The Most Northerly Record Shop in the UK
Grooves *The UK’s most northerly record shop*
17 Albert
St, Kirkwall, Orkney, Northern Isles KW15 1HP
01856
872239
Monday-Saturday
10am-6pm
Established
1990
Stock:
Vinyl, CDs, Pre-owned, Art Gallery, Books, DVD, Coffee, Food, Licensed Music
Venue, Toys
Visiting Grooves,
the most northerly record shop in the UK, is an adventure. It involves flying
to Aberdeen before changing to a much smaller plane for a short flight to
Kirkwall. I was told it could be a bumpy, turbulent flight and was advised to
take a travel sickness pill. Should I take the ferry then, instead? “Oh no, that is 10 times worse.”
After a
pleasant, not-at-all turbulent flight, passing over many of the smaller islands,
I landed at Kirkwall airport, an experience as far removed from arriving at Heathrow
as I could imagine. The luggage was placed on the runway - no queuing at the
baggage carousel - and as I walked to the terminal, I noticed a double rainbow
in the sky. What a welcome.
The bus journey
into town was an ornithologist’s delight. The island was teeming with seabirds
and geese, and a flock of swallows flew in a V-formation overhead. The bus
contained even fewer passengers than the plane. The driver asked why I was
visiting. I said I was there to meet the owner of the most northerly record
shop in the UK. “Oh, that will be Neil
Stevenson then,” he replied.
I stopped
for a coffee in an Italian café called Lucanos. The only other customer was a
gentleman named John Ross Scott who turned out to be the editor of the local
newspaper. I told him I was there to meet the owner of the most northerly
record shop in the UK. “That must be
Neil Stevenson,” he said. By the time I left the café I had been
told so many tales about Grooves by John and the café owner Francesco that I almost
felt I had enough material for this part of the book without a contribution
from Neil!
Grooves has
moved location seven times in its 27-year history, though I am confident they
have now found a permanent home.
Neil’s two
great passions as a young man were music and film. Although there had been many
record shops which had come and gone in Kirkwall, none had catered for his own
taste in heavy rock. He recalled one shop that, when you ordered a record from
them, would commit the sacrilege of writing the customer’s name on the record
sleeve.
Neil incorporated
a video hire business into his record shop. He had been hiring videos from a
shop in the town which charged a membership fee and closed at 5pm each day. Grooves
allowed customers to rent without having to join a club, and stayed open until
8pm. Soon enough, business was booming.
Over the
years, videos were replaced by DVDs and Neil discontinued the rental business to
concentrate instead on selling product. Every few years the shop would run out
of space, and each time Neil would find larger premises slightly nearer the
centre of town. By his sixth such move, the business had hit an upward curve. Even
so, many people thought he had lost his marbles when he chose to move into a
shop next door to Woolworths, his main rival for selling music and DVDs.
It turned
out to be a shrewd decision. Woolworths purchased all their stock through a
buying team based in their Head Office, which was then scaled out to all the
branches in the country. Neil matched Woolworths on price on whatever promotion
they were doing and although on some lines he was hardly making a profit, he
soon established a reputation for never being undercut by the chain. And being
an independent gave him the freedom to do his own promotions which Woolworths,
as part of a chain, could not match. Not only was the local population naturally
supportive of a local business, music fans had no reason ever to buy music from
Woolworths. Neil was not on the Woolworths management’s Christmas card list.
Neil had
long been aware that Kirkwall lacked venues for young bands to play and an
independent gallery for local artists to showcase their work. So in 2016, he
took a gamble and bought the historic Old Town Library, which had closed down,
and boldly added a music venue, an exhibition space, a café and a toy shop to
Groove’s core activities as a music retailer. Although there were plenty of
excellent places to eat in the town, Neil thought it would be fun to include a
licensed, record-themed café where fans of music and art could chill out for a
while. As for the toy shop, Neil wanted to revive the happy memories of his
childhood when visiting a toy shop did not involve a journey to a huge
warehouse on a soulless trading estate.
The concept
of Grooves is magnificent. I wish there were similar places on the UK mainland
but sadly, right now, this place is unique. Perhaps somebody reading
this, will recognise that their town has an unused historic building that could
be transformed into an arts and entertainment centre, based around a community
record shop. I was the first music sales rep to visit Grooves in 27 years of
trading, but I can guarantee it is worth a journey to Orkney to be inspired.
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
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