Concorde
Music *The shop named after a plane, but which has lasted longer*
15 Scott
Street, Perth, Perthshire PH1 5EJ
01738
621818
concordemusic.com;
info@concordemusic.com
Monday-Saturday
9am-5.30pm
Established
1967
Stock:
Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned, DVD, Merchandise, Turntables.
If it was
in the USA, Concorde Music would be known as a Mom and Pop record shop. A
family business, the shop is owned by Garry and Hazel Smith with their son
Craig working there too, and caters for everything a music fan could want.

The shop
was purchased by Garry’s parents Rena and Norman from Sir Jimmy Shand, who
owned it with his family. Jimmy, an accordion player, was known as The King of
Scottish Dance Music. His most famous composition was “The Bluebell Polka”.
Richard Thompson, the English folk musician who wrote “Don’t Sit on my Jimmy
Shands” on his 1991 album Rumor and Sigh,
was a big fan. Under the Shand family’s ownership, The Music Shop, as it was
then known, was primarily a musical instrument shop. Rena and Norman transformed
it into a record shop. They renamed the shop Concorde, after the supersonic aeroplane,
which was deemed the future of travel. If you named a record shop on the same
principle today, it might be called Driverless Car Records. Or maybe not. It is
ironic that Concorde Music has lasted longer than the then-futuristic plane it
was named after.
With the
retirement of his parents, Garry took over the running of the shop. He attributes
Concorde Music’s survival to the family’s willingness to diversify and
try something different. During the punk era, they stocked bondage gear and
converted part of the shop into a changing room. It could be a bit of a shock
for some of their more conventional customers, coming in to buy a classical
record, to be confronted by a spikey-haired punk, emerging from behind a
curtain, trying on his tartan bondage trousers.

Garry
recalls the golden age of record retailing in the 1980s when, for winning a
sales-based competition with the record label Pye Records, he and Hazel were
flown out to Cannes where they stayed in The Carlton for a luxury weekend. In
those days, he might have up to seven sales reps from the record companies in
his shop on a Thursday afternoon, all vying for business. How times change. In
the last two years, according to Garry, only one rep from a record company has
ventured up to Perth: yours truly, as part of my day job for Proper Music
Distribution.
Over the
years, Garry and Hazel have had plenty of competition in Perth, but have
managed to outlast HMV, Our Price, MVC, Virgin, Goldrush, Menzies and The
Poparound. They can be proud of being, literally, the last record shop standing
in Perth.
Over 220 independent record shops featured in The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen
The books of Graham Jones are
available in record shops or online. The
latest book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops that Made it Happen has been turned
in to a film. It has
just been released on DVD and is available in record shops or online.
Distributed by Proper Music.
Each week I record The Vinyl Revival
Record Shop Podcast. It contains lots of funny tales
from the crazy world of record retailing. It is also available on Spotify.
Twitter: @Revival_Vinyl
My blog has over 100 features on
record shops and vinyl.
grahamjonesvinylrevival.blogspot.com
For film screenings and talks
contact Graham.
As the person who has visited more record shops than any other human, I often
get asked my advice on buying turntables. I always say do not purchase a budget
model. What is the point of buying one that costs the price of a few
albums? The sound will not do the recordings justice. For a long time, I have
recommended Rega Turntables as they are superb quality
at great prices. They got more brownie points for sponsoring 'Record Store
Day' and manufacturing limited editions just for record shops.
Comments
Post a Comment