Record Store Day Shops - Day 6 - Longwell Records in Keynsham
Longwell Records
36
Temple Street, Keynsham, Bristol BS31 1EH
01173
826104
longwellrecords@gmail.com;
@LongwellRecords
Established
2016
Stock:
Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned
Longwell
Records owner Iain Aitchison recalls living on a council estate in Southmead in
the 1980s as a tough gig. Listening to
records eased the pain of the Thatcher era and his musical tastes were shaped
by artists such as the Style Council, Billy Bragg and various ska and reggae
bands connected with the Red Wedge politico-pop movement. Having worked as a
drug counsellor for many years caring for people high on heroin, he now finds
encounters with the occasional troublesome customer a piece of cake.
During
the 1990s Iain frequented the many local charity shops in his area building up
his vinyl collection. This was the period when most people were dumping their
vinyl collections and replacing them with CDs, and many of the vinyl albums
that he found selling for 50p or less would one day be worth considerably more.
He
opened Longwell Records in Keynsham, a town with its own music festival and
some distance away from the plethora of music shops in Bristol. The shop has
its own logo based on a cartoon of the family dog Jaffa. A huge picture of
Jaffa dominates the window and he also appears on the shop’s bags and T-shirts.
Iain is grateful for the support of his most famous regular customer and big
vinyl fan, actor Stephen Merchant, who has promoted the shop through his
extensive social media activity.
“I love the fact that on
Record Store Day I can make someone’s vinyl dreams come true, like a great big
record fairy,” Iain says. “Since I opened the shop I have been genuinely
shocked by how many fantastic stories I have heard from customers, regular and
new. I have lost count of the amount of times I have been informed that a
customer saw the Beatles in Bristol or at Weston-super-Mare, their eyes glazing
over with fond memories of seeing the Fab Four in the west country back then.
One customer attended Eddie Cochran’s last concert, a few hours before he was
killed in a car accident on the A4 at Chippenham. The crash scene was attended by a young
policeman [David Harman] who later became the leader of the band Dave Dee, Dozy,
Beaky, Mick & Titch.
“Many
customers also tell me of witnessing Hendrix playing Bath Pavilion; others
about being one of the 36,000 who watched the Rolling Stones in the pouring
rain at Ashton Gate in Bristol in 1982. My favourite story was from the old
punk guy who informed me he had Sid Vicious’s release papers from when he was
nicked in New York. He told me he used to visit Sid’s mum up in Croydon and she
let him have them. He had lost them many moons ago, the sad look on his face a
testament to his regret, though the memories will always be there.”
Check out 220 more independent record shops in the book 'The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen'
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