In rotation: 9/10/18

Wimborne, UK | Wimborne’s independent Square Records moves premises: A popular independent record store has moved to new premises. Square Records has relocated from 14 High Street in Wimborne to number 73. It officially opened its doors for business at its new home on Friday (AUGUST 31). The store was saved from closure earlier this year after it was taken over by staff at Gullivers Bookshop. Owner, Malcolm Angel, approached Square Records after hearing about the closure through customers at his bookshop. Square Records was opened by the Holman family in 1974 and has been in Wimborne for more than 40 years. It has kept its name and will continue to be run by current manager Rob Hoare.

Chicago, IL | ‘It’ll be a celebration’: Event at FitzGerald’s to honor Oak Park record store owner Val Camilletti: On Sept. 16, friends and colleagues who touched many parts of Val Camilletti’s life will meet up at FitzGerald’s Nightclub in Berwyn to pay tribute to the owner of Val’s Halla Records, who died July 24 after a two-year battle with breast cancer. “It will be a celebration of her life with lots of singing, lots of laughter, good food and good music,” said Andy Mead, a longtime friend who is organizing the event. “It’ll be a celebration she would have loved.” FitzGerald’s is at 6615 W. Roosevelt Road, Berwyn. “It will be an opportunity for friends and associates to gather and chat and share memories. It should be quite an event,” said Bill FitzGerald, owner of the nightclub and a longtime friend.

Bromsgrove, UK | New vinyl record stall starts up on Bromsgrove Market after positive response: The organiser of the popular vinyl record fares has now opened a stall on Bromsgrove market. Ben Frizzell from the Midlands Record Fair has become the first person to sell records in Bromsgrove High Street since Our Price closed in the early to mid 1990s. Ben said: “The day went exceptionally well and completely surpassed my expectations – countless people were asking if I was going to be there regularly so I have booked all remaining Saturdays for September with a bigger 30ft by 10ft pitch.”

Kuala Lumpur, MY | Last of a dying breed: Video may have killed the radio star, but the Internet is killing the record store industry. There used to be a dozen record shops in Ipoh and now, there are only a handful of them left. At Melody Music Centre in Yik Foong Shopping Complex in Ipoh, Edwin Suen, 59, is still selling CDs and cassettes. “It really is a sunset industry. “Business has dwindled since the availability of illegally digitised music on the Internet in 2000,” he said. “Ipoh is a relatively small market compared to Kuala Lumpur and the number of customers have shrunk by about 25% to 30%,” he said. “The 1990s was the best time for us as there were plenty of good bands and artistes,” he said, adding that he also sells band T-shirts, patches and posters. Suen said his shop has been open for more than 30 years and he would try to maintain it for as long as he could.

Signal Hill, CA | It’s a sign: Recent winner of community-icon award plans soft launch of V.I.P. Create Space, revival of World Famous VIP Records store. Pictured above is a rendering of the V.I.P. Create Space, which will soft launch this month. A young man– a recent high school graduate– walked into the World Famous VIP Records store on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach earlier this week. It was his first time in the store, and his parents were with him. As they walked through VIP Records, fascinated by its history, owner Kelvin Anderson talked with them and discovered that the recent graduate was not just a lover of music and its history, he was also planning to pursue his own career in the industry.

Los Angeles, CA | DJ Peanut Butter Wolf staffs up to open bar in Highland Park: DJ and record producer Peanut Butter Wolf is looking for experienced bartenders to tend his new bar, Gold Line, which is expected to open later this next month. The Gold Line will be the latest watering-hole and restaurant to open up on a rapidly gentrifying strip of Figueroa near the Highland Park Gold Line Station. Recent newcomers include The Lodge Room, Otoño and HomeState. Wolf – a.k.a. Christopher Manak – will be running Gold Line in partnership with the some of the same folks who opened L&E Oyster Bar in Silver Lake. The partners also include the general manager of his record label, Stones Throw Records, which is in the same building…In addition booze, Gold Line will also be stocked with Wolf’s 7,500-vinyl-record library, which spans primarily from the 1960s through 1990s. Wolf as well as “his favorite DJs, friends and bartenders” will be playing from the collection at the bar.

Record £400m UK music sales abroad, but Brexit ‘may hit income’: …Sales of British music outside the UK jumped 12% to a record £408.4m last year – the highest level since at least the turn of the century, when records began – with British artists accounting for one in every eight albums sold globally. A British artist has been behind the world’s bestselling album in nine of the last 13 years. Last year it was [Ed] Sheeran with his album Divide, which sold 6.1m copies worldwide, excluding streaming. The record revenues for sales of British music have been spurred by the growth in popularity of streaming music on services such as Spotify and Apple Music. Last year, streaming music revenues surpassed income from the sale of traditional formats such as CDs for the first time, at $6.6bn (£4.7bn). The BPI said the value of British music exports – sales of CDs, vinyl, streaming and downloads of singles and albums – has brought in more than £5bn since records began in 2000.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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