers hungering for more information. Please! We all know our vinyl harbours and indeed nourishes grime, dust, oils, mould release, spores and abraded stylus diamond dust that may, or may not be dissolved via wet cleaning solutions. The trick is getting this accumulated sludge back out of the groove. Some machines use a powerful vacuum. Nice and effective, but also a pricey option.
