Record Day Shops - Day 3 - The Vault in Bournemouth and Christchurch
The Vault *Turning a
slaughterhouse into a record shop*
1 Castle Street, Christchurch,
Dorset BH23 1DP
01202 482134
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 9am-5.30pm
Sunday 10.30am-4.30pm
Established 2011
Stock: Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned
Like most kids who were introduced
to music in the early 1970s, Alan Rowett
lived on a radio diet of Radio 1 and Radio Luxembourg, plus the weekly TV show Top of the Pops. The radio was on all
the time during his early years, and it was not until he was nine that he was
given a record player and his mother’s collection of middle-of-the-road
singles from the 1960s. Funds were tight. A small amount of pocket money did
not stretch far in his home town of Christchurch. Although it had a large high
street, it only had a branch of Woolworths and a second-hand shop called
Exchange and Mart which sold records. Buying new singles was beyond his budget,
so the second-hand store was his regular weekly call to spend those few pence.
However, he soon found out that Tuesday afternoons was a good time to visit
Woolworths. The new chart was announced every Tuesday at lunchtime on Radio 1,
and the local branch used to discount all the records that had dropped out of
the Top 40 that week into their bargain bin. Alan was first there after school
and got the goodies that were only a third of their usual price, a business
head already at a such a young age.
He was asked at school by his
careers teacher, “What do you want to
do when you leave?” He replied “Work
in a record shop. It would be a fantastic dream job”. The reply was
along the lines of “That’s nice, but
aim a little higher, my boy”. Also, around this time he read an article
by Radio 1 DJ John Peel. It had a picture of him surrounded by records on his
desk and the floor. In the article, he said one of the best things about being
a DJ is that you get all your records free. “Fantastic,” Alan thought. “That’s what I am going to do.” The
idea of working behind a record store counter disappeared.
Throughout the remainder of the
1970s his Saturdays were spent walking round the many music shops in the nearby
town of Bournemouth. These record-buying jaunts continued until the early
1980s, when Bournemouth gained its first ILR (Independent Local Radio) station
Two Counties Radio. Alan soon got himself involved, obtaining a Saturday job
doing everything that no one else wanted to do. His payment was that he could
help himself to the massive chuck-out box of records that none of the
presenters wanted. He would arrive home on Saturday evening with a bag full of
free records, sometimes 40-50 singles a week. His dream had come true, a tap of
free vinyl and an introduction to all genres of music. Radio became his
full-time career at which point record shops disappeared from his radar.
During the next 30 years he worked
not only in ILR but moved up to London and joined the BBC, working as a
producer across programmes on Radio 1, Radio 2 and The World Service, during
which time he received free promotional copies of every record, weeks before
they came out. He even produced John Peel for a few years, and once over lunch
told John about the article he had read in the 1970s, which was the reason he
had ended up there with him.
But, in the back of his mind, he
still had that other dream. What would it be like to run his own record shop?
Alan left the BBC in 2006 and
formed his own production company, producing several weekly shows for stations
across the world, including a weekly chart show for BBC World Service,
inheriting the legendary Top of The Pops brand he had grown up with. His
family had moved to a village in North Dorset called Stalbridge, and in the
courtyard at the back was an old coach house from the 19th century.
During the 20th century it had become a slaughterhouse and cold store
for the butcher’s shop which once occupied the
front of the house.
Inspired, so he kindly told me, by
reading my book Last Shop Standing, Alan decided to convert the old slaughterhouse into a record shop, and
in March 2012 The Vault opened for business. After 30 years of playing
new records on the radio, he now had the task of trying to sell those same
items to a declining record-buying public. It was not the easiest thing to do
in a tiny village like Stalbridge, which had no through traffic and a population
of 3500, and Alan found himself on a steep learning curve. Someone told him at
the start “Don’t just stock what you like, no one
else will like it.” That was true.
Slowly a few people did come
through the door, as much out of amazement as anything else. Why open a record
shop in a village like this? was a popular question, one that Alan would
regularly ask himself.
One memorable customer stood in the
middle of the shop and said in a very strong Dorset accent: “I remember killing the
chickens, sheep and pigs in here, right here.” And, pointing at the floor, “The
blood used to run down there and out the door.”
Although it
was great fun, the shop in Stalbridge never made any money. It just about broke
even, although some months not even that.
In 2014 the opportunity arose to
move to a more viable, high street location in his hometown of Christchurch,
just 100 yards away from the site where that Woolworths store used to be in the
1970s. Fighting off competition from a wine shop, an estate agent and a gift
store, Alan convinced the landlord that the town was more urgently in need of a
record shop, and The Vault suddenly had a new home.
With Alan’s wife Chrissy giving up
her job to help run it, the new shop was decorated, stocked and opened within
three weeks. The new Vault felt like a proper shop, and best of all, people
came in. The shop is a partnership and shared joy for Alan and Chrissy. Open
every day of the week, it has quickly established itself in the town, and built
up a good number of regular customers. Every corner has been filled with stock
and the shop boasts the largest range of new vinyl in the county, alongside a
wide range of high quality, pre-owned records.
The shop has become a favourite
stopping place for the dog walkers of the area. Indeed, several dog owners make
regular stops at the store while out on a “long walk”. It is here where the
walk ends for the dog. The staff look after the animal while the owner looks
through the shelves.
The Vault has taken on the
supermarkets and major online retailers and when it comes to the popular chart
titles, they either match or beat them on price.
It has been a period of rapid
expansion for The Vault. In 2016 they opened a brand-new store further along
the coast at Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 1LR (Tel: 01202 559
511). Having seen the record shops in which he spent the happiest times of his
youth closing down over the years, Alan was especially proud to be reversing
the trend not only in Christchurch but also in Bournemouth.
The Vault shops have the atmosphere
of a classic record shop, run by two people who love music and enjoy meeting
and talking with anyone who pops into the store. They are open 7 days a week,
and you will always be very welcome. If you arrive on a day when Chrissy or
Alan are off, then you will be welcomed by record store veteran Simon, who has
been in the business since the early 1970s. Just don’t ask him about classic rock music, you will never
leave.
Check out 220 more independent record shops in the book 'The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen'
Comments
Post a Comment