Brookline, PA | Rather Ripped Records in Brookline closes: Another iconic Pittsburgh record store has gone out of business. Rather Ripped Records in Brookline closed its doors for the last time on Thursday. The store had been in business for 50 years, after South Side native Russ Ketter opened at his original location in Berkeley, California in 1969. He moved back to Pittsburgh in 2012 and opened a store on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. In 2015, the store moved to Brookline Boulevard. Ketter said multiple factors led to his decision to close the store. “We had a lot of problems with the Liberty Bridge being closed and the Liberty Tunnel being closed for almost two years,” said Ketter. “We lost business because of that. I saw the change in the pattern immediately.”
UK | HMV re-opens three Scottish stores after ‘successful negotiations’ with landlords. The company’s managing director confirmed the move was “the best outcome for our staff and customers.” Music giant HMV has re-opened its shop in Ayr Central shopping centre. The move follows what the company described as “successful negotiations” with its landlord. Canadian firm Sunrise Records bought HMV out of administration but Ayr was one of 27 stores which initially closed, seeing the loss of 10 jobs. But the company said the news about Ayr was “the best outcome for our staff and customers”. HMV managing director Neil Taylor said: “I am extremely proud of our staff who are the most knowledgeable and committed people you will meet, and so it is extremely gratifying to see this store open again. “I greatly appreciate the support of all our customers and the landlord which made re-opening this store possible.”
Coventry, UK | MUSIC MATTERS: Keeping vinyl records alive in Coventry: It’s with personal excitement to learn of a new record shop in Coventry. Alan Roberts at Just Dropped In is based at Fargo Village (container 5, to be exact). It caters for all tastes – jazz, rock, electro, pop, retro – you name it and I reckon he will have the genre covered. He certainly knows how to use all his space wisely, and there’s a great vibe to the place. Little wonder the place was Store of The Month in Mojo magazine. Great news that Coventry’s HMV will be saved, and don’t forget the record stall Vinyl Destination in Coventry Market and Frank Harvey’s in Spon Street. In Warwickshire we have The Leamington Record Store, Head and Seismic Records in Leamington, Just For The Record in Rugby and S.J. Records in Stratford. Sorry if I have missed any out. Let’s keep vinyl records alive.
Manila, PH | Score affordable and rare vinyl records at these record stores in Manila: Listening to music today only requires one click. As long as you are connected to the internet, you can play music through streaming platforms like Spotify and Soundcloud. But recently, it seems like more and more people are reviving the tradition of playing vinyl records. To anyone who thought this is a hipster trend that belonged to the late 2000s, revoke your audiophile card right now. It looks like physical vinyl records are here to stay for a long time. According to Forbes, 50 percent of record players are bought by millennials. The Economist, on the other hand, said that the same group makes up 50 percent of vinyl record purchases. So, if you’re planning to start your collection, you’re not too late on getting a head start. But the chain record stores at malls are slowly closing. Where do we go to start our collection then? The answer: independent record stores. Scattered around the metro, their stocks range from freshly minted to pre-loved.
Lincolnshire, UK | Family’s thanks after £1,700-plus collected for charity in memory of popular Boston music store owner. More than £1,700 has been raised for the fight against heart disease in memory of a popular Boston music store owner. The sum – £1,735.71 in all – was collected for the British Heart Foundation at the funeral of Gareth Skinner, of Nevermind the Music Store, in Church Street, his family have said. Gareth died suddenly from a heart attack in October, aged 50. His family give ‘a huge thank you for everyone’s support’, saying they ‘could never have imagined’ to raise that much money. Gareth came to Boston in 2001, opening the store in the same year. It is now being run by wife Lillian, son Craig, and daughter Millie and will be participating in the Record Store Day on Saturday, April 13.
Vinyl Beauty Bar.
February 26, 2019
From the Archive: Peter Saville on Factory Records: In 2005 Teddy Jamieson talked to Peter Saville about his life as graphic designer for Factory Records and beyond. The estate of Peter Saville is spread out all over the floor of his studio-cum-living space in London. Videotapes, glossy magazines (there’s everything from Heat to Art Review and Country Life), plaster dogs, plaster cats, notebooks, sketchbooks, big boxes of photographic paper, shoeboxes (all decorated with high-end labels: Prada, YSL and so on), photographs, plates, cutlery, CDs in paper bags, clothes on a rack, a mattress. Stuff, in other words. Lots of it, all neatly arranged around the white-floored room. To a large extent this is what Peter Saville does these days, this constant gathering and storing up of things; things that could be influences, things that work as references. “It’s the fuel of work,” says Saville, who is the nearest thing the field of graphic design gets to a legend. Just one problem. Work isn’t something he’s doing a lot of.
