HMV is bust. That is old news now but I’m writing this as I’m totally appalled that HMV is not honouring its gift vouchers that it sold before Christmas. Industry experts have estimated that there are £100 million worth of vouchers outstanding. My brain is metaphorically boiling with righteous indignation and steam is metaphorically coming out of my ears.
You know, if a company gets a gift of one hundred million pounds (without having to provide any product in return) and still goes bust you really have to question their accounting. Something has gone wrong.
HMV created a new advertising campaign in the run up to Christmas knowing that they were going to fold even with a festive season’s trading and all of the free money from the voucher sales. They will argue that they didn’t ‘know’ they were about to fold in the same way that a theoretical physicist will say he doesn’t ‘know’ that the Earth goes around the Sun. They both know and no amount of italics can get them off the hook.
In theory, we could have been invaded by space-creatures from the outer solar system. Titan, why not – that Brian Cox program is pretty great. That’s right. Aliens arriving in an RAF roundel-decorated 24k gold spaceship from Titan in theory could have arrived on Christmas Day and offered to pay off the debt in dwonf-ruboons , their local currency. Or failing that, they’d pitch their bad-holiday-tattoo curing alien saliva to the bastard-panel on Dragon’s Den. Or, heck they’ll may have wanted to trade their gold spaceship in for 24 tonnes of DVD Box Sets of The Wire. Anything to keep HMV going and them Titanians are mad for The Wire. There was even a chance that I’d win the Intergalactic Trillions Lottery without even entering or it existing, and take over HMV, combining our businesses as VoxBox-HMV. We’d resurrect the HMV label and try to sell vibrations to platinum rich solar systems in other galaxies.
I know, and we all know, and every man and his Nipper knows that HMV knew while they were selling their vouchers that their company would be in administration in January and the vouchers would be worthless. They really, really, really did know.
The only way HMV could have survived is if the banks that they owed money to would dramatically write off the debt and their town centre megastore landlords would reduce the rent, the councils would cut their Council Tax and the music distributors would give them stock on sale or return and cheaply. That and a really good Christmas.
Downloads did not kill HMV. EMI did, ten years ago. EMI sold off HMV in 2002 with rent agreements that could destroy any large company. They pocketed some money in the sell off and left £150million of debt with HMV. The company never dealt with the debt. The management, used to fat salaries and perks, never seriously attempted to reduce the debt until recent years when the banks made them sell off all the most profitable bits of the business.
HMV have made a loss for at least 7 of these 10 years and that is despite turning over 2 billion pounds a year for most of that time. Have a look at the accounts and you’ll see that the top brass have enjoyed fantastic salaries (and pensions) and bonuses for years while running a company that was either making a tiny margin or losing money.
The press have focused on the music download, online competition –the tax avoiding Amazon in particular and HMV’s competition with sellers who did not pay VAT by basing themselves in the Channel Islands (Amazon again, and Play.com).
When you think that about a third of all physical music in the UK was still being bought from HMV even despite their inflated price then you can see that there is still a market for physical product.
EMI guaranteed the rents for some HMV stores so they may end up getting their comeuppance after all.
Fopp, are owned by HMV. Presumably Fopp is profitable and will be sold off to someone. I have mixed feelings about Fopp. I was in today and bought some records. Their pricing is Bizarre though. £27 for Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits! We sell the mint original for about £8.
Sunset on Fopp?
Fopp often sell records cheaper than we could buy them from the distributor. It will be interesting to see what happens. I imagine that, like Rangers Mk II, HMV will still continue to exist –someone will buy the UK trademark and open some music shops.
Anyway, I’m rambling but the point of this was that we have only just resurrected the Record Token as a gift for the record loving friend or relative. And that is partly why I am furious at that HMV over their selling of vouchers while insolvent. For me, they have ruin……. And on and on. I give up.
Rant over. Phew.
Our Record Tokens are guaranteed by our self respect and decency.
I like lists, I like the book and film of High Fidelity and I like Desert Island Discs. But sadly, I don’t really like these end of year lists.
This has been a good year for album releases. The old-guard represented by new albums from a long list including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, John Cale, Scott Walker, Dr John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Weller, Donald Fagen, Bill Fay, Ry Cooder, PiL, Richard Hawley, David Byrne, Bobby Womack and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
The right-on guard represented by Django Django, The XX, Grimes, Japandroids, Jack White and The Black Keys and a load of bands I’ve never heard of.
The online music blogs have lots of obscurities in their top tens that make me feel old and more than a little out of touch. But hey, George and I are part-timers in this music business and our stock is in line with the MOJO and Uncut magazine demographic.
If you have a big listening pile already where do you start? Its easy for Uncut to review all of these records as they have a team of writers and they get the albums for free. What about the general punter? Or say a small Edinburgh record shop co-owner with dreams of…. anyway that’s £750- £1500+ of new music depending on your favourite format and there are the records that didn’t make the top 75. Like my top album of the year.**
I’ll try to catch up with 2012 music in 2013 while still trying to keep up to date with 2013. But there is no quiz at the pearly gates and listening should never be a chore. Nor is it a competition for trainspotters. Ticking off albums that other folk have listed is ok. But it is as (human) natural as counting the bricks in a prison cell.
This year seemed to have had a lot of deaths (There’s another list). Cheery stuff this blog! But bear with me, it gets better. From Ravi Shankar and Dave Brubeck most recently, two people who we had maybe forgotten were still alive, to a long list of legends including Levoln Helm (The Band), Davy Jones (Monkees), Whitney Houston, Etta James, Robin Gibb, Fontella Bass, Donna Summer and Beastie Boy Adam Yaugh (MC-A). Most came as a big surprise but I remember that MC-A continually said that he was ill. We shouldn’t wait for a death to look at a career and say wow, this is genius. It’s important to play and appreciate the good older stuff while they are alive and gigging.
I had a look at some of the top 100 albums of 1969. http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=1969 I’m familiar with this lot, I have 63 of this list. (I too am one of the Record Geeks. Tick, tick, tick…)
There is some fantastic music in that lot, some albums that never took off in their time, some that still haven’t taken off and some things that I have tried and just couldn’t really get into (King Crimson). Also why isn’t Unicorn by Tyrannosaurus Rex on that list?
Art Is Hard. So rating albums isn’t for me. You always have to leave out too many worthy discs.
So I’ll leave you with my end of year list that should keep everyone happy:
Carrot Cake Ingredients
18cm Cake Tin
3 large eggs
175ml vegetable oil
175g Light brown soft sugar
140g grated carrot (about 3 medium carrots)
Grated zest of 1 large orange
50g walnut pieces
75g raisins
175g Self Raising Flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the topping:
300g soft cheese (Philidelphia type but use own brand stuff, it tastes the same)
125g of icing sugar.
2 teaspoons orange juice.
Put on some of your favourite tunes. Record, cassette tape, 8 track, CDs or, if you have an ipod and docking station with 10,000 illegal downloads, plug it in, stick it on shuffle. This takes about as long as listening to Blonde On Blonde.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Gas Mark 4. Get your cake tin. Line with tin foil. Add a tiny amount of vegetable oil to line the foil. Stir together eggs, oil and sugar in a mixing bowl. Grate carrot. Add carrot, orange zest, walnut pieces and raisins and stir them all in. Add the flour and sprinkle on the Bicarbonate of Soda, the Cinnamon and the Nutmeg. Stir this lot in.
Great! Now pile it into the cake tin and level it off.
Put tin into the oven.
Wait 45mins. It might need a bit longer. Check it by firing a sharp knife into it, there should be no sticky goo on the knife although it can look a tiny bit oily. The centre should feel springy to the touch. Don’t open the oven door early or the cake will flatten. When ready, take oot and let it cool a bit. Turn it onto a wire rack and remove the tinfoil.
Make the frosting.
Whisk icing sugar, cream cheese and orange juice together. It will get a bit runny as the sugar dissolves but it will firm up again on standing and cooling.
Once cake on the wire rack is cool, you can spread on the frosting.
Sprinkle on some spare walnut pieces.
That’s it, cut it up and feed Award Winning carrot cake to friends. Yum. ***
Thank you for reading.
Here’s to 2013!
** My record of 2012 PAWS' Cokefloat!
* Bob Dylan’s Tempest
*** This cake won me the 1st prize at the Raeburn Place Save The Children charity shop’s Easter baking competition.
If you know someone who loves their records and you know that they would love to receive a record as a gift but, say, maybe, well and to be honest, you don’t know what they’d really like and don’t want to rifle through their record collection trying to find out what’s missing.
And for those who have had a rake and do find a missing album and then wonder if, maybe, the record has not been bought or even could have been been destroyed on purpose. What if they don’t like Exile On Main Street! Freak Out! Maybe they don’t like Zappa after all.* Maybe you don’t know your life-buddy. Bugger! Have you and her/he been living a lie?
If this is how you feel. You, dear reader. Need not worry any more. This is normal, even among record folk. I’ve not bought George a record present this year for the very same reason.
A record shop can be an intimidating place to enter if you’ve never been in one before (OK, and also if you’ve not been in a record shop in this decade). Regardless, our wee shop is friendly to dogs and people. Rest assured that we are World Host accredited in customer service and so you’re probably in for a brown-sign style, tip top tourist customer experience. Even if you’re from down the road.
If you’d like to find a gift for someone special, please ask for a recommendation as we have a few unusual albums on the shelves. And if that still doesn’t help, then we have the ultimate retro solution as we have resurrected the Record Token:
The New VoxBox Record Token
Remember, you can’t always get them what they want, but if you try some time, you just might find, a VoxBox Record Token will get them something that they need.**
P.S.
We are full to bursting with of mint out of print records just now. Classics from The Beach Boys -Pet Sounds through Fairport Convention, to Joni Mitchell -Blue, and on to the Zappas.
Brand new records include Adele, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, The Pixies, The Velvet Underground and Nico. We only stock new records when we can match or be cheaper than Amazon(+postage).
Also there is the New Local Bands/Artists/Label stuff:
(Mainly on labels: Song By, Toad, Gerry Loves Records and Fence. Some are nice people who came in with their wares with and without an invite)
On CD: Arran Arctic, The Colourful Band, Georgia Seddon, Yusuf Azak. SuperMarioNation, Black International, Heirs of Dust. Jesus H. Foxx, The Son(s).
Vinyl +/- CD: Cold Seeds, King Post Kitsch, Meursault, PAWS (Cokefloat! and the Song, By Toad split LP -with Dolfinz, Sex Hands and Waiters ), The Japanese War Effort (+free sweets), Lil Daggers, Trapped in Kansas/Yahweh split 7″
Conquering Animal Sound/Debutant split 7″.
Loads of Fence Records: Kid Canaveral (lots of nice Ltd Ed, coloured 7 inchers), Pictish Trail, Rozi Plain, Randolph’s Leap, the Shivers.
Wounded Knee Cassette (on the Frame behind counter)
Field Mouse/Japanese War Effort Cassette (on Frame behind counter)
PINS Say to Me EP.-Manchester girls and guitars group. I’m not being Tony the Tiger when I say they’re great. Sparkly clear vinyl. I saw the grills in Henry’s cellar bar and bought the T-shirt and a couple of EPs for the shop.
Many of these are the last available in Edinburgh.
*Frank Zappa made at least 500,000 albums. Despite that, I’d really struggle to buy a surprise present for a Zappa fan. Probably, I’d go for anything by Wild Man Fischer and cross my fingers.
**Copyright, The Glimmer Twins (George & Darren)
When we opened the shop on May 21st 2011, we awaited the inevitable fan-fare and whoops of joy that a new Edinburgh second-hand record shop opening would definitely bring from The Scotsman and The NME. Despite not telling any of the press we were opening either before our opening party or at any time afterwards I still did the odd Google search expecting a write up.
VoxBox without a space; SEARCH, Vox Box with a space; SEARCH.
Any non-famous person who has ever Googled themselves will be aware of the slight apprehesion and excitement followed by timidity and a feeling of, “Wow, I’m not alone!” “Wow, Facebook is really popular!” Followed by, “Why are there 5 pages of people before me?” Chased closely by the hound-dog of guilt of having searched in the first place.
This can only lead to bad things. What if someone has written about you? To click to read something is like opening your exam results.
So, after opening VoxBox (no space) and long, long before we had a website, a card machine or even thought to put any records in the window, I treated myself to another sneaky peek at the world wide web and what do you know!
It was posted on 25th May, 4 days after we opened and I beamed with pride. What a nice chap.
But who is he? This Toad. Why didn’t he say hello when he was in? He didn’t leave a Z on anything. Nor was there a Native American companion. There were 25 comments to his piece! Yet he snuck around taking photos incognito. I’m not saying he had a fake moustache. Just that he bought some albums, disappeared and we couldn’t remember what he looked like.
But, holy cow, after a delve into the Song, By Toad website, it seems that our Mr Toad is a busy man. Weekly Podcast, Music Blog with free swearing, he puts on gigs, DJs, he records bands in his home. He has a record label. And puts out records. Hold on. Puts out records? We’re a record shop! We should have this kind of thing!
I emailed the kind chap to say Thank You for the kind words. And can we have your records! Records are brilliant! He also puts out CDs. A bit less brilliant. But hey, we’ll stock whatever you put out.
One or two very kind people came in on the back of the Song, By Toad blogpost. Actually, I think many, many people came in due to it, just I was not interrogating the customers hard enough: ‘Ver deed tzu feend owtz abootze recordzhop!’
I tracked Mr Toad down in person and surprised him at the Independent Label Fair at SummerHall 2011 and after that, we’ve had Song, By Toad Records, at VoxBox Music and too many commas, ever since. Why, the comma? Short, story. But I won’t go, into, it, here. (Wind in the Willows)
Nevermind the commas! What are they! The records dammit, tell me about the damn records!
The records!
OK. I’m not being Australian when I say ‘they’re all good’. But I think they all are.
I like The Leg, Yusuf Azak, King Post Kitsch, L’il Daggers and Meursault. He’s put PAWS on vinyl and bands with names like Sex Hands and Dolfinz (kids these days, eh?).
Haven’t listened to the rest yet. (big listening pile).
But I’m not reviewing the records here. I will just say that the label is a great filterer of ordinary, run of the mill music. So you’re always in for an ear treat. They’re kept in our Local release section with Fence Records and Gerry Loves Records (more on them some other time).
Toad Hall is literally round the corner local (Raeburn Place) and a showcase of the real grass roots, young and starving, the sleeping on mates floors music scene. But it’s much bigger than that too and also has great ambition. So it is important stuff and something for us to be proud of. Edinburgh is even better for having such a dedicated and hard working professional record label packaging art for us.
For Christmas, for those who don’t need another Grateful Dead live album, think about taking a punt on some of the Song, by Toad releases.
To get an idea of what’s on the vinyl, please come along to the Song, by Toad Christmas party at SummerHall. It’s an event that supports independent venues, labels, bands and shops too. So it’s pretty unmissable.
There will be tiny sets by some of the Toad artists and an EP launch for King Post Kitsch. Listen to this:
There are few things better than a live band and this is much better value than The Rolling Stones.
“Shout— Hoo-ray! And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud, In honour of an animal of whom you’re justly proud, For it’s Toad’s— great— day!”
A belated thank you again to Matthew and Ian who continue to make fine things happen.
* I will soon figure out how to embed a Soundcloud player on the page. Do click the link, it won’t bite.
The DJ night at McLachlan’s in Canonmills has been going for about a year or so. Once a month, 40 minute sets, put your name down and play what you like.
Sounds great! Sounds terrifying?! Yes! And it is certainly incredibly scary to do once. A bit less to do twice and there you go until you’re Fat Boy Slim or perhaps just getting a lot fatter because of all the beer calories you’ve totted up while nervously drinking beer and tapping your knees and making distracted conversation, nodding yes and smiling absently yes and vacantly agreeing aye and half smiling affirmative all the time uhhuh with one eye on the clock oh yeah. Like someone waiting for his/her turn to play records to a small crowd.
It’s a fine night and I have blogged about it before.
Some other bars are now doing it too. It’s a great sign of the vinyl revival and I think it’s a smashing way to clatter music snobbery on it’s head and find out what the folk are really passionate about. It’s not trying to fill a dance-floor. But it is a musical confessional and a pulpit too. That is if anyone actually listens to your fine vinyl platters. It’s in a pub after all.
I promise to get a similar thing going in Stockbridge in the new Year. Perhaps a pub across the street and down the road. Or around the corner (and down the road). So get ready for a monthly event, somewhere down the road from the VoxBox next year. VoxBox’s George has never DJd before and is rumoured to be doing the next one. He has pulled out some choice just-in 45’s from the shop and he’ll have some tasty beasts from home, so I’m really looking forward to hearing his set.
For me, the 1st time it was singles, 2nd time, 12 inchers. This time it was album tracks. I’m still organising my records at home after moving house so there are mixed records everywhere, but I put together a nice box full of albums trying for a country feel to start it rolling…
(Most records bought from my favourite record shop*)
Someone forgot to pull the plug – I was given an hour or so. In an hour, I played these tunes:
Tom Rush -Kids These Days (Merrimack County)
Johnny Cash & June Carter -Jackson (Carryin on with.. )
Nancy And Lee -Down From Dover (Did You Ever?)
Fat Mattress -Bright New Way (S/T)
Neil Diamond -Shilo (Velvet Gloves and Spit)
Captain Beefheart -Clear Spot (Clear Spot)
Iggy Pop -Fun (The Idiot)
The Velvet Underground -There She Goes Again (The VU and Nico)
The Incredible String Band -Little Cloud (5000 Spirits…)
The Slits -I Heard it Through the Grapevine (MFP Complation, We Do ‘Em Our Way)
David Bowie -The Man Who Sold the World (TMWSTW)
New York Dolls -Trash (NY Dolls)
Nina Simone -I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Silk and Soul)
Serge Gainsbourg/Brialy -Boomerang (Anna Soundtrack)
The Music Explosion -Everybody (S/T)
Madeline Bell -Comin’ Atcha (Comin’ Atcha)
The Vaselines -Molly’s Lips (Enter the Vaselines)
Terry Gilkyson and the Easy Riders -Send For The Captain (S/T) (a very early version of Sloop John B.)
Kaleidoscope -Banjo (Incredible!)
And it started like this:
So I played what I liked, you can play what you like too. Get in touch for a slot.
*OK, 2 new records – HMV/Fopp overstock.
The New York Dolls -it didn’t sound good. Dull and blurred. -Now I need an original copy!
The Vaselines- Sounded great.
*PS For the record, VoxBox is my favourite record shop
Black Friday is Friday the 23rd November. An America shopping day that has also turned into the years 2nd Record Store Day. It is not a metal band fronted by Ozzy’s younger brother. It’s creeping over here too but us Brits don’t know too much about it. Meh, you say?
What you need to know is that there is new Limited Edition vinyl!
We have managed to get our paws on small numbers of limited edition Black Friday titles, all now priced and on the shelves. We’re not prepared to fleece anyone with our pricing (check ebay already). Seriously folks, if you can find them any cheaper anywhere else, do buy them!
These are the artists we have:
Dylan
Mad Season
Eric Burdon
Zappa
Toro Y Moi
Norah Jones
The Shins
Ceelo Green
M83
Band of Horses
Tomahawk
Big Boys
House of Hayduk
Volbeat
Skrillex
Incubus
John Denver and the Muppets
I don’t know who Skrillex are! Volbeat anyone? I think I’m completely out of touch. Zappa, Dylan and Eric Burdon I do know. And the Muppets.
We won’t have these for long. Next time, I’ll get up ealier as we missed out on The Velvet Underground, White Stripes and Captain Beefheart and so on. Some were rejected as too expensive or by not being limited edition.
Let me know of any specific requests because we could order more of some titles in if the demand is there.
I was just pondering sitting down to write this when I found out that Avalanche is likely to close. So I have sat down and started typing.
The Cameo is showing the documentary Last Shop Standing on 10th December in a one-off screening. It is based on the book of the same name by Graham Jones, about record shops. The book is a tour of England’s 50 best record shops. In turn asking what has gone wrong with the music industry and what is going right for the record shops that have survived. Something is happening here and Mr Jones knows what it is. He is asking which one of these shops will be the last one. Luckily most seem fairly resilient. He concludes that the ones we have left will be greatest of shops (and/or own their premises).
It is a crowd funded film. It is more remarkable for that. I found out about it late on from a nice chap on twitter who enquired if we were in it. A record shop opening is good news to report. We need to be in it! They were still in the process of filming and I emailed Mr Jones and found out that we were only a few hours late! (That very day, they had been filming in Glasgow, intending to come to Edinburgh. The Edinburgh trip was cancelled due to ill health of the Edinburgh shop owner they’d planned to interview).
Ah well!
So after some back and forth with the filmakers we are now helping with the Q&A after the Cameo screening next month. Dougie from Coda Music will be up there I think with the film’s director and a VoxBox representative. (George)
Some history of the VoxBox record shop:
It was The Gramophone Emporium and there were 10,000 records on the shelves. The shop is small. There were 1 foot wide corridors to walk through. Cracked and crisp broken records on the floor. A few years ago, if you were lucky enough to find out about it you could tip toe your way through this to the Backroom to buy some vinyl. George had been selling vinyl records out of the Backroom of The Gramophone Emporium on Saturdays. The best quality preowned records in Edinburgh were there. Boxes of bargain vinyl and minty Dylan and Neil Young originals for £10. Wow! That’s where I met George.
I kept seeing him after that at markets and fairs, each time with tip-top records in tow. “You should open a shop!”
George’s wife, gives him a wee nudge. “Hmmm” I think.
Later, I ask him if he’d like a partner in opening a shop.
Later again, “I’m serious about the shop…”
So we looked to open a shop. In that time, Bill who owns The Gramophone Emporium, found out we wanted to rent a place and offered us his. He was planning on moving his shellac shop elsewhere. So we refurbished and moved into the Gramophone Emporium, 21 St Stephen Street and essentially expanded Backroom Vinyl into VoxBox Music.
The wonderful Gramophone Emporium before it overflowed and they had to move. It's hard to imagine now that it became us*.
10,000 records were removed -one at a time! “hey look at this one!” by Bill’s loyal and regular customers who he’d managed to rope into helping with the move. When it was finally empty, we changed it a bit.
On VoxBox's 1st Record Store Day, April 2012
We made a point of opening in Stockbridge. It is such a beautiful place to live in, work or visit. It is the greatest shopping destination in Edinburgh (if you’d like something a bit different).
We also didn’t want to tread on the toes of any other record shops in Edinburgh although George has been involved in record fairs since before even Avalanche opened and the shop we moved into already had a long history as record shop. During Summer 2010 with a Dansette blaring some early Elvis across St. Stephen Street, there was never any doubt about location. It really felt right.
We’ve been open for 18 months now and honestly, we have a lot of fun working together. Meeting Edinburgh’s existing record people and the recent converts to vinyl continues to brighten up my days in the shop. Even the odd quiet day in the rain can be a lot of fun for me. I might stick on Billie Holliday on 78rpm shellac. Hush now, Don’t Explain. What is it with the sad songs and Autumn weather?
We are selling more and more new records. Dipping our toe in with classic album reissues at first and only when we can match or better Amazon on the price. My liver can’t really keep up with all the local independent band’s gigs and releases. But we will try to expand the shelf space available to local bands and label better what we have.
Read the film blurb:
Graham Jones takes you behind the counter to discover why nearly 2000 record shops have already disappeared across the UK. The film charts the rapid rise of record shops in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the influence of the chart, the underhand deals, the demise of vinyl and rise of the CD as well as new technologies.
Where did it all go wrong? Why were 3 shops a week closing? Will we be left with no record shops with the continuing rise of downloading? Hear from over 20 record shop owners and music industry leaders as well as musicians including Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Billy Bragg, Nerina Pallot, Richard Hawley and Clint Boon as they all tell us how the shops became and still are a part of their own musical education, a place to cherish and discover new bands and new music.
Watch the trailer:
So will VoxBox be the Last Shop Standing?
Who knows! While there are still records being made, there will be record shops. There is great comfort in the fact that 60 years after shellac 78rpm records were last made, there is still one shop still going in the UK which sells only 78s and the machines to play them on. That shop is The Gramophone Emporium. For old records they literally, already are, The Last Shop Standing.
You see, Bill had moved The Gramophone Emporium to larger premises at 12 St Stephen Street. VoxBox moved into his old place at 21 St Stephen Street. They are our great friends and we have the pleasure of looking into their window every day, directly across the road from where George and I have had the pleasure of making a brand new record shop stand up.
Please come along to the screening at The Cameo (a fine independent itself) on 10th December at 1900. It’s a must see for record people. Those Edinburgh record shoppers who have a fond memory of Bruce’s Record Shop on Rose Street or were even forever barred by Bert from Hot Wax in Tollcross will appreciate this film. It’s not just nostalgia though! It’s a canny reminder of what makes record shops an ongoing relevant and special place. It’s a really great documentary.
If you can’t make it on the day you can pick up a copy of the book and DVD from us at the shop. We have plenty in.
*Photo by kind permission courtesy of great friend of the Gramophone Emporium, Rachel.
I’ve been a bit unhealthily obsessive about PAWS lately, but if Cokefloat! is not nominated for next year’s Mercury Music Prize I will stare blankly in puzzlement. Then continue to try to plug it and the band to whoever will listen. Dear reader, it has given me two weeks of listening enjoyment so far and there is much more in there.
New in VoxBox
It is a true album of songs that will take you on a sonic journey. Loss of a parent, childhood bullying and family breakdown are not funny things. They are not invented either. It is a disarmingly open debut. It may take you on a melodic, grunge light, radio friendly first half (or side A for us vinyl folk) to a side B with some really tasty thrash in a 4 song climactic finale before a comedown with Poor Old Christopher Robin that could raise the hair on the back of your neck.
After every few listens I’ve found a different favourite song. Jellyfish, Bloodline, Catherine 1956… Until, deciding there’s not a bad track and, loving most, I realised that it stands as a work of art. And I’m serious about that. It’s uplifting and intelligent loud music and feels like listening to a personal internal monologue of survival. It’s a special thing for that too.
The cover is a self portrait of Jessica Penfold, a friend of the band and comic artist. Why? To help publicise her! A gimmick? I really don’t think so. This is how they roll. They tour on the floors of fans. (Mind you, I think they may live like that in Glasgow). They’re hard travellin’! Phil has his own cassette tape based record label (Cath Records) and seems to have created a Glasgow Underground of like-minded talent.
In the age of manufactured bands, these guys are really real. No airs or graces. The music is real. The passion is real. The songs are lyrically heartbreaking but with not an ounce of self pity. There is honest rage, hard strumming and an uplifting defiance and positive energy in all of the songs. They are a band that literally say ‘don’t fuck with me’. And that’s as punk as it gets.
By Jessica Penfold
You can listen to the whole album here: Cokefloat!/listen and make up your own mind.
We’ve ordered plenty in. On vinyl and CD. But there has been a delay in the vinyl. You can pre-order or just say hello to George and me (Darren) by emailing voxbox@live.co.uk.
Fatcat Records have kindly sent us a signed Limited Edition Cokefloat! poster and T-shirt which we will competition off in a special Christmas colouring-in competition! Meanwhile we have the Song, by Toads Split 12″ album that has 4 PAWS tracks. We sold out of 7″ copies of PAWS single Lekker long ago. On friends of the shop GerryLovesRecords.
As a live experience PAWS are as rough and fierce as a backcombed cornered badger fighting the killers. They’re beautiful and contagious with loud energy. Their album launch in Glasgow was only £5 a ticket (supported by North American War). That’s incredible value. So whenever you go to see smaller bands at gigs please buy the merchandise and albums directly from the bands. The money will go a long way. Even with limited radio play, a small royalty cheque comes around only every 6 months.
Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Bird. Recorded as a Song, by Toad session just down the road in Raeburn Place. This will tickle you in the punk place of your psyche. Other artists including the beautifully gentle voiced Vashti Bunyan, who deserves a new genre all to herself, are also available in the shop. We only sell the good stuff.
PS If you know me and you don’t get hold of a copy of this, then I know what you’re getting for Christmas! Animal hands!
Radio 1 is trying to reduce the average age of it’s listeners. Aiming for a target audience age of between 15 and 29. which means that my partner and me, combined age, erm, cough….70 in September, have to stop listening.
They want a greater percentage of young people rather than just increasing the numbers of young folk (and R1 has already increased its total amount of young listeners, just the ‘oldie’ numbers have increased by more).
Radio is, like, so important.
If a song is played on the radio, it will find an audience. The bigger the station, the larger the audience. With a bit of airplay, a song can then creep into the incidental music of some of your favourite daytime TV programmes like Homes Under The Hammer. Inside your noggin, in your squishy brain, neurones are going crazy making connections and before you know it you are humming Your Sex Is On Fire while having afternoon tea with the vicar.
Powerful stuff.
In the shop, our new favourite young band is PAWS*. A Glasgow based 3 piece that really kick out those 3 chord jams. For raw power alone they kick 50 shades of brown out of everything that has made it into the top 40 for the past 10 years. They were first signed to Edinburgh labels, Gerry Loves Records and Song,by Toad and are now with big indie label Fat Cat.
They grate. They really grate. Prickly as the sea urchin you stood on in New Aberdour, and as dirty as Joe Gargery’s shed.
Who needs a guitar solo?
We need passion and delivery. Throw in a few decent songs and we’re cookin’.
PAWS are Matt, Josh and Phillip
Phillip in’t afraid to let little bits of frothy spittle arc from his teeth when he sings and he sings and shouts and plays like he means it. Every time. And this is a hard-gigging band.
Kurt Cobain’s T-shirt said ‘Grunge is Dead’ but it seems it’s not deid at all. It moved to Glasgow, woke up, scratched its arse and named itself PAWS.
Listening to Radio 1, I was gardening on Monday before the rain and while watering the rocket and basil (I am now searingly middle class), I heard something familiar. That’s Jellyfish by PAWS! And it was. It was turned up and it was an exciting 3 minutes. Those jammy hardworking layabouts! For they are all those things. I am sure Phillip sleeps in his clothes. “I’d like to play that again” says radio bloke “but I won’t, I don’t want to spoil it, I’ll play it again tomorrow.” The band have momentum and a real chance.
So, they won’t get rid of us oldies by playing the dirty-young energetic high charged racket makers PAWS!
The ‘new punk’ of The Vaccines and the ‘new folk’ of the Mumfos are not new at all. Grunge? Nirvana? The peeps who grew up with Kurt and Co are now in their 30s and 40s. Original Punks are 55+. Oldskool hip hop fans 40. Original Madonna fans 40. Dance/techno/electronic music fans 40+. Androgenous glam rockers 60. Hippies 65. Folkies as old as the hills.
Tastes are generally becoming more eclectic and this is really positive culturally. Hopefully Radio 1 won’t chase the age down as it could fill the radio with the dirge designed for teenyboppers and for todays teenagers to rebel, they must listen to uni-directional manufactured pop. It’s the only genre us old folk frown upon.
PAWS are headlining the Electric Circus tonight with Lady North supporting. We have Local labels and PAWS on records in the shop too.
*PAWS played a gig for us for Record Store Day. The police were almost called because of the noise. Such larks!
I spoke with young Pip after the gig. He passed me a handful of cassette tapes and asked if I’d sell them in VoxBox. “Well you’ll have to sign them first” says I. Says he, “Erm, what .. why, you know, they’re not PAWS, they’re bands on my label”. “Ahem” says I. “Your label? You have a label?… Well OK then, we’ll give them a go.”
He had handed me some of The Cath Tapes.
Near legendary super-limited edition recordings by wee bands with original artwork and everything handwritten and mysterious and numbered and wrapped up in an enigma.
More on them next week.
Today there was a big choice to be made. T in The Park to see the 4 guys that were the best band in the world in my youth or Meursault at the Queen’s Hall.
So why were the Stone Roses good? The unit. The story. The spray painting campaign. The Nitromors on car campaign and paint fuelled Silvertone studio vandalism. The Pollock inspired artwork. The “amateurs” rant. Songs the sweetest with lyrics mean with spurned lover misogyny. They met at an anti-fascist rally. They were young and full of beans. Fine T-shirts and boot-cut jeans. The clothes were designer baggy. They wanted to be adored. Not since Hendrix had a band been so experimental. They were covering new ground by covering the old 1960s ground. The best bits were picked and moulded into their own blend of creative tour de force. No-one else was doing this stuff. From the backward guitar and drums to a heavy lean on the wah-wah pedal, remixed songs, 2 new songs on the B side. They had so many songs and ideas and that extended into the artwork. The sheer ego eclipsed Manchester. Osteomalacia rates went up in the early 1990s as Mancunians could get no sunshine vitamin D while the Roses were in toon. Lennon caused a storm when he suggested that the Beatles were Bigger than Jesus. The Stone Roses started by saying we are Jesus resurrected. Unbelievable!
The artwork was painted by John Squire, the guitarist. There’s the added symbolism. See the red white and blue paint brush strokes on the 1st album? That’s the French flag. The lemon slices? During the French student riots of 1968, protesters would use lemon juice as an antidote to tear gas. There’s real zeal in the lemon peel. A band with art. Backhanded compliments, “You look like a painting: Jackson Pollock’s Number. 5.”
No. 5 (A beautiful woman?)
Not only a fantastic debut album. Listen to it again. This is the DEBUT album. How can a band be so tight with a debut? The 8 mins of Fools Gold, the guitar was one take. The 12” single was utilised to its greatest extent. A short remix for the album. The splurge version, the real version, on the 12 incher.
The lyrics are mean and nasty. Wait for when the song gets quiet and gentle. Ian Broon will sing with the voice of an angel ‘I could park a juggernaught in your mouth’ Elsewhere we’re flying on magic carpets. Grils are waterfalls and smell of ambre solaire. What is ‘her number 9’? Is it rude? Should I look it up? Sally Cinnamon, a song about a lesbian’s love letter found on a train. The ‘Mersey Paradise’ suicide poem. This is wonderful imagery.
The instrumentation is sublime throughout. John Squire is not a chord strummer. Everything is an echoey jangly arpeggio carrying on through the entire song. The same phrase is hardly ever played twice. He was the best guitarist alive for a time.
The Bass does its own thing. It’s free. Not just helping the guitar along aping the same notes bum bum b-bum. The bass plays the best riffs in the Roses. It was no accident that Mani inspired Primal Scream then joined and resurrected them.
The drums. Reni. He bangs the drums. Not like a fitting loon. The drum intro to Elephant Stone is amazingly excessive. But that’s the beauty. No one else did this. The young confidence. The sheer self-belief with the talent to back it up.
Ian Brown. The monkey. That knuckle dragging wide boy swagger. No man in Manchester has walked properly since the Stone Roses. His voice has always been poor live. Back then, on the records, he had the voice of an angel.
Each instrument. Guitar bass drum and voice do their own thing. They come together so well and creates a heavenly experience.
The Second Coming is one of the top 10 best electric guitar albums ever made. It’s an extravagant beast in coked up hard-on glory. There’s a whole lotta groove in that one. Plus a rubbish secret track.
The Stone Roses settled arguments back then. Who’s better, MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice? Answer: The Stone Roses. Michael Jackson or Bros? A: The Stone Roses. Public Enemy or Run DMC? A: The Stone Roses. Jesus or Ghandi.. and on it went. There was one unspoken agreement in my flat; never turn off the Stone Roses in the middle of a song.
Zesty Stuff.
So, an easy decision. Go see the Roses.
Only I was disappointed that they reformed. They said they wouldn’t. That is why.
The B-side to this is that Meursault are playing Saturday too. If you don’t know these guys already, Murswhat? Meowsalt? It is pronounced Merso. They’ve been around a short while and have been touted as the best band to come out of, yet still be in Edinburgh for all that time. There’s a new album coming out and this is the album launch.
Neil Pennicook (from Penicuik) is the singer and main songwriter for MiRsow. He was kind enough to play an in-store for us on our 1st Record Store Day this year. He played a brilliant and passionate solo set in the Antiquary down the road. Rumour has it that a side project of Melanie covers will be released on cassette tape later this year. That’s sound great or awful depending on your opinion of Melanie!
They left a pile of tickets in the shop. They cost a tenner. No booking fee. All proceeds to the band.
So you can get tickets from us. As well as much of local label, Song, by Toad’s back catalogue.
If you like your music and don’t want to go to T in the Park, take a punt on Meursault on 7th July. It’s dry in the Queen’s Hall, it’s grass roots music by a band that has a real chance of getting somewhere. Sheer will, talent and determination often works like that.
VoxBox Music became the newest record shop in the world on May 21st 2011. We buy and sell vinyl and other formats of music. We are independent and sell mostly pre-owned records although we are slowly branching into new vinyl too.
