The next entry in our ‘For the Record Shops’ series comes from Colin from Vod Music. Our man Carl recently visited his fascinating little Record shop up in Mold, North Wales which you can read about in this article.
Colin also organises a successful series of Record fairs in that neck of the woods too, and his article he tells us about his devotion to the cause of Record Shops and why they still have an important role to play:

The inspiration for the Mold Record Shop came from years of trawling  shops in the heady days of the 70’s and the survivors of the expected demise of Vinyl in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The guys who hung in there may now reap the benefits of the ironic ongoing demise of the CD due to the current download culture, not that any format should be singled out,  they all have merit but for the serious music listener Vinyl remains the ‘weapon of choice’ – it’s how it’s meant to sound.

The Record shop to me was a place to hang out and slap on the headphones with no obligation. The guys behind the counter would engage in banter and pass on their knowledge with a smile (the music was everything). Racks of temptation lay in front of you, not only for the music but also the artwork. You could order or enquire about different genres – “what’s that sound like?” , be informed on what was due in, all this added to the experience. Then the thrill of walking home with your purchase in the bag, quite often no knowing what it was going to sound like – experimentation (although sometimes hit and miss) was a big part of it. Large high street stores just cannot deliver this level of enjoyment.

When the last Independent Record shop disappeared from Mold in North Wales, locally it left a void, I felt there were lost souls wandering without any crates to dig. This lead to Vod Music Record Fairs (sort of one-day Record shops) being set-up in 2006 and happy to say as we move to 2010 the Fairs have built up a fervent following and achieve excellent visitor numbers at every event.

But the opportunity to get behind my own counter in early 2009 proved too much of a draw, running your own Record shop is like a dream come true. Yes it’s ‘not the biggest’ (no exaggeration there)  but hopefully in some small way the feeling I had in times gone by can be recreated, it’s not rocket science just good music and chat.
The customer and the Record shop owner are to me as one, the knowledge out there lies on both sides of the counter and should not be underestimated.
Here in North Wales music lovers are renewing their vows with Vinyl. It’s not uncommon to find people who had replaced their Vinyl with CD’s only to severely regret it and are now replacing the same items with Vinyl again, talk about coming full-circle.
So what does it all mean to me – when you enter a Record Shop the clock stops. It’s  a place to chill and forget about everything else just for a while – long may the Independents continue!

Vod Music host regular Record Fairs in North Wales throughout the year, more details click here.

For more about the Mold Record Shop check out the site here: