HMV’s Doug Putman on the future of CD: HMV’s owner Doug Putman has spoken to Music Week about the future of the chain and physical music following its reopening. In the latest issue, Putman calls on the music industry to back HMV as it tries to regain some momentum after lockdown – and warns on a possible change to the product mix if suppliers don’t fully support him. HMV stores were able to open from June 15, in line with other record shops. The entertainment chain introduced strict safety measures, including social distancing signage, screens and sanitiser. Across the music retail sector, sales were up last week and were given a further boost by the Love Record Stores promotion at the weekend Shoppers returned to HMV from last week, and Putman is confident that vinyl fans will accept the new normal. “I think that’s just the culture, if you love being in an HMV,” he said. “We just have really great customers.” HMV also launched a new personal shopper service, which enables customers to leave a list with staff, who could also provide recommendations.
Kirkley, UK | Former restaurant to be transformed into vinyl lounge: A record store is to relocate and expand its business with the opening of a vinyl lounge in a popular former restaurant. Aux Records will move from its Waterloo Road base, in Kirkley, around the corner to London Road South as it prepares to welcome customers to the new vinyl lounge. The new site has been empty for almost a year after the closure of Desmond’s restaurant. Owner Jan Mulder said: “We are relocating to the former Desmond’s restaurant around the corner on London Road South and expanding our current business. “It is still going to be based around our vinyl store, but with a cafe and lounge where people can come and listen to music and have a coffee. People can still come and browse and buy records with a wide range on offer.” The store opened last autumn after Mr Mulder left his job at a care agency to pursue his passion for music. He said: “I’m really excited about the move. The current business has been building since I opened last October and we are ready to take it to the next level.
Move The Record aims to support local vinyl stores with live music streams: A bit like High Fidelity, but online and with many record stores. Want to save independent record stores (who often gain essential revenue from hosting live events and representing acts under their own labels) from closing, as a result of the coronavirus? Good, Rob at Championship Vinyl would salute you – but we’ll stop talking about the Nick Hornby novel and subsequent John Cusack movie High Fidelity now (promise). Move the Record is a global initiative devised in response to the uncertain future that bricks-and-mortar record shops are facing worldwide. And let’s not forget, the 33⅓ vinyl LP only just celebrated its 72nd birthday, so it’s high time for an online event. Move the Record’s first edition is set to take place across Friday 3rd July and Saturday 4th July, and will comprise 2 x 12-hour broadcasts of 2-hour sets from record shops around the world, featuring a diverse range of some of the world’s best DJs, all playing in the world’s best record stores. Organisers say that discounts of up to 20% – as well as various other offers and events – will be in place across partaking stores’ online platforms for 48 hours.
Aberdeen, UK | Aberdeen Vinyl Records shop relocates and announces plans to reopen: Aberdeen Vinyl Records has moved premises and announced its plans to reopen. The store, which was based in Aberdeen Market, stated it has now moved to a new unit on Union Street. Located on 101 -103 Union Street near HSBC, the popular vinyl record store will reopen on Monday June 29. The shop’s spokesperson said: “We’ll be sharing the shop with our good friends at Gift Wrap and we’ll have slightly more floor space than we had in the Market. “We’re getting our shop signage and social distancing measures all worked out and ordered up now.” In addition to more than 5,000 LPs, the store also has some reasonably-priced collectables on offer.
From Andros Island in the Bahamas and a stonemason by trade, Joseph Spence is one of folk music’s true originals. The notes to this reissue emphasize the importance of the guitar to Bahaman life during the period of its recording, and amongst no shortage of talent on the instrument, Spence was acknowledged as the best around. He tapped into the three threads of song popular in the island nation at that time; the older “anthem” songs, southern USA-derived spirituals, and the “folk songs” that accompanied dancing and enlivened parties.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Céu, APKÁ! (Six Degrees) This is the fifth release from the São Paulo, Brazil-based singer and composer Céu, but it’s the first I’ve heard. The blend of pop, electronic elements, dance rhythms, classic Brazilian song and even flashes of psychedelia has me excited to investigate her earlier stuff, though this set is being promoted as a metamorphosis for the artist (indeed, a chrysalis gets mentioned). She’s accompanied here by her producer-drummer husband Pupillo and a core band of familiars that includes Frenchman Hervé Salters on keyboards (he also co-produced). There are a few guests, with guitarist Marc Ribot among them, which I admit perked my interest right up, though the quality of Céu’s vocals and compositions had me shifting focus right quick.
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Sound of The San Francisco Christian Center, s/t (Cultures of Soul) Founded in 1954, The San Francisco Christian Center is noted as one of the first churches, circa the late ’60s, to welcome disaffected hippies. If you’ve studied up on the era, you know there was quite a few youngsters in the Bay Area fitting the description, as thousands seeking the idyllic liberation lifestyle poured into the region and were greeted with…something else. Frankly, the SFCC’s generosity was just a Christian thing to do, but mentioning it really gets to the good vibes positivity that emanates from the grooves of this reissue. The LP was initially self-released in 1978, with that edition (there have been no other pressings until now) highly sought after and very expensive. It features a killer band soaring under the direction of multi-instrumentalist and arranger Carl Fortier, with the results stylistically intersecting with the bold and lush motions of the same era’s pop-soul and R&B.
Wellington, NZ | The music’s not over, don’t turn out the lights: Julian Lloyd Webber popped in and bought a Pat Boone album. An obliging Kenny Rogers was getting fish ‘n’ chips next door. One of those Oasis guys dropped by. In the decades of selling music out of Slow Boat Records on Cuba St in central Wellington, Dennis O’Brien has seen a parade of famous musicians pass through his shop. He originally started Slow Boat in a storeroom off Plimmer Steps before moving to Cuba St. Eventually, he bought the former Westpac bank on the street, which has been home base for years. “I bought the bank,” O’Brien half-laughs in the back office, stacked high with music. As he prepares to sell most of the business to current staff and take a step back, it is the old friends that pop in that he’ll miss the most. “
Asheville, NC | Mark Capon brings an analog pastime into the digital age: Mark Capon, co-owner of Harvest Records on Haywood Road in West Asheville, says his shop has been closed to the public since March 17. Despite being allowed to reopen at a limited capacity, he plans to wait to ensure the safety of his staff and the community at large. But while the storefront remains shuttered, the business has started offering curbside pickup, mail orders and the occasional local delivery as Capon tries to reimagine the usual record store experience through a virtual platform. Instead of customers leisurely thumbing through hundreds of vintage and new vinyls — which includes about 10,000 pieces of vinyl among its 15,000-item inventory — Capon says he’s using the store’s social media accounts to present glimpses of its collection and highlight noteworthy offerings. “It’s a physical store with physical media that people like to come in and comb through, so you kind of have to 
UK | Who Needs RSD? British Music Retailers Surpass £1m In One-Day Sales: Though the first of three planned Record Store Day 2020 legs won’t arrive for two months yet, UK-based music retailers enjoyed more than $1.24 million (£1 million) in one-day sales on Saturday, June 20th. The substantial sum derived from the Love Record Stores event, during which fans were encouraged to purchase limited-edition (and vinyl-exclusive) albums from their favorite British music retailers. Importantly, June 20th was the original date of Record Store Day 2020, which organizers have now split into three weekends (across August, September, and October). As part of the Love Record Stores initiative, labels and artists (including Elton John, Tom Walker, and The Rolling Stones, among others) shipped approximately 
US | 19 awesome Black-owned record stores: Racism, racial inequality, and racial injustice have plagued America for centuries, but long overdue conversations on these topics have been happening on a major, mainstream level ever since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police led to nationwide protests, all of which happened during a worldwide pandemic that especially impacts black and brown communities. Because of this, we’ve seen a recent increase in activism, fundraisers, and the promotion of art/literature that benefit the fight for racial justice. Even beyond that, there are more ways to get involved, including directly uplifting and supporting Black people (those you know and those you don’t) in regard to their ideas and their endeavors, in your everyday life. One of the most direct and sustainable ways to support the Black community is to shop at and support Black-owned businesses as often as possible, especially now that the pandemic has taken its toll on small, independent businesses in general. …We’ve compiled a list of 
