The demise of record shops

This article from the BBC news website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6707255.stm

about the demise of records shops in and around Berwick St and this one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6444717.stm

about the possible eventual demise of HMV (in its current form) makes me
feel rather sad. I love browsing around in record shops and while it's
not the same as flicking through the racks and reduced boxes for vinyl
singles (from teenage times) there is still something great about being
immersed in sound and searching the racks for potential purchases. I
used to use Steve's Sounds mentioned in the first article and they were
always cheaper than HMV or bloody Tescos but they are gone and a piece
of Chinatown life has vanished to be replaced by a shop that sells
plastic covers for IPODs and mobile phones - bah!

The thought that the only options to buy music will be pressing some
buttons on a keyboard to download something or else buy in from Amazon
does not fill me with glee. Are we really going to lose a whole way of
buying music just because today's teenagers buy downloads? When the IT
industry eventually works out how to replace paper books with a
practical digital alternative will we then face the loss of our
bookshops?

 

I'd have to agree with this, even though I have resigned myself to the
fact that a lot of the music I like[1] can't really be found in your
normal UK record store. Oddly enough I never managed to find suitable
specialist stores either so I've pretty much been buying stuff either
from Amazon or during the yearly visit to Amsterdam. Oddly enough,
finding at least the prog rock and goth rock stuff in Amsterdam is
easy...

I mis-spent a lot of time as a youth in record stores and I wish that
we still had some decent ones but this doesn't seem to be the case
anymore, thanks to the same commercial realities that made it easier
for the artist to distribute music themselves.

[1] Prog rock, *proper* electric blues and other strange stuff like
that.

 

I rather enjoy an hour or so mooching round Fopp. They seem to have an
awful lot of stuff that I enjoy and they have the ability to make some
serious dents to my credit card!

 

"Paul Corfield" <> schreef in bericht

Too late. Philips is already researching and making small flexible LCD-type
screens.

 

Probably. It's just another stage in the evolution of popular music
formats - 78>45>33>CD>MP3 and it gets dictated by where the volume is.

But I know where you're coming from - I like CD but I also like my old
vinyl. I used to buy a lot of vinyl from Steve's Sounds. But then
again an MP3 player is so much better for taking music on holiday than
a pile of CDs!

 

Bad form post but the Sony Digital Book reader thing I saw recently
was *very* impressive...
However I think books are less ephemeral than music formats. The
paperless office has been trumpeted for years but paper still rules.

 

Care to elaborate? I'm finding myself drawn to blues music more and
more, and I like the more hard-edged, electric guitar blues (i.e. like
SRV, only more so IYSWIM) but don't know many acts worth checking out.

 

I'm not a blues fan per se, but perhaps sir would like to check out The Jeff
Beck Group and Ten Years After?

 

Agreed, but I would also recommend Clapton's album "Me and Mr. Johnson",
EC playing old style blues in a slightly more modern way.

 

I've just had a brainwave, for those of us using last.fm anyway, as there seem
to be a few music bores here.

http://www.last.fm/group/ukrm.

 

I hope that title refers to Robert Johnson and isn't just a euphemism.
How about Johnny Winter of Buddy Guy?

 

Oops, that should have been 'or'.

 

It does, an album of his work done by EC with Billy Preston and Andy
Fairweather Low. Fifteen tracks of excellent Blues and I'm listening to
it again right now.

 

Sorry - fourteen tracks. In the sleeve notes EC says Johnson was one of
his earliest influences and it's plain to see from this album. You can
also see where the Stones got got a lot of their early stuff from too.
I'd never heard of Johnson but I will certainly try and find more of his
work, is there much to be found?

 

Not volumes, but it's all good, authentic blues of the sort that is actually
interesting[1]. You'll probably find you can get most of his output on a very
few compilation CDs.

[1] Unlike anything EC did post-Cream.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

Not fuckin' many, centurion.

I've got (somewhere) a double CD of his stuff. Rather frustratingly, it
features two recordings of each track, and they follow each other on
each CD, as opposed to being recorded on alternate CDs.

All very fascinating for the dyed-in-the-nylon anorak brigade, but it
fucks up the listening experience something rotten.

--
Wounded Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

I've never relly looked into the history of the blues, I knew the Stones
and others took a lot of their work from Howlin' Wolf et al but never
went beyond that. I've just been on Ebay and got a cd of Robert
Johnson's complete works for less than a fiver so I'll give it a listen.
Thanks for the info - I'll have a look for the film "Crossroads" too! I
think you might find the EC album is worth a listen if you haven't
already heard it.

 

I'd sell my soul for a fraction of his talent.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, DR

The Crossroads is ----> that way.

--
Wounded Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

If the "somewhere" extends this far, that's why I've got it here.
I'll return it, stat.