Redditch, UK | Redditch record shop celebrates fourth anniversary following vinyl revival: Redditch record shop Vintage Trax is celebrating its fourth anniversary after reaping the benefits of the vinyl revival. The popular business, on Birchfield Road in Headless Cross, will be marking the event this Saturday, February 23, music, giveaways and of course cake. Owner Ros Sidaway, credits the increasing demand and popularity of records for her shops success. She said: “It’s not just the local area we serve, we have customers regularly coming from the Birmingham area, Warwickshire, the South West, Wales and London. “We even have people from around the UK and overseas visiting the John Bonham memorial in Redditch town centre who come up to the shop too.” Last year alone 4.2 million records were sold in the UK an increase of 1.6 per cent from 2017.
Hartlepool, UK | Northern Rocks in Hartlepool for lovers of vinyl records: Vinyl is, for Phil Dunn, labelled with love. The music suitor has fulfilled a long-time ambition and opened up a record store. Northern Rocks Vintage Vinyl, based inside Kiwi Trading in Hartlepool, sells vinyl albums and singles from across the years. And Dunn is also passing on his knowledge and expertise when it comes to jukeboxes and record players too. With a hefty collection at home, Northern Rocks – regulars at the old Gemini club in Hartlepool will recognise the logo – is a big extension of his personal vinyl enthusiasm. Dunn admitted: “It’s a lifetime of work – as a record collector I’ve built up a collection of around 10,000 albums.
Decatur, GA | Phonographs are ‘anachronistic,’ per Georgia legislation. Vinyl collectors spin with disbelief: A bill in the legislature is getting some heat from record collectors for describing a phonograph as “anachronistic.” That word describes something as outdated, and record collectors say the machines that play vinyl records are far from anachronistic. The bill is the very first one sponsored by state Rep. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs), who was first sworn in five weeks ago. His first-ever bill takes on the phonograph, a machine invested by Thomas Edison in 1877. Yet it persists in 21st century culture. The evidence is in Wuxtry Records, a north Decatur institution opened in 1978. Yes, some people still buy music at Wuxtry and other stores. And its owner Mark Methe is quick to point out they still buy vinyl records.
Los Angeles, CA | Math professor’s fortune is pure vinyl: …But prior to getting into the academic life, Pumar had been stockpiling on vinyl records since the age of 16. “I had a friend in high school, whose parents gave him all of their old records, and I was at his house. As soon as I saw a record on the table, in motion, producing music, I got utterly fascinated and it’s been a total obsession ever since,” Pumar said. Pumar has accumulated a massive collection of 1,214 Vinyl’s [“Vinyls” is not a word. The plural of vinyl is in fact, vinyl. —Ed.] and said that choosing one favorite is hard. He said his collection is worth anywhere between 16,000 or 40,000 dollars. His most prized pieces of his collection are the ones where he got to meet the artist and have them sign his vinyl. “All the signed ones I have are priceless, because there is that interaction there where I got to meet the artist.” Pumar said.
Vancouver, CA | New vinyl pressing plant using Viryl Technology machines to open in Vancouver: A new vinyl pressing plant will open in the Vancouver area this spring. The Vinyl Factory reports that Clampdown Record Pressing will use machines from Canadian company Viryl Technologies, which uses a more efficient method to manufacture records quickly. Clampdown comes from East Vancouver music scene mainstay Billy Bones, who received a grant from a British Columbia government program to start the plant, which will take over a warehouse in Burnaby. It will be the only pressing plant in British Columbia or neighbourhing Washington State and the first since the ’90s. “Once the machines are up and running, we’ll be able to press a record about every 40 seconds,” he told the New Westminster Record.
Ella Fitzgerald’s Inaugural Live Album For Verve, ‘Ella At The Shrine’, Recorded In 1956 But Unreleased For More Than 60 Years, Available Widely Today On Vinyl Via Verve/UMe: Recorded live at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on January 21, 1956, Ella At The Shrine captures Ella Fitzgerald at the beginning of her career renaissance, just weeks after becoming the first signing to Norman Granz’s newly-created Verve Records. The brief but thrilling set, which was part of Granz’s historic Jazz At The Philharmonic concert series, was only recently discovered after more than 60 years of languishing in Verve’s vaults. Thought to be Verve’s first live recording, Ella At The Shrine is available today via Verve/UMe as a single LP on standard weight black vinyl. It will be available for digital download and streaming for the first time next Friday, March 1. This wide release follows a limited edition yellow vinyl version released in November 2018 as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday.
