Norman Records is one of our favourite record sellers in the UK. This is the place to go for all those cool records that can only be found in the emporiums run by folks who actually care about genuinely interesting independent music. So, if you’re a vinyl fanatic and purist (count us in) and are looking for that most glorious of formats on the latest by Tom Waits, Oneohtrixpointnever, Pyramid Vritra, Acid Glasses, Minks, Puro Instinct or Nils Frahm, then this is the place for you. Norman Records also stocks CD’s, so check out the wonderful selection of music available from the website at highly competitive prices.
We meet up with the founder (Phil) and discovered there is no Norman (!), but there is a passionate music lover running a fantastic online store in a very challenging period for all businesses, not least of all, one trying to ply their trade in an industry on the verge of implosion.
How and when did Norman Records begin?
Just over 16 years ago when I was working in a homeless men’s hostel. I was obsessed about music and records and I used to trawl second hand shops looking for bargains to sell. I ended up buying a typewriter, rifling through my record collection to find some stuff to sell and going to boot sales to find interesting records to sell on. Once I’d gathered enough bits to sell I got typing lists on my typewriter!! (I remember the last one took 16 hours!). I decided to get a website in 1996 and thus Norman Records was born. We just sold used records then and we didn’t start with new releases for a year or 2 and that was a gradual thing. Now we’re pretty much just new releases with a handful of 2nd hand titles so we’ve swapped our emphasis around.
Where did the name come from?
I was desperately trying to think of a name and I liked Normal Records as at the time I didn’t sell normal records so I liked the idea of that. However there was a label in Germany called Normal and I didn’t want any hassle so I changed a letter to make it Norman which just stuck despite the fact there’s no one called Norman here and never has been. It’s not a very interesting story!
Norman Records has always seemed very open to working with new bands directly, whereas most other retailers don’t really want to know. How did this openness to dealing with new bands come about and how important is it to you to support music at this level?
Well before we started dealing with distributors, bands and labels approached me to stock their releases and it just carried on from there. It’s always been an important thing for us here to stock things no one else would bother with (as long as it fits into our remit), but these days it’s getting much harder to sell low key releases unless there’s a buzz about them so we have to be more choosy. Also with labels/bands selling special editions themselves and giving shops regular versions that also has a knock on effect on sales. If someone presses 300 of something and they do a limited edition of 100 available from themselves with a bonus disc I can guarantee we’ll sell almost none as there’s such a limited market these days for some releases that the people who do buy it will just want the double…. I’m rambling… sorry! We’ll still always try and support artists and labels from grass roots up though.
Which genres and formats sell best for you?
Lordy! Well formats wise I can 100% say that vinyl sells best and will do until we fall over/die/give up doing this. Genres wise we’re pretty varied really and we sell bits of all sorts of things, but I guess we’ve been more of an indie shop from the off so indie pop/rock and US guitar music has always been popular for us. But we do sell a lot of experimental and electronic music these days. Anything goes as long as it’s good!
The current retail landscape for music is very tough, with shops closing on a regular basis: are you positive about the future of music retailing and what would you say is your strategy for continued success?
I think there will always be a market for it and the physical format will be around for a good long while yet. I think shops have to be more on the ball, deal with labels, artists and chase up exclusives to keep going. The shops that will close will be the lazy ones just waiting for records to come to them.
Record Store Day is a pretty important event these days, but as an online retailer you aren’t allowed to officially participate, do you have any thoughts about RSD and how it is developing?
Yeah it’s a bone of contention for me each year. I understand the principle wholeheartedly and I 100% agree with it and if the records were just sold instore and not online then I wouldn’t have an issue with it. But that isn’t the case and if things are sold online then I feel we should be involved. We support these artists and labels all year round (probably way more than 90% of the shops taking part) and we’re told we can’t take part. It seems wrong, especially when pop up stores open up for a day and are allowed to do it and they have nothing to do with the music industry at all. They’re just people out to make a fast buck. Also we have customers who come here every day so we feel like we’re a shop…. they feel like we’re a shop, sure it’s not 100% traditional but times change and things move on. We have the ethos of a record store and I feel we should be included. Having said that it has turned into a massive commercial fest with major labels re releasing anything and sticking an RSD sticker on just to make a bit of extra cash. There was a really good article written earlier this year by the chap who runs the Numero Group which was really interesting and I pretty much agreed with all of it.
We’re somewhere in between a store and online and because of this we don’t get included in anything and we’re too small to be offered exclusive releases from majors/ indies so we end up having to look after ourselves which is increasingly becoming more of a struggle.
If RSD is to continue, what would you like to see changed if you had a say?
I think any indie who supports the physical format should be included as it’s essentially about supporting the physical format. If the physical format dies then the record shops die so anyone who supports the format and the artists involved should be allowed to participate. When it started we want to have bands playing and have folks down here, get some snacks on the go and have a fun day but they said we couldn’t take part. We could have done it anyway but I lost the heart to do it after all the problems we had with trying to be involved.
Vinyl is showing a welcome resurgence: What are your five favourite releases of 2011?
I can’t answer questions like that I’m afraid. I need a few weeks to mull it over! We publish staff top tens on the site at the end of the year so you’ll have to wait til then. Sorry!
What was the first record you personally bought?
My first 7″ was Phil Lynott ‘Yellow Pearl’, 1st 12″ was ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’ by Howard Jones and my first LP was Prince Charming by Adam & The Ants. How you move on!
What are Norman’s five biggest selling records this year?
They are…. **drum roll**
Burial/ Four Tet/ Thom Yorke – Ego/ Mirror 12″
Epic 45 – Weathering CD
Peaking Lights – 936 LP
Various (Max Richter, Rafael Anton Irisarri, etc) – Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes CD
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker LP
If you could see any two artists duetting together and playing in the Norman’s yard BBQ next summer, who would they be?
Shellac and whoever is still alive in Can! That would rock!
