Last Wednesday night, I was lucky enough to asked if I'd like to attend the Premiere of the film version of Graham Jones' book 'Last Shop Standing: Whatever happened to Record Shops?' - a journey through an industry in turmoil at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton.
It was my first visit to the Ritzy since it had been done up and the only other time I went there was to see a concert by John Cale with Support from Martin Bramah'ss new band of the time (Thirst) who he formed after leaving The Blue Orchids, but that was back in 1986 or so, back when the music business was in rude health.
I was thrilled to get the chance to see the documentary version of a book I loved reading, here is my review of it:
Good Reads review of Last Shop Standing
Anyway, we got to the Ritzy in good time to enjoy the nice glass of wine that came with the ticket and then went into the cinema where The Director, Pip Piper, and Graham Jones introduced the screening and made us aware that most of the audience was made up of men and women from behind the counters of various legendary records shops from around the UK.
The documentary itself takes us into some of the finest records shops left in the UK to hear (from the owners and staff) the story of how the industry attempted to commit suicide by a thousand cuts. The telling of the story is ably assisted by several musicians who used to work in record shops including Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, Clint Boon, Billy Bragg and Nerina Pallot but they really weren't the stars of this film.
The real stars were the record shop walls I gazed at while trying to figure out how many of the records I could see I owned, which was quite a few. Well all of the Fela Kuti ones and lots of others and also to see which ones we wanted to buy. I have to say I want to know more about the Joe Harriot book they had in Honest Jon's as I'm sure it would be fascinating and make me want to find more of his albums than I already own.
Just hearing the first hand stories of the payola years when reps would come in and feed sales through the chart return machine to hype it or give shops stacks of free records with the same intent was an eye-opener. Then there was the near death of Vinyl by record company stupidity: a slide that has been reversed by the amount of fans demanding vinyl releases rather than CDS. In the age of the download, it seems to make sense for albums to be back in Vinyl with a download code for the portable version of an album and how this revival of Vinyl has actually happened. In the last couple of years since the book came out a few new record shops have opened as well, as many inevitable. closures. Some have found great new gimmicks of their own, not least the rather quirky-sounding Pies and Vinyl in Southsea who have a combination pie and mash and record shop!
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But some of the best moments are the stories of strange customers and one of the blokes behind the counter struggles manfully to find the right Slim Gaillard track to illustrate his point about a customer who likes poultry-related music. Having said that, I don't actually think they played Chicken Rhythm which was the tune he was looking for on what looked like to me a vinyl copy of 'The Legendary McVouty' album. That not only has Chicken Rhythm but follows it with Fried Chicken O Routie. I dug out my copy to check!
The saddest moment in the film comes when we see the closing down of a record shop in Chesterfield. It had been there for 106 years with the current owner was way past retirement age but heartbroken that the shop he had worked in all his life was no longer viable.
This documentary is for anyone who loves music and loved searching for it and chatting with the staff in various record shops so they can point you in the direction of other cool and interesting music you might like. Alternately, it's for those who have been dragged along on yet another record shopping spree by the music addict they live with.
The documentary is being shown at various screenings around the UK and elsewhere in the next few months; many with the Director and Author attending and holding Question and Answer sessions afterwards as this Premiere did.
Among the people who asked questions, many came from those who record shops themselves. One was a woman who had come from Sydney in Australia to be at the premiere. She believed in the project so much, as did a wonderful chap who was 84 years old and still running his record shop. These folks are the real stars and worthy of serious respect.
The DVD is now available at all good Independent record shops and if you don't have one close by order it online from one instead as diversification is one of the many strategies to surviving shown and discussed in this must see documentary.
Proper Music online
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