Gallatin, TN | Work underway in fight to save Randy’s Record Shop: Many claimed a major piece of music history was just too damaged to be saved. Now, a group has work underway in the fight for Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin. Nikki Nobles can’t help but smile listening to a very old radio broadcast of her dad, legendary WLAC DJ Gene Nobles. “He started in 1943 and retired in 1972,” said Nobles, thinking back to her father’s time as one of the original DJs who introduced rhythm and blues music to WLAC. “The rhythm and blues, you could feel it in your soul,” she said. “It had a message.” “Here he and Randy are at a banquet,” Nobles continued, lifting another picture out of a stack…”It’s a historical place for Gallatin,” said Nobles.
Vancouver, B.C. | Vinyl Exchange: Downtown record store changes hands after 25 years in business: Adam Harrison bought his first record from the Vinyl Exchange — Pink Floyd’s The Wall — more than seven years ago. He fell instantly in love with the charmingly no-frills store, but never imagined he would own it one day. That changed late last year when Harrison, who wound up working at the Second Avenue shop while finishing his degree at the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business, realized longtime owner Mike Spindloe wanted to sell. “Records aren’t getting any lighter and my back’s not getting any stronger, and as most people probably know I’ve lived in Vancouver for many years — I have family out there — and the commute was just getting to be a little much,” Spindloe said.
Quezon City, PH | This vinyl collector is San Agustin Street’s proprietor of cool: Amidst bottles of booze and the smell of truffle oil, Tonyboy de Leon tells us about how he got hooked on vinyl and fell deep for the subtleties of sound. It’s raining outside, and the notorious Makati traffic has piled up even in this Salcedo backstreet—but no outside sounds are heard here, in 78-45-33, Tonyboy de Leon’s bar-cum-bachelor pad. Instead, Aretha Franklin is serenading us from the vintage JBL Hartsfield speakers, likely produced in 1964, which de Leon purchased from audio equipment collectors. The only light source in this Japanese jazz kissaten-inspired joint comes from the shelf where his 2000+ record collection sits just above the bottles. He’s irreverent and gregarious, the inflections of his voice upbeat. This entrepreneur isn’t trying to sell me something, but is more of a next-door neighbor excited to have you over for drinks and check out his music collection.
Greenville, SC | Greenville Record Fair focuses on love of music, renewed popularity of vinyl: Last June, Rolling Stone magazine published a story pronouncing both compact discs and downloads dead, espousing both streaming and the vinyl LP as the current — and future — musical-delivery methods of choice. No less an authority than Jack White, former White Stripes singer-songwriter-guitarist and founder of the thriving independent label Third Man Records, said, “I definitely believe the next decade is going to be streaming plus vinyl — streaming in the car and kitchen, vinyl in the living room and the den. Those will be the two formats. And I feel really good about that.” This news didn’t come as a surprise to Gene Berger, owner of the downtown independent record store Horizon Records. The store has been open for 43 years, and while Berger still sells CDs, vinyl LPs have been the backbone of his business for most of the past decade.
Long Beach, CA | Long Beach’s Legendary World Famous VIP Records Launches a Center for the Streets: For 40 years, the World Famous VIP Records and Tapes was central Long Beach’s cornerstone. Not only was it the mecca of G-funk, but it also provided a cool place to pass the time while shielded from the ills of street life on Pacific Coast Highway and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. For those who needed it most, VIP was an open door. Subwoofers in front of the shop rattled the windows. DJs spun bass-heavy jams in a booth fashioned after the bow of the Queen Mary, luring OGs and youngsters to flip through racks of vinyl, tapes and CDs. When the store wasn’t packed for in-store appearances from LL Cool J, Shaq and Too $hort, mounted TVs lit up with throwback music videos. The walls were cluttered with billboards, artist posters and T-shirts, and cardboard cutouts featured rap stars such as Snoop, Warren G, Daz Dillinger and Nate Dogg—all were neighborhood kids who started rapping in the store’s backroom studio over beats from an E-mu SP-1200 drum machine. Their demos brought G-funk to the world.
UK | New book and tour: The Vinyl Revival And The Shops That Made It Happen: The new book ‘The Vinyl Revival And The Shops That Made It Happen’ by Graham Jones, author of The Last Shop Standing, is available from all good record shops from September 21st 2018. It’s the story of the vinyl revival through the eyes of those that made it happen, the independent record shops. It’s a practical guide, grouped into counties with addresses, contact details and stock listed, along with a plethora of tips. Unusually for a large paperback it boasts some stunning colour photographs. You will be guided by a remarkable man on a mission, Graham Jones. Graham has spent 32 years visiting the UK’s independent record shops and has now been to more than any other human. His book delves into the great vinyl revival – how it came about (with thanks to Record Store Day) and the benefits that have come from it too – new jobs, new shops and great music.
