A BOOK charting the seemingly terminal decline of the country’s record shops has just been released.
The author of Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to the Record Shops?, Graham Jones, will be in Caernarfon tonight (Thursday) for a reading and book signing.
He will be appearing at Palas Print bookshop, on Palace Street, from 6.30pm and this is a “must see” event for anyone who is a music fan, a record shop customer, a concertgoer or a vinyl collector and would like to hear more about his hilarious and sometimes harrowing accounts of the record shop tales.
Not so long ago, there was a record shop on every high street but over the last four years, 540 of these have closed down.
Last Shop Standing is the heartbreaking but true tale of the decline of these much loved record shops and their beloved vinyl. The record retailing is an industry in crisis because of the growing popularity of music downloading and a host of other rapidly emerging market trends.
Mr Jones has collected a wealth of entertaining stories. He has witnessed the dealings of the UK’s worst record shop, heard about the hysterical tale of the band that faked a murder, knows the reason why Mr Blobby has a special place in the heart of record shop owners and how most hyped records cheated their way up to the top of the charts!
The book reveals anecdotes about rock stars including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Oasis, Queen, David Bowie, to name only a few.
The Liverpudlian has worked in the music industry since the 1980s and was the founder of Proper Music Distribution and also managed a band called the Cherry Boys.
His recently published book reveals the truth behind the undertaking of a final tour around the last remaining independent record shops in Britain.
The author said his main purpose is to bring attention to the fact that these family businesses are going to the wall because of the big faceless corporations. The friendly, one-to-one service of a record shop owner is dying.
The book is also a celebration and a tribute to these music fans who simply wanted to give music a chance to be heard.
The reading will be followed by an acoustic set by the funky, Latin American influenced band, Banda Bacana.
Free tickets for the event are available at Cob Records, Bangor and Palas Print, Caernarfon.