Record Store Day Shops - Day 34 - Crash Records - Leeds
Crash Records
35
The Headrow, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS1 6PU
0113
2436743
crashrecords.co.uk; crash_records@hotmail.com; @Crash_Records
Monday-Saturday
9.30-6pm
Sunday
11am-4pm
Established
1985
Stock:
Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned, Merchandise, In-stores, Tickets
Crash
Records is owned by ex-Sony sales rep Ian De-Whytell. It opened originally in
Woodhouse Lane before moving to a prime shopping location on The Headrow in
Leeds city centre. Ian is an avid supporter of Leeds United. One of his first
musical introductions was when his parents bought him “Back Home” by England’s
1970 World Cup squad. The record was constantly on the record player along with
the B-side “Cinnamon Stick”. The first record Ian bought with his own money was
“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper and, many years later when he became a sales rep
for Sony, he was delighted to be introduced to Alice backstage at Birmingham
NEC.
Ian
obtained his first album, Ziggy Stardust
by David Bowie, in a most unusual way. Leeds had a record shop called Scene And
Heard, owned by Len Lyons, and each Saturday in the Yorkshire Evening Post they ran a competition called Len’s Ten. The
paper would print the 10 best-selling singles in Len’s shop, and the reader was
invited to guess what the following week’s Top 10 would be. Young Ian sent his
entry on a postcard and correctly predicted nine out of 10. He was thrilled not
only to see his name printed in the paper but to receive a record token to
spend at Len’s where he obtained his beloved Ziggy Stardust album, which he still plays more than 40 years
later. Len’s Ten became an obsession with young Ian and over the next two years
he won the competition 15 times, rapidly expanding his record collection in the
process.
After
leaving school Ian worked at the Leeds Permanent Building Society. Although he
enjoyed the work he found himself looking at the clock, longing for his lunch
break which he invariably spent trawling around the record shops of Leeds,
spending his wages on an ever-expanding record collection.
One
of his favourite shops was Virgin, where he landed the job of assistant manager.
He had some fabulous times at Virgin but nothing to top the drama of the day
Motorhead turned up for a personal appearance in the shop.
Leeds
city centre could be an intimidating place on Saturday afternoons in the 1980s.
Gangs of punks, skinheads, mods and rockers would roam the city and often
clash. On the day Motorhead showed up Leeds
United were playing Manchester United, fans were drinking in the city pubs in
advance of the game, and the atmosphere was like a tinderbox. Ian was beginning
to think this was the worst timed personal appearance in the history of
personal appearances. The event was held on the first floor and by the time
Lemmy and the boys arrived, the queue was jam-packed up the stairs, out of the
shop and halfway around the block. Lemmy was swigging from a bottle of Jack
Daniels and Ian was sent outside to check on the crowd. The atmosphere was
tense as the queue was moving so slowly, not helped by many fans copying their
hero and swigging alcoholic drinks. The band was quite happy to take time
talking to each fan, not realising they had another five hundred to see. Soon a
heavy police presence surrounded the crowd and Ian was pulled aside by the
commanding officer and told that unless he sorted the situation out, the police
would arrest him. Ian did his best to placate the crowd and got Motorhead to speed
up the signing to a pace that was sufficient for him to avoid being arrested.
Jumping
ship in the 1980s, Ian took a job at Virgin’s rival HMV. He found the move to be quite a culture shock. HMV were far more professional
and proactive than Virgin. Everything at HMV was target-based and there was
pressure all the time to increase sales.
In
the 1980s HMV expanded quickly. Ian was given a pay rise and sent to work as an
assistant manager in Manchester in an even bigger store. The shop would buy
vast quantities of newly-released singles and Ian and co-buyer Derek would
often have heated debates on how many copies of a new release they should
purchase. Ian was a big fan of Elvis Costello who, under the pseudonym The
Imposter, released “Pills and Soap”, a single which was an attack on the changes
in British society brought on by Thatcherism, brought out to coincide with the
run-up to the 1983 UK general election.
Derek
was cautious, but Ian was confident the record would shift vast quantities. As
usual, Derek was right, and after the election, which Margaret Thatcher won
easily, nobody was interested in buying the record, leaving the shop with a lot
of stock. One lunchtime Elvis Costello himself came into the shop, and started browsing
through the LP racks. Ian asked the singer if he would sign a few singles - not
mentioning that this was as a last resort to get rid of them. Elvis obliged,
and what was once an overstocked item sold out in the next few hours.
Here
was an object lesson in the importance of getting records signed as a way to
generate sales. When a young Mancunian band started receiving praise from the
media, Ian contacted Rough Trade, the band’s label, to request some signed
copies of the band’s forthcoming album. Rough Trade obliged and sent 50 autographed
copies of the Smiths debut album. Ian now wishes he had bought a few for
himself, as they are probably worth a fortune now. He did keep one copy, which
is framed and takes pride of place above his fireplace.
Ian
went on to manage his own store in Hull before securing a job as a sales rep at
Sony. Ian is full of praise for the way that Sony looked after their staff. He
recalls works outings to see Bruce Springsteen and getting the best seats in
the house for Rolling Stones concerts, plus a football trip to Wembley to see
England beat Holland 4-1.
The
highlight of the Sony years was when he attended the first Michael Jackson
concert at Roundhay Park in Leeds. There was a special backstage area for Sony
staff and guests, and before the start of the gig the legendary Epic PR man Jonathan
Morrish wandered over to say that Michael was keen to have some children
dancing with him on stage for the encore. So it was that towards the end of the
show in front of 70,000 fans, Ian’s 12-year-old sister Rachel and half a dozen
other volunteers were ushered through to the backstage area. Ian remembers
Michael Jackson coming on stage for the encore holding his little sister’s
hand. There wasn’t a prouder big brother in the world at that moment.
Sony
often ran competitions among the sales team. One of these was that whoever
exceeded their target by the highest percentage on the new Midnight Oil album Diesel and Dust would win a holiday in
Australia. Ian was determined to win. To say that he exaggerated the sales
potential of the album was an understatement and
shop buyers in his area were given the firm impression that
this album would be the Australian Sgt.
Pepper. Ian won the competition by a mile, achieving sales 1,400% over
budget. The second-best performance was from a rep who gained a 500%
improvement. Ian was called into head office, expecting to receive his prize.
Instead he received a serious telling off from his bosses who felt that to win
by that margin he must have oversold the album (which he had) and that Sony
were soon likely to be inundated with shops wishing to return unsold copies
(which they were). Ian was gutted and felt that it was just an excuse to avoid
the expense of sending him to Australia.
The
Midnight Oil album sold below expectations, although it did produce the Top 10
single “Beds are Burning”. For the next two years Ian would visit his customers
and hear the familiar cry “When am I going to get my returns note for this
Midnight Oil album?” It did teach Ian a valuable lesson; not to oversell an
album, as it certainly strained his relationship with a few of his
customers.
After
12 years at Sony, Ian took voluntary redundancy. He released a Leeds United
greatest hits CD as a joint venture with his friend Kevin Smith - a resounding
success which sold around 20,000 copies - before buying Crash Records from his
old friend Steve Mulhaire.
Crash
was an exciting new challenge. He had called on the shop every week when he was
a Sony rep, so it was exciting to be able to implement his ideas to improve
sales. He was lucky insofar as in 1987 Leeds had three great independent record
shops all vying for trade: Way Ahead, Jumbo and Crash. Within a few weeks of Ian
purchasing the shop, Way Ahead closed, leaving Crash and Jumbo to pick up the
extra business. This included gig ticket sales, which have since proved to be
vitally important to the ongoing success of the two remaining independent
retailers in Leeds.
He
credits his long-serving manager Paul Hodgson for being a great buyer who
instinctively knows what will sell in the shop, and the fact that over the last
few years they have doubled the space given over to vinyl and are looking to
allocate even more.
A
few years ago, Crash had a basement sales area dedicated to dance music, and in
the early years of his time at the shop this was probably the most profitable
area of the business, but that started to decline and was gradually closed. In
its heyday, it attracted many of the local DJs and several of the Leeds United
team. The most frequent football-playing visitor to the shop was Rio Ferdinand.
Rio used to park his Ferrari outside the front door, blissfully unconcerned
about parking tickets, and head downstairs for his regular fix of music.
Leeds
is a university city and the shop is popular with students. Ian has found that
when they move away from home for the first time they like to check out the
cool bars, and the cool shops, and thus tend to embrace independent rather than
mainstream record shops. The gig tickets which the shop sells not only bring
customers into the shop, but also give Crash a presence on all the advertising
by the local music venues.
In
2015 Elliot Smaje, who owned the record shop Wall Of Sound in Huddersfield,
moved his vast vinyl stock into the basement of Crash, giving vinyl fans
another reason to visit this wonderful record shop.
This piece is taken from the book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen
Over 220 independent record shops featured in The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen
Available at your local record shop or online at http://smarturl.it/vinylrevival
Look out for the film based on the book. The Vinyl Revival' which is released on Record Store Day April 13th. The film comes free with the album The Vinyl Revival. Only available in independent record shops on RSD
Check out the trailer
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