Hampshire
When Record
Store Day started, Hampshire did not have a single record shop selling new
vinyl. Luckily, plenty of visionary vinyl fans have since
had the foresight to open shops there, with seven new shops since 2016. Every music
fan should make a pilgrimage to the wonderfully quirky Pie & Vinyl in
Southsea. Romsey is lucky to have such a great new record shop as Hundred
Records, a new musical oasis in the town. And, thankfully, someone has finally
had the vision to open a record shop in Southampton: Vinilo
which incorporates a vegan coffee bar.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Elephant Records * The shop with a name you are
unlikely to forget*
8 Kings Walk, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8AF
07871
188474
Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 11am-4pm
Established 2016
Stock: Vinyl, CD, Pre-owned
Alex Brown worked at the Winchester Discovery Centre
for 15 years. He jumped at the
offer of voluntary redundancy, using the money to help him open his own record
shop. Elephant Records has been a voyage of discovery which started off with
Alex selling his own vast vinyl collection and is now known for the selection
of cutting-edge new releases it stocks. It is not an easy shop to find, but it
is well worth the effort to do so.
186d West Street, Fareham, Hampshire PO16 OEL
01329
600303
heathenchemistryrecords.com; info@heathenchemistryrecords.com; @heathenchemistryrecords
Monday/Friday 10am-5pm
Tuesday/Thursday 12noon-8pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Sunday 12noon-4pm
Wednesday closed
Established 2017
Stock: Vinyl, Pre-owned 7-inch, Art, T-shirts
Heathen Chemistry is named after the fifth album by
Oasis. Released in 2002, it is owner Simon Dampier’s favourite record by the Mancunian band. If you too
are a fan, then this is the shop for you. Simon has amassed some very
collectable Oasis records and memorabilia, including exclusive prints, all of
which are for sale. A good reason to visit is that he
has some of the cheapest pre-owned singles I have come across. While the
collectable singles sell at reasonable/normal prices, his “15p-each or 10-for-£1” singles section is understandably popular.
The shop is situated in an area in which independent
shops have been encouraged to open. West Street is very long and at one end you
have the usual high street shops, while the other is the independent sector.
The area has attracted a lot of publicity, though the local paper reporting
that an independent funeral director has recently opened is unlikely to bring
much crossover trade for Simon.
The layout of Heathen Vinyl is long and narrow, with
pre-owned vinyl on one side and new product on the other. Simon sits at an
illuminated counter which he has turned into a work of art. Decorated with
vinyl, it is an impressive sight, especially in the evening.
Hundred
Records
47, The Hundred, Romsey, Hampshire
SO51 8GE
017945 18655
Monday-Friday 10am-5pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Established: 2014
Stock: Vinyl, CDs, Books,
In-stores, Merchandise
Mark Wills opened Hundred Records
after taking voluntary redundancy (or as his wife Anna puts it, “being paid to
go away”). The investment (or “gamble” as Anna calls it) has enabled him to
squeeze a living out of doing something that he loves. No one gets rich from
running an independent record shop and holidays are more likely to be in
Southend than the South Pacific.
Hundred Records is part of the new
wave of independent record shops which have opened as an anti-digital reaction
that has contributed to the vinyl revival. The shop is based in a historic
street called The Hundred, so named because it contains 100 buildings. Although
quite small, the shop looks spacious and the decor is impressive. Most of the
fixtures are wooden, and Mark displays much of the vinyl in wine crates.
Mark has always been a vinyl
collector. Growing up in Southampton, he bought his first record at Henry’s Records and remembers the independent shops the city
used to have such as Weasels, Underground and Subways. His working life as a sales manager for
Lloyds Bank required him to drive around the country, and whenever time allowed
he would pop into local record shops. His job was thus the opposite of mine. I
would drive around the country selling records, he would drive around buying
them.
Mark remembers with absolute
clarity the first thing a customer bought from his shop. After months of
planning and promotion, Hundred Records opened at 9am on November 15, 2014.
Mark had been expecting a queue, but by 9.20am not a single person had walked
through the door. Visions of bankruptcy were looming when, much to his relief,
Mark’s first customer bought a set of headphones and a Peter Gabriel CD. A
steady stream of people followed many of whom said how delighted they were that
Romsey now had its own record shop.
Mark describes Hundred Records as a “curated shop”. Realising that he can’t stock everything, he tries to ensure he knows
everything he does stock, and tries to play as much new product as possible.
Mark is a staunch supporter of local music and stocks all releases from local
artists and musicians on a non-profit basis. It is a fabulous gesture, but as
Mark puts it: “I want the local record shop to be a hub for musicians and I
want people to talk about Hundred Records”.
Another great initiative is the
shop’s Record of the Month. The criteria for qualifying is that Mark must like
it. He will contact the distributor to see if they can offer any promotional
stock, give extra discount or get the artist to visit the shop. Often, he will
have a pre-release evening where customers can listen to the album over some
refreshments and pre-order it. This is an idea other shops would do well to
consider. When he had Preternatural by West Country art-rock band the
Moulettes as his album of the month, he sold 135 copies.
“Running a record shop is the most fun you can have with your trousers
on,” Mark says,
and working in the shop has certainly provided many laughs. On Record Store Day,
Mark drafted his wife, Anna, in to help man the barricades. A teenager asked if
they had the Front Bottoms in stock. Anna and the teenager blushed in bright
tandem, as other customers burst out laughing, betraying their ignorance of
this genuine, but unfortunately-named band.
The shop’s most unusual customer is a man who always buys the
best-known record by the most recently deceased music star. He is a medium who
want to help the departed performer to reach “the next plane of existence”.
Listening to their hits helps him talk to these dead people. During 2016 alone,
he came in for records by David Bowie, Prince, Merle Haggard, Glenn Frey, and
Cilla Black. He came in to the shop soon after Lemmy died, and Mark had some
Motorhead CDs lined up to offer him. But for some reason he did not ask. Either
he wasn’t a fan of speed metal or had decided that Lemmy did not need any help
to pass over to the other side.
Hundred Records also claims to have
the country’s best-dressed customer. The
gentleman concerned is never seen without either his top hat or his bowler. He
always wears a yellow waistcoat and green cravat and carries a silver topped
cane. His musical taste is described as “progressive” and he buys everything
released on the KSCOPE label - Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree and Anathema being
among their top acts.
One ill-tempered customer asked for
“Nights in Black Satin” by the Moody Blues. Mark told him that the song was
called “Nights in White Satin”, but the customer was so adamant that he convinced Mark to spend the next 10 minutes looking it up.
Even more
ill-tempered was a woman who burst in to the shop, marched up to the counter
and shouted at Mark for allowing her partner to spend too much money in the
shop. She ordered him to stop selling her husband records and then promptly
walked out. To this day Mark has no idea who the woman’s husband is.
The shop puts on as many in-store
events as possible. Any musician reading this who plans to be near Southampton
should get in touch with Mark. He has hosted performances by Martin Simpson and
many others. The most memorable event involved Larkin Poe, the American roots band fronted by the Lovell
sisters. The band had not grasped how small the shop is and turned up on a hot
summer’s day with all their equipment, including a full drum kit. The shop can
normally accommodate around 70 people for an event but by the time everything
was set up the capacity had been reduced to about 40. It was an amazing gig,
with people packed in like sardines. When the band finished, instead of signing
their new CD from behind the counter, Mark set up a table on the pavement with
some drinks, so that everyone could cool down.
Sales have grown steadily. The
support from the independent distribution sector has been plentiful, from the
majors, less so. Mark has been puzzled to find that major distributors don’t seem to care about new businesses and small
independent record shops. The companies he does most business with are Proper,
Pias, Cargo and Discovery all of whom give him good credit terms and
promotional support. The attitude of Sony, Warner Music and Universal is the
complete opposite. According to Mark, “If you phone an independent distributor
the first question is ‘How can we help you?’.
If you are speaking to a major it is more likely
to be ‘Why don’t you just go away?’ You don’t feel like a customer you feel
like you are being milked.”
The industry needs to embrace shops
like Hundred Records
and it would
benefit the major labels to get out of their offices and pay shops like this a
visit. Being relatively new to music retailing, Mark is brimming with opinions
and passion and sees things through fresh eyes. To see him in action enthusing
to customers about the latest exciting record he has heard is a joy. So many of
his customers end up leaving the shop with something they did not come in to
buy, which is what can be so great about a good record shop.
Pie & Vinyl *The record
shop that produced Nick Cave pies*
61 Castle Rd, Southsea, Hampshire
PO5 3AY
02392 753914
pieandvinyl.co.uk; steve@pieandvinyl.co.uk; @PieandVinyl
Monday-Wednesday 10am-7pm
Thursday-Saturday 11am-9pm
Sunday 11am-5pm
Established 2012
Stock: Vinyl, Art, T-shirts, Pies
Steve Courtnell was thoroughly
bored, sitting at his desk in a dead-end job at Estée Lauder, when he had his
eureka moment. He vowed to open his own record shop and, from that moment on,
began planning his great escape from the corporate world.
Having been a keen music fan from a
young age with an obsessive personality, Steve feels that he is still on an
eternal journey to find a piece of music or a song that makes him feel the way
he did when he first heard a Neil Young record or watched Nirvana on MTV or
listened to the Beatles in his dad’s car. His father was very keen on music, and played in a band
called Clint Cortell and the Confidentials. Having initially been inspired by
his parents’ record collection, Steve then began to like exactly what his
parents didn’t like.
Pie & Vinyl is situated on
Castle Road, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote A Study In Scarlet,
and the Sherlock Holmes legend began. Steve can remember trawling the pre-owned
record shops around Portsmouth in his youth. He remembers the way the shops
smelled and the minimal eye contact from unhelpful staff who treated the
records they were selling as if you weren’t supposed to touch them. When opening Pie
& Vinyl, he resolved to do the opposite.
Steve spent his spare cash on vinyl
and became hooked on the superior sound. He speculated that other people would
feel the same way and decided to sell only the modern format of vinyl and to do
his utmost to be as approachable and honest about any genre of music and to
learn from his customers.
Record shops were dying, so he needed a new approach. Like others, he decided to combine selling records with a café/catering
experience. But instead of the usual muffins or pastries, he wanted to provide
his customers with a different kind of taste sensation; something old-fashioned, something English,
something with lots of tradition and soul… a
food as satisfying as vinyl records. It came to him
in a flash: pie and mash with gravy and liquor. He remembered at a music
festival eating some fantastic pies made by a company called Pieminister, and
approached them to be his supplier. He canvassed the idea in the industry and among his friends. The
Pie & Vinyl story had begun.
With a selection of 40 different
pies to go with the high-quality music, Pie & Vinyl has won the support of
people not only in Southsea and nearby Portsmouth but also in the surrounding
areas and even nationally. There are regular in-store performances and in
November 2013 Steve expanded the shop and started his own record label to
encourage local and new talent. He also opened another shop a few doors down
called Pie & Hi-Fi which sells and repairs turntables. Pie & Vinyl also
sells its own merchandise including T-shirts bearing the gramophone label. For
serious collectors, there is The Pie & Vinyl Record Adventure, an arrangement
whereby for a £100 subscription each quarter you
receive a record chosen by the team, along with mystery gifts, discount
vouchers and priority access to gigs.
Pie & Vinyl is planning to open
another store in 2018.The team DJs at many festivals and
events across the country and have curated a poster exhibition and gallery.
When Nick Cave released his album Skeleton Tree in 2016 it was accompanied
by a documentary film One More Time with
Feeling. The evening before the record was available in the shops, the film
was screened in 86 cinemas across the UK. Pie & Vinyl did a joint event
with their local cinema and after the screening patrons could buy the record
and also purchase Nick Cave-themed pies which they had produced especially for
the event.
Here was the menu:
Push the Pie Away - British beef steak with Stilton
Cheese (after the album Push the Sky Away)
Abattoir Blues - butternut squash, mushroom &
spinach in a coconut Thai Curry sauce (vg) (after the album
of the same name)
Stagger Me - British free-range chicken with leeks and
staggeringly good ale (after Nick’s version of the old American song ‘Stagger Lee’)
Nick Cave and the Sesame Seeds – goat’s cheese, sweet
potato, spinach, red onion, roasted garlic and sesame seeds
It was a fantastic event and it
just shows what a shop can do if they think about their promotion and
marketing.
Steve says “Can you remember when you first hit the return button on your keyboard, and downloaded your first
song? Me neither, but I bet you will always remember the first record you
bought in Pie & Vinyl.”
You will probably remember the
first pie too.
Vinilo Records *The vegan record shop*
55 Queensway, Southampton, Hampshire SO14 3BL
02381 847674
Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-3pm
Established 2017
Stock, Vinyl, Pre-owned, Vegan coffee and cakes, In-stores
For the last couple of years whenever I have been asked “Where would
you open a record shop?” I have always suggested Southampton - a city full of
students, with a premiership football team and a vibrant live music scene, but
for many years no independent record shop.
Thankfully, Ken and Virginia Robshaw have taken the bull by the horns.
Ken worked at the last independent record shop based in the city, Essential
Music, which had branches in Southampton, Brighton and Greenwich before closing
20 years ago. Ken spent the next
few years touring in bands which didn’t quite make the big time.
Once you have experienced music retailing it is always in your blood
and the lure proved too much for Ken. He and Virginia envisioned a shop with
a difference. Beautifully designed by Virginia, with everything made of wood
and decked out with lots of greenery, the store serves fresh vegan coffee and
cakes (all plant-based) and has two listening stations where customers are
welcome to hear the pre-owned records before buying them.
I am grateful to Ken and the team for writing this piece on
their fantastic shop
Harbour Records
29 High Street
Emsworth
PO10 7AG
And it’s often the case that someone will completely catch you
out of left field - like the 80 year old customer enquiring if we had
Kraftwerk’s “Man Machine”, or the customer banging on the door just before we
opened, and on opening asking us if we’d be able to cut his hair as the barbers
was closed!
However, none can quite compare musically (at the moment!) to
our Dickie’s experience. Now spare a thought for the fella - it was his first
day working in the shop, and I can totally understand why he phoned up later
and asked if we’d sent someone in to wind him up…but here in his own words is
the story that still makes us laugh to this day….
When I said I’d help the boys out in the shop I thought I
had a fairly good knowledge of music; sure there were some gaps in my knowledge
but I’m a blagger it will be fine. I grew up on glam rock and punk and most of
my music knowledge was spawned from there through Indie, Post Punk, Grunge and
Brit Pop. In latter years it’s 6 Music that has kept me up to date with new
music and the resurgence of great alternative indie bands.
So I’d been in the shop, been shown how to use the till, had
a quick run through of the stock, checked the ‘Wanted’ Book and the ‘in for
valuation’ book. I was ready to go. Bring on the customers.
Now Harbour Records customers are many and varied but on my
first day in the shop I had one request that nothing could have prepared me
for. Our footfall is made up of Emsworth locals and also many folk visiting the
village for a walk around the harbour, or to visit the farmers market. We do of
course also get people travelling to the shop as they’ve heard of our love of
music knowing our collection is curated by music lovers for music lovers.
We’ve helped people remember the title of songs or artists
of songs from their childhood. We’ve helped people find music for funerals but
one request sums up the variety of questions we get thrown at us.
So on my first day a lady stepped into the shop, maintaining
an exit route with one foot still on the pavement. People do this, they don’t
know if you’re up for a chat. “I don’t know if you can help? “ She started.
“I’m trying to get a record that [Aunt/Grandmother...can’t remember that bit]
used to play me in the late 60s.”
Now, as I said my music knowledge is pretty broad, over the
years I like to think I’m pretty ok with 50s and 60s. Bring it on. What are you
looking for?
She starts an ever more specific request and by this time
has ventured further into the shop realising I don’t bite.
Q. Do you sell spoken word records ?
A. We have a few
Q Do you have a record of Alfred Lord Tennyson Poems?
A. Uumm
Q. Read in a Lincolnshire dialect ?
A. Uuuummmmmm
Q. On 10 inch vinyl?
At this point I did have to admit it was my first day. I
didn’t know all the stock but I did feel confident advising that I didn’t think
we carried that in stock.
She told me about this record being played every time she
visited her Aunt/Grandmother and we chatted. Whilst we were chatting, I found
the record on Discogs...many versions of it and gave her the online details. I
said we could order it in for her but it would be easier for to buy direct
online. She went away happy and I had my first ‘Funny Requests in Record Shops’
anecdote !
BUT I had Keith Richards gardener in (Keith lives up the
road in the Witterings I believe), and he was wearing a cravat that he rescued
from a skip Keith had at his house. So we’ve had Keith’s cravat in the shop if
that counts?!😂
Ventnor
Exchange
11 Church Street, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, Hampshire PO38 1SW
01983 716767
Friday and Sunday 5pm-11pm
Saturday 10am-11pm
Established 2014
Stock, Vinyl, Pre-owned, Books, Coffee, Food, In-stores, Licenced
Ventnor Exchange is a creative hub that combines a theatre, a Belgian
beer bar and a record shop all located under one roof in the Victorian seaside
town of Ventnor. It is instrumental in organising the Ventnor Fringe Festival.
The records are displayed on tables in the centre of the room surrounded by a
bar and lush seating to help you chill out. Check out the extensive range of
Belgian beers.
Be aware of the unusual opening hours before you visit
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.
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