Death Of The Record Shop

It was sad but not unexpected that HMV had gone into administration this week. For the last few years the company had been having a really tough time with changing technology and the power of the internet. Also I really think they were too expensive, some things on the web site were so much cheaper than the shop, not just by a pound but sometimes up to £6 cheaper. I went into the shop once and the staff were talking to each other about the fact they had bought something from Amazon the night before!

I can still remember the first time I went into the shop here in Hull. It will have been 1978, my first time going into town by myself and going into the shop. Previously when I'd been into town with my parents they would never go into there and I'd only ever seen it from the front. They always put the latest released singles in the window and I remember the lines of coloured vinyl singles forming the shop window display.

The first time I went into the shop was like a kid going into a sweet shop, wall to wall racks of records, posters on the wall and at that time a full wall of the latest picture disc albums coming over from the states, with the likes of Elton John, Blondie, Rod Stewart amongst others hung on the wall. It was the first time I'd seen these and they were amazing and knew I wanted to collect them. There was no way I could afford those albums. That started my love affair of collecting records.

Over the years, the record collection grew, I'd always go into the shops every Saturday to see what new releases were out, I never thought that vinyl would die out and one day I saw these strange silver discs back in 1984 and never thought they would catch on. Compact discs slowly took over from vinyl and slowly record companies stopped releasing vinyl, it was still being pressed up but more smaller quantities to a point in the mid 1990's that shops stopped selling vinyl although mid 2000's it did make a bit of a comeback! Here is a photo of me looking at what was left of the vinyl back in 2007 in our HMV shop

The invention of MP3's, Apple and streaming has killed the record business, along with internet prices meant the humble record shop has vanished from our high streets. If HMV closes here in Hull there will be no shop where I can go to look around at new releases, old albums I might want to buy or take in the atmosphere of listening to new sounds played over a stereo system. Supermarkets like Tesco's only have a small selection of chart and current releases, WH Smiths don't really do CD's anymore and the small independent shops here are more selective in what they can sell. So the internet has won, I will order my stuff off the net, but I so much wanted to browse and look at what I want to buy, it is a real hassle to send something back you are not really happy with, the write up might sound like it's just what you want but when you get it home it just doesn't match up to your expectations.

Record Shops, may you rest in peace, your stores may be gone from our high streets but you live on in my memories!