Petersfield shop that’s got Steve in a spin: When the vast record collection of lawyer Steve MacGuinness threatened to take over his house, he knew it was time to take action. Being made redundant from his London job gave him the push he needed to start living the dream in Petersfield. He is now holding court in his own record shop – Vinyl Matters in Bakery Lane – with his pleasure in the new enterprise writ large. Steve (56), of Whitehill, has put his redundancy money into the shop and stocked it entirely from his own 5,000 vinyl LPs and 4,000 CDs.
Power Plant Records Shocks New Life Into San Clemente’s Music Scene: Biff Cooper seems to have more musical aspirations than his body has room for. Between offering the most affordable professional music lessons for Orange County’s youth at Beach Cities Rock Club, recording young bands for free at Power Plant Records, and broadcasting the weekly sermons of some of SoCals biggest bohemian rock fanatics on Reactor Radio, there’s no argument that the long haired beach dweller has his foot in more arenas than anyone else when it comes to supporting and encouraging the blossoming musicians of Southern California, and it all started less than three years ago with a modest record store.
Vinyl record sales driven by midlifers – not hipsters: Vinyl record sales have had something of a resurgence in recent years, with annual sales set to surpass the three million mark in the UK for the first time in decades. But, according to a recent YouGov report, older buyers rather than young hipsters are behind the LPs transformation from obsolete format to modern success. While still a niche product compared with music streaming, vinyl sales have gone from strength to strength in recent years. They saw a five-fold increase between 2009 and 2014, before doubling again last year, hitting a 21-year high of 2.1 million units.
‘Classified Records’ to celebrate its birthday: Classified Records is celebrating its first birthday this weekend, Friday 12th and Saturday 13th August. Dundalk’s only record shop opened its doors twelve months ago and to help celebrate their first year in business, they are commemorating it in style this weekend. Situated in the Demesne in the town centre Classified Records has facilitated the re-emergence of vinyl as a popular music format in the area. Sales of this once-defunct format have risen globally and this trend has been reflected here in Dundalk.
Richard King: ‘Record shops have undergone a form of gentrification’: While reading Teju Cole’s Open City I had been struck by the manner in which the narrator and his surroundings interchanged roles as observers of the world around them, and wondered if I could adapt the idea to explore the relationship between music and place. The records I first encountered in Revolver, from fairly obscure avant-garde compositions to mid-seventies dub to Virginia Astley to Massive Attack, provided a context for these exploratory mental journeys. As the book grew into an examination of how time, our surroundings and passion for discovery shape us, I hoped the reader might recognise a similarly intense attachment to somewhere from their own lives.
Vertical vinyl: Floating record player launches in Oz: Gramovox’s Floating Record player, sporting a contemporary design that sees vinyl played vertically, has landed in the Australian market. Available from online vinyl store The Sound of Vinyl (the only authorised stockist in Australia), the Floating Record player delivers a modern take on the record player, combining “the beauty and nostalgia of yesterday’s turntable with modern sound technology and cool, contemporary design”. The Floating Record player is decked out with dynamic full-range stereo speakers, while built-in RCA line-out ports allow users to bypass the speakers and use their own existing audio set-up. Headphones can also be used via a built-in 3.5 mm stereo jack.
