Where to go in Dorset on Record Store Day

Dorset

The county is an excellent place to visit for vinyl enthusiasts.  Poole has three shops selling second-hand vinyl and it would make sense for one of them to grasp the nettle and commit to selling new vinyl and taking part in RSD. Dorchester would be the ideal town to open a record shop selling new vinyl.

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Bridport Music                            *Have you got any Jose Mourihno records?*

33a South Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3NY

01308 425707

bridportmusic.co.uk; info@bridportmusic.co.uk; @BridportMusic

Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm

Established 1976

Stock: Vinyl, CD, Books, In-stores, Merchandise, Musical Instruments

I experienced the madness of dealing with the British public the last time I was in Piers and Steph Garner’s shop Bridport Music. An elderly woman approached the counter and asked “Do you have any Gene Krupa?”

Piers: “Yes, “I have this compilation and it is only £9.”

Elderly woman: “Oh, £9.”

Piers: “It has all his best tracks on.”

Elderly woman: “It is for a friend of mine who is not very well, and I thought it might cheer him up. The only problem is he is so unwell that he may not pull through. I think it is best if I wait a couple of weeks and if he survives I will come back and get it.”

Piers and I looked at each other, unsure if we should laugh. Surely, an ill friend is worth £9 of anybody’s money. She never came back, so I guess he didn’t make it.

This incident started Piers off and he was soon regaling me with some more crazy happenings from the shop including the tale of the customer they nicknamed The Crow Woman after the following conversation:

Customer: “Have you got any classical music for crows to dance to?”

Piers: “I am sorry madam, we do not have any classical music for crows to dance to.”

Customer: “Ok, can you tell me what other type of music you stock suitable for crows to dance to?”

The shop also had a visit from the world’s least knowledgeable blues fan:

Customer: “I am after a CD by a blues guitarist and I think his first name is Jose.”

Piers: “Jose Gonzalez?”

Customer: “Not him.”

Piers: “Jose Feliciano, the guitarist famous for his version of The Doors ‘Light my Fire’?”

Customer: “Not him either.”

Suddenly the man’s face lit up as he had a lightbulb moment.

Customer: “Got it, I think his name is Jose Mourihno.”

Piers pointed out that he used to manage the Blues as opposed to playing them.

It turned out, after some brilliant detective work by Piers, that it was none other than Joe Bonamassa that the customer was after.

Not long after, the world’s least knowledgeable metal fan visited the shop.

Customer: “Do you have any metal albums in by Maidenhead?”

Piers was not sure if this was a new supergroup featuring members of Motorhead and Iron Maiden or if some new metal band had been named after a Berkshire town. It turned out he was after Motorhead.

Not long after they had a visit from world’s least knowledgeable disco fan.

Customer: “Do you have a CD of disco classics?”

Piers showed him the disco compilation section. Each time he picked one up he would study the track listings before placing it back in the racks.

Piers: “Is there a disco track you are looking for?"

Customer: “'Rhinestone Cowboy’ by Glen Campbell.”

Piers became involved in music when his brother-in-law Andy Bell phoned him to say he had taken out a lease on a new shop.  Andy already had his own general store but wanted a record shop and asked Piers if he would be interested in running it. At the time, Piers was studying law at Sheffield, but had become disillusioned and was desperately seeking an alternative career path. He packed his bags, headed to Bridport and in 1979 The Record Centre opened. Piers married Steph in 1980, and since then this dynamic duo have run the store. It is a credit to them not only to have stayed married for nearly 40 years but to be running a business together at the same time.

The first thing you notice as you enter the store, is the bongos, guitars and ukuleles hanging from the ceiling. Piers and Steph work on a raised platform at the far end of the store, looking down on their kingdom below. Like most shop owners faced with a CD industry in slow decline, they realised that survival depended on diversification. After visiting a stand at a music industry conference, they decided to stock musical instruments. It proved a wise move, and one which I am surprised more stores have not followed. In recent years, I have noticed more space being given to instruments not only in Bridport Music but also in other successful shops I visit. Piers has even been known to bring his ukulele out and give the customers a tune, always a good tactic at closing time when looking to clear the shop.

Unusually, the shop stocks a range of nose flutes. Following a comical interview with daughter Hannah by Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 6 Music about the instrument, which included some funny attempts at playing it by the renowned DJ, the shop has received great interest from the public. As the name suggests you play the flute by blowing through the nose instead of the mouth. It normally has four holes which can partly be covered by fingers to make the sounds. Piers has a couple of tips for would-be purchasers. Always blow your nose first, and don’t lend it to somebody else to have a go.

Bridport Music used to be known until 2009 as Bridport Record Centre. The name change reflects the new, broader philosophy. “If it’s music-related then we will have a go at stocking it,” Piers says. Piers and Steph feel that if they were to concentrate on just one of the many strands that they do then they would inevitably fail, but by combining them they are successful. They have listened to what customers have asked for and try to stock it, especially if there is nowhere else in town to buy it.

They love living and working in Bridport. The town is full of independent shops, and given the difficulties faced by independent shops elsewhere, visitors seem amazed to discover that business is thriving. “I wish we had a shop like yours where we live,” is a comment they constantly hear. In 2016, they celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the shop opening. The trouble is that no one can remember the exact date when they started. If you are in the area, pop in and offer your congratulations. If you have a wicked sense of humour, you may prefer to ask them for an iTunes voucher. It is the only time you will find the smile leaving Piers’ face.

Square Records

14, High Street, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1HU

012028 83203

rob@square_records

Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm

Established 1975

Stock: Vinyl, CD, Photographic Art

Located close to the beautiful Wimborne minster, Square Records was founded by electrical goods retailer Roger Holman. He decided to utilize some space in the shop by selling vinyl. Sales were soon booming so he opened a record shop in the high street. His son Paul has run the shop for the last three decades with help from his sister Julie and the punk expert of Dorset, Rob Hoare.

Paul has an interesting history being a member of 1990s cult band the Lemon Trees. The band featured a young Guy Chambers who went on to great success as Robbie Williams’ songwriting partner. In fact, “Lazy Days”, one of Robbie’s Top 10 hits, was an old Lemon Trees number that Paul sang.

The loyal, wonderful and sometimes bonkers customers remain the lifeblood of the shop’s business. One man came in asking if they had anything by a brilliant American duo he had seen on TV called Daryl Hall and John O’Groats.

They still have a lady who phones every Saturday who knows nothing about pop music and relies on the staff to finish her crossword. She does not even say “Hello”, she just starts with “Four letters, song by Queen, We Will **** You”. The staff wonder what she would do if they were not there.

In 2018, there was much upset in the town when the shop announced it was closing. I am delighted to report that the team behind the excellent Gullivers bookshop have bought the business and service is continuing as normal.

The Vault                                           *Turning a slaughterhouse into a record shop*

1 Castle Street, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 1DP

01202 482134

thevaultchristchurch.co.uk; rotationmedia@aol.com; @thevaultxchurch

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 19^th century. During the 20^th 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.

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. Screenings at festivals and various venues throughout the summer.


Check out the trailer

https://youtu.be/dDYrd0N2cIA

@Revival_Vinyl

@vinylrevival1