Manchester, UK | New record shop Haunted Dancehall opens in Manchester: The store launched last week in Wellington House across from the Ashton Canal. A new record shop has opened in Manchester. On Monday, November 28th, Haunted Dancehall launched on the second floor of Wellington House, an industrial space across from the Ashton Canal. The shop stocks a range of electronic music, mostly focussed on the dance floor. There’s a mix of new and second-hand records, as well as reissues. Haunted Dancehall takes its name from the 1994 album of the same name by London trio The Sabres Of Paradise, AKA Jagz Kooner, Gary Burns and Andrew Weatherall. The shop bears no relation to the new Dublin festival. Haunted Dancehall will open from Tuesday through Saturday. Browse the shop via the website.
San Francisco, CA | Open, divine portal: Dark Entries label launches record store in Tenderloin: Josh Cheon’s acclaimed outfit specializes in dark and synth-y sounds; now it’s got an IRL outpost in the TL. SF’s Dark Entries label specializes in releasing and re-releasing dark and/or synth-y sounds from decades past as well as today, but the musical excavations of label honcho Josh Cheon go beyond lost goth and other shadowy dance floor classics, though there are plenty of those. (It is named after a Bauhaus song, after all.) The label has championed such obscurities, at least to the US, as cult ’80s Argentinian darkwave act Euroshima, underground Mexican synth-pop acts, experimental poetic Greek electronic music from Dark Entries muse Lena Platonos, gender-swapping dream pop, and, perhaps most famously, the unreleased work of San Francisco electronic dance music wizard Patrick Cowley, who passed from AIDS 40 years ago. There’s even fizzy Italo disco and vintage gay porn soundtracks in the Dark Entries portfolio.
South Bend, IN | South Bend Record Show holds last event of 2022: If you’re looking for treble, you found it as The South Bend Record Show holds its final event of 2022. Vendors from five Midwestern states filled 88 tables with thousands of vinyl records, CDs, memorabilia, and more at the Gillespie Conference Center in South Bend. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., hundreds of people came to talk about music, add to their collection, or find a music lover’s perfect holiday gift. Event organizers tell 16 News Now they love helping people start and add to their growing collections. “We have people who come here who have thousands and thousands of records, getting to the point where it’s really hard for them to find something they still need, and we get people who walk in the door for the very first time,” South Bend Record Show Owner & Organizer Jeremy Bonfiglio said. “They just got a turntable. They’re just learning about what it is to have vinyl and how to play it, who are buying their very first records, and everything in between. So, it’s a really wide mix, which makes it a lot of fun.”
Atlanta, GA | New vinyl listening bar aims to be a source for creativity in Atlanta: At Ponce City Market on a Saturday evening, it’s hard to miss the tiny store that’s designed as a living room. Warm hues of brown abound. Art, magazines, and Ghia — a brand of non-alcoholic drinks — fill the back of the store. Speakers, incense, clothes and other items compose the front. Stacks of vinyl records and a sofa encompass the middle. Erykah Badu’s “Time’s a Wastin’” blares in the background. There’s a lot going on in the small yet inviting space. And, upon a first glance, it’s tough to decipher what exactly is going on. But the store’s appeal is rooted in its mystique and its soothing atmosphere. “We wanted it to be kind of homey in a sense … but everything is for sale,” said Kim Alex Hall, co-founder of Console by 2ndbdrm. Located within Ponce City Market’s Citizen Supply, Console by 2ndbdrm is a new vinyl listening bar that also sells furniture, incense, non-alcoholic spirits and other items. The space had a soft launch on Nov. 25 and 26, but it officially opened on Sat, Dec. 3.
Best Christmas Vinyl Records for Festive Cheer in 2022: The temperatures are dropping and the decorations are rising; it’s the most wonderful time of year once again and you’re starting to feel the festive cheer. Perfect… All you need now are some Christmas tunes to set the atmosphere. And what could be better than the warm and comforting sound of vinyl as you deck the halls and celebrate with friends and family? To help set the theme tune to your holiday celebrations, we’ve compiled a list of the best Christmas vinyl records spanning from old-time classics to modern-day treats.
Melton, UK | Get a free valuation for your vinyl discs at Melton Record Fair: Music lovers can get their unwanted vinyl records valued for free at the next Melton Record Fair on Saturday. The event is at the town’s livestock market, from 10am to 2pm, where sellers pay £20 for a table and buyers get in free. Local expert John Manship, an expert on soul music, a vinyl record dealer and author will be attending. Organiser Chris Popple said: “We are encouraging members of the public to dig out their unwanted vinyl records from their attics and sheds, bring them along, and have them valued for free by a professional dealer. “Our dealer will give an honest professional opinion on the value of records. “The public are also encouraged to book a table, and sell on their unwanted records, CDs or memorabilia, which is a great way to earn some extra cash for Christmas.”
New book on Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin record sleeves due in 2023: Originally recruited to design Pink Floyd’s legendary The Dark Side of the Moon sleeve in 1973, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell and Storm Thorgerson of design team Hipgnosis would go on to define the visual identity of rock and roll for the next fifteen years. Next year a new book, Us and Them: The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis, is coming to tell the eccentric design studio’s amazing story, which also included designing sleeves for Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard and many more. “Storm and Po both grew up in Cambridge,” the book’s author Mark Blake told ‘The James McMahon Music Podcast’. “Storm was at school with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Po got kicked out of his boarding school at King’s Ely and sort of found his way to living in Cambridge. This was during the early 60s, so it’s the time of early rock ‘n’ roll, of beatniks, Dylan is coming through, and there’s lots of beat literature, which they we both very enamoured of; Kerouac, Burroughs and so on…”
