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What goes around: Local record shops are back from the dead
Record Store Day isn’t just about the special editions and novelty items released for the big day today. It’s primarily about going to a record shop. That’s actually stepping foot in one. For most people now it is a distinctly odd experience to do just this as it’s a thing that has gone out of fashion. When CDs were new the music industry predicted for years that the end was nigh for vinyl, and now the writing is on the wall for CDs, yet they too are still with us. The last two years has against all industry wisdom seen a big uplift in vinyl sales. Ask a label such as Gearbox who have responded with enthusiasm to the turn-up in trade and they’ll tell you about their Record Store Day plans, and that’s just for one. More at: http://www.marlbank.net/post/47693394770/record-store-day-approaches-hip-to-the-beat.
Sphere: Barronial sounds
While genuinely rare vinyl attracts often staggeringly high prices on a par with a particularly fine vintage wine, relatively recent releases, particularly 1970s and 80s pressings of hard-to-find albums can still be snapped up for less than £10. And of course there’s the added bonus of artwork coming with the vinyl, and album information that digital formats are less equipped to handle unless you like tiny thumb nails run off on a home printer. But it’s not really about trophy items. Pop in, like I did earlier in the week, to an old favourite shop such as Alan’s in north London, where I was delighted to pick up Sphere’s Flight Path. Put out in 1983 a decade that many from the counter-culture generation thought was the death of music itself, on the back of this white Elektra Musician liveried cardboard cover there’s a pipe-smoking Charlie Rouse and the band grouped around him (that’s Buster Williams, the great Kenny Barron and Ben Riley) simply smiling. Put on first track ‘If I Should Lose You’ and you’ll join me in smiling too. And that’s what great music does, and you’ll find it nearer to you than you might think, in a last record shop standing, or not, and not just on Record Store Day. SG