UK | Rough Trade to re-open all its UK record stores next month: “Let’s hope we’re back for good this time hey?” Rough Trade has announced that it will be re-opening all of its UK record stores next month. Taking to social media this evening (March 9), the company confirmed that Rough Trade East (Brick Lane, London), Rough Trade West (Notting Hill, London), Rough Trade Nottingham and Rough Trade Bristol will open their doors on April 12. From this date, all non-essential retail is permitted to re-open under stage two of the government’s gradual ‘roadmap’ out of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown. The aim is for all social restrictions to be lifted by June 21. “Our shop floor teams are excited to be back and open in full force, with hundreds of new releases and recent highlights across music and books to shout about,” Rough Trade wrote. “Expect a new layout to our LP and CD catalogue and plenty of fresh Rough Trade Vintage stock for the crate diggers…”
Miami, FL | Sweat Records Celebrates Sweet 16 with Vans Collab, Discounts, and Sweaty Memories: In 2005, friends Lauren “Lolo” Reskin and Sara Yousuf decided to go for it and open their own record store. Only a few years earlier, peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster had completely changed, for better or for worse, the way people interacted with music. Physical album sales were down, while sales of digital files and iPods were up. But for Reskin and Yousuf, the idea of opening a record store at a time when retailers like Sam Goody and Tower Records were calling it quits was never about making money. It was about catering to a Miami customer base the giant retailers were poorly serving. “By the time I finished high school, a lot of the smaller shops were gone or in their twilight,” Reskin says. “So I did see this space for [Sweat] to exist. And anyone who starts a record store doesn’t do it for money anyway.” …So when Sweat opened on NE Second Avenue and 24th Street in Edgewater in March of 2005, its mission was to cater to Miamians’ music needs. And despite several setbacks — including a hurricane, several break-ins, and a busted air conditioner — the shop thrived.
Macon, GA | ‘You just have to work harder.’ Macon record store battling time, technology turns 50: When Phillis Habersham Malone was a child, she remembers the first movie she ever saw at the Douglass Theatre. It was the 1959 version of “Imitation of Life” with Mahalia Jackson. “It was my first time going to the Douglass, and I just felt real good knowing I can go to the movie theater,” Malone said. Malone grew up in the Tindall Heights neighborhood during the Civil Rights era, and although she was a little young to participate in some of the demonstrations, she remembers her father, the Rev. Allen Habersham, went to march with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “My favorite memory (of Tindall Heights) is during Christmas time. We all would get together on our skates and go to the top of the hill and skate all the way down to the bottom of the hill. That was my favorite memory,” she said. She grew up listening to James Brown and Otis Redding, and she surrounded herself with musical people. …Little did she know she would one day own a record shop in Macon, Georgia, now going on its 50th year.
San Marcos, TX | ‘It made such an impression on so many people’: San Marcos record store Sundance Records & Tapes to return under new name: A former community music hub and local cultural hot spot for more than three decades until it closed nine years ago, Sundance Records & Tapes will reopen under a new name in June at 241 N. LBJ St., San Marcos. Tomas Escalante, owner of Sig’s Lagoon Record Shop in Houston, will revive the San Marcos record shop under the new name: Sundance Record Lagoon. Escalante made the announcement via YouTube on March 8. Sundance Records & Tapes originally closed in 2012, but after the closure owner Bobby Barnard, who died in August 2020, kept supplying Escalante’s Houston shop with posters and other inventory over the years, according to Barnard’s wife, Nancy. To kick off a promotional campaign centered on the opening of the new location, Nancy said Zelick’s Icehouse, located at 336 W. Hopkins St. in San Marcos, is hosting a three-night event during which she will be selling merchandise from the original Sundance Records store, including T-shirts and a treasure trove of old posters.
Philadelphia, PA | Feminist literature to classic rock vinyls, how Wooden Shoe Bookstore on South Street became the one-stop shop for books and music in Philly: The nonprofit bookstore in South Philly is looking for volunteers as it makes a roaring comeback from COVID-19. 1976 was in the middle of one of America’s most celebrated decades in its history. The war in Vietnam just came to an end and the second wave of feminism was in full effect. In Philly, a group of individuals wanted to open a bookstore where people could stop by and learn more about what was going on in the world, which led to the opening of Wooden Shoe Bookstore in January 1976 at its original location on 20th and Sansom Streets. “The store was started by a group of people who were interested in promoting and distributing libertarian-leftist ideas and strategies,” said Carl Craft, co-founder of Wooden Shoe Bookstore in a recent interview with AL DÍA. The early founders of the Wooden Shoe were members of Philadelphia Solidarity, a group of labor-orientated libertarian socialists.
East Devonport, AU-TAS | Pop-up record fair attracts Coast’s vinyl enthusiasts: The vinyl revival continues to take some people by surprise. However, East Devonport record enthusiast John Kun is not one of them; he got addicted at 13. A recent report showed record sales had overtaken CDs for the first time since 1986. Mr Kun is one of the vinyl collectors behind the Coast’s fifth pop-up record fair and the second to be held at Cafe Squire at East Devonport. The East Side Record Fair is on March 27 from 9am until 2 pm. “The North-West has a lot of people who want to collect fabulous pieces of music from the past and new releases,” Mr Kun, a retired teacher, said. “A lot of people are producing new music on vinyl and don’t want to record in digital formats.” He said some of the stallholders at the fair had amazing vinyl collections. “You could get lucky and pick up a second-hand album you have been chasing for years for $5,” he said. Mr Kun still had the first Pink Floyd record he bought as a teenager. He studied the violin and liked to collect medieval and baroque music. “I’m small fry compared to some collectors who have 3000 vinyl albums,” he said.
