The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Play it again
Despite an explosion in digital music, sales of vinyl are soaring. Michael Alexander takes a rummage through the racks in search of an explanation
In this era of streaming and digital downloads, the traditional record store is holding firm on the high street.
It has to be one of the greatest comebacks in music history. During a period of declining sales, the vinyl record trade grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2015 with more than two million LPs sold in the UK alone.
That’s the highest levels since 1994, and according to the Official Charts Company, 2016 looks likely to be another stonking year with sales already up 61% during the first quarter.
Someone is still venturing out on to the high street to buy all these records while the rest of society sits at home and streams tracks straight on to laptops, so what’s the secret of vinyl’s enduring success?
At Groucho’s, the legendary independent record store in Dundee’s Nethergate, a funky James Brown tune is blaring from the speakers and the familiar scent of fousty secondhand sleeves fills the air as I seek out the insight of proprietor Alastair “Breeks” Brodie.
Edinburgh-born Breeks – nicknamed at school after an Oor Wullie character – has charted the mixed fortunes of vinyl since he opened the shop in 1976.
And while the 62-year-old can’t see it ever returning to its 1970s and 1980s heyday, he has noticed an upsurge in customers buying records solely for collecting purposes.
“Many are middle aged men who are trying to replace the collections they regret getting rid of 20 or 30 years ago,” he says.
“Others belong to a new generation who appreciate the rich, clear and more authentic sound that vinyl analogue recordings have over digital.”
And for all the convenience of modern methods, there’s nothing to beat the thrill of holding an actual record in your hand. In an era of streaming music and internet downloads, and following the decline of cassettes and CDs, many music fans still cherish the tactility of vinyl and the artwork of album covers that made many the stuff of legend.
Good classic rock, reggae and dance will always sell at Groucho’s but for all their experience and expertise it’s impossible for Breeks and his team to predict customers’ musical tastes.
“It never ceases to amaze you what people buy,” he adds. “There’s a lot more young people getting into records – buying the old stuff. But because they haven’t grown up with it, they don’t have the same built-in filter that record collectors over the years have got.
“They don’t know what is a good Santana album or what is a bad Santana album. They just buy it because it’s a Santana album.
“We once had the godfather of rap Afrika Bambaataa in the shop and what did he buy? Mungo Jerry In the Summertime and an Edith Piaf single!”
The US ambassador to the UK was another high-profile visitor just a few weeks ago.
Matthew Barzun was in the city for a lecture at Dundee University but found time to indulge his passion for music and tweeted a photograph of himself browsing for bargains with the message: “Great find in #Dundee – Groucho’s record store...”
Breeks has an abundance of stories about the people who hand in boxes of secondhand records.
There are the adults who bring in their deceased parents’ “unsellable” country and western LPs. And then there was the day a thief tried to sell shop manager Frank Mills a box of records that he recognised straight away as the ones that had been stolen from his own house.
Breeks’ favourite finds, however, are the rare, preferably well-played (and therefore well-loved) seven inch singles that still surface from time to time.
“If you can’t say it in three minutes, then it’s not worth saying,” he says, pointing out several of his favourites high up on the walls.
The gallery includes original copies of
It never ceases to amaze you what people buy. There’s a lot more young people getting into records – buying the old stuff.
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (£15), The Beatles’ Lady Madonna (£7.50) and Bank Robber by The Clash (£5).
“I always congratulate customers for records that have been well played. And I love it when we find old things,” he adds.
Those that don’t pass quality control often end up in Breeks’ famous amnesty box – the final resting place for many a Bay City Rollers album. “It’s a personal reason,” he grins. “I’m trying to rid the world of Bay City Rollers records one at a time.”
And even the unwanted and the damaged have an afterlife among genuine vinyl addicts.
“Gone are the days of just melting it and making a flower pot,” he says.
“One guy tiled the roof of his shed with vinyl. Some people cover their walls and ceiling with them. Others make cake stands.”
Further down the A90, in Perth, another independent music institution is family run Concorde Records, which is nine years older than Groucho’s and has outlived a whole string of high street chains in the city including HMV, Virgin and Our Price.
Opened in October 1967 by aviation fan Norman Smith (hence the name) it was originally based in the long demolished St John’s Square and has been in Scott Street for over 20 years.
Today, it is owned by Norman’s son, Garry and his wife Hazel and when The Courier visits, the couple’s son Craig, 38, is manning the counter with long serving staff member Jane Ireland.
While they mostly sell new vinyl albums and CDs, only branching into secondhand stock and online sales around 18 months ago, the customer profile is remarkably similar.
“Record Store Day in April is by far our busiest day of the year, “says Craig, who has worked there since the age of 24. “We have folk queuing out the door from early morning. A lot of kids see it as being trendy to have vinyl and will come in and buy two or three records secondhand at £6, or seven inch singles at £1.
“They are building up their collections without spending loads of cash.
“We also get a few older folk who come in every day who like a wee chat. We have others that come in once a week and some turn up once a month on pay day. We could write a book...”
Many record companies are issuing new releases on vinyl again – but it comes at a price. Bruce Springsteen’s new LP Chapter and Verse is retailing at £22 and King Creosote’s Astronaut Meets Appleman is £28.
With CDs retailing for around £12 and downloads substantially less, it’s not value for money that keeps record fans coming back. But like his counterparts at Groucho’s, Craig reckons it’s the tactility and album artwork that makes vinyl so popular.
The changing face of the Scottish high street, the rise of downloads, and the growth in internet shopping has taken its toll elsewhere. The legendary Sleeves record store in Kirkcaldy is long gone. Dunfermline’s Third Base shut up shop in 2013 after 25 years trading. And the loss of names like Woolworths has further limited access to records in provincial towns.
However, there are still some willing to take a punt on bucking the trend. Assai Records opened in King Street, Broughty Ferry, just last year and Dundee-raised music fan and retired geography teacher George Robertson, 60, launched his Voxbox Music shop in St Stephen Street, Edinburgh – the first vinyl record outlet to open in the UK this century – in 2011.
The former Kirkton High School pupil helped run the Caird Hall record fairs in the 1970s and turned his passion for jazz, blues and beat into a business when vinyl began to rise again. Two years after opening he was made an offer to sell up – doubling his investment.
Record companies are also responding to demand by reissuing many old albums on vinyl, from the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Doors to more obscure psychedelic and jazz.
However, it’s not just re-releases that are selling well. Artists like Justin Timberlake and Adele accounted for one in six vinyl sales last year. And preorders in clear vinyl of the David Bowie album Black Star issued two days after he died this year are already selling on the internet for up to £500.
“It just shows you that current things can also be collectible – and there’s plenty life left in old vinyl yet,” adds George.