Berlin, DE | The Ghost, Berlin’s van-based record store, has closed: “We were too busy to put the time and love into the shop like we used to.” Berlin’s mobile record van The Ghost is shutting up shop. Originally launched in 2015, The Ghost primarily dealt in second-hand house, techno, and garage records. However, the DJ duo owners noted in an Instagram post that they “were too busy to put the time and love into the shop like we used to.” “We opened a handful of times in the last year – a waste of a vintage bus and thousands of tunes that could be getting spun,” the note reads, suggesting that their resources could be put to better use by somebody else. Subsequently, the van has been sold to a couple who plan to convert it back into a camper van and travel…
Summit, NJ | Scotti’s Record Shop Keeps Vinyl Alive In Downtown Summit: Gary Scotti spoke with Patch about the ups and downs of the record business and how Scotti’s has stayed alive since 1956. Since 1956, Scotti’s Record Shop in downtown Summit has been selling vinyl records to its customers. Now 66 years later, the family business is still going strong — even with the advent of digital streaming. Owner Gary Scotti said he took over the business from his father, Anthony, in 1981 and has been running it ever since. After graduating from college with a marketing and accounting degree, Scotti said he decided to take over the record shop because of his love for the music business that he grew up around. “I was a leader in archiving and preserving the vinyl format,” Scotti told Patch. Scotti was a big record collector growing up and has built up storage facilities, garages and basements full of records. In fact, some of the records in the store today are vintage albums that Scotti has collected over the years.
Kettering, UK | Kettering record shop expands with live music and box office offer: The shop in Market Street opened in October last year. A Kettering record and coffee shop has expanded its offer to fans of live and recorded music with the addition of a stage area and a box office facility for theatre-goers. Vinyl Coffee in Market Street has sold records and refreshments since owner Jason Tagg opened the store last October. Now, to bring even more music to the town, he has introduced a stage for artists to perform to customers. In a further new development, tickets for The Lighthouse Theatre will be available to buy in the shop’s pop-up box office. Jason said: “We’re really thrilled to be offering people who love music the chance to come to Vinyl Coffee and purchase tickets for The Lighthouse Theatre. We see ourselves as part of a network of like-minded people celebrating the performing arts in Kettering.
Toronto, CA | A Randomized Vinyl Vending Machine Is Now at Toronto’s Sonic Boom Records: The Phono-Mat puts a new spin on record collecting. Toronto’s Sonic Boom Records has been known to put together dazzling window displays, host discerning crate diggers like Elton John and Jagmeet Singh, and — on extremely rare occasions — sell secret Burial singles. Now, Canada’s largest independent record store is putting a new spin on the LP experience with a vinyl vending machine. Today, Sonic Boom have officially launched the Phono-Mat, a randomized record vendor billed as the first-ever machine of its kind. Finished in light blue, the retro-styled Phono-Mat was designed and built in Toronto by Craig Small, who previously applied the idea of randomized vending to a coin-operated book dispenser dubbed the Biblio-Mat which can be found in the city at the Monkey’s Paw, blocks away from Exclaim! HQ.
Pittsburgh, PA | Government Center record store expands on North Side with coffee shop and full bar: Have you ever wanted to buy a beer and a record after midnight? (No? Just me?) North Side record store The Government Center believes there is a late-night crowd who wants to peruse its outstanding selection of vinyl (new and used from every possible genre and era) while enjoying beer and cocktails. The record store also recently added a coffee shop, and has a stage in the back for live music. The long-abandoned building — formerly the Key West bar and briefly a soul food shop — needed a lot of work to get to this point. There are several apartments above that were in dire shape. Junk from former tenants, including a giant cooler for a florist, filled the space. “It was was so dirty and so filthy and foul-smelling,” says owner Josh Cozby. “And the other thing was the liquor license was gone. That didn’t go with the building.” The Government Center had its grand opening in the new location in August 2021, but the work continued.
IN | How Young Listeners are Helping to Revive the Vinyl in India: Growing interest among young listeners who are attracted to the more tangible quality of the analogue format is leading to a revival of the vinyl. The radio & gramophone House in New Delhi’s Connaught Place established in 1951 invokes nostalgia. As you climb up the steps to the first-floor store, you hear Lata Mangeshkar’s crystal clear voice singing “Lag ja gale ki phir…” It’s a vinyl record of a collection of her songs playing on a turntable. Everything about the whole set-up is very old school—just like the name of the store—rows and rows of vinyls, a couple of gramophones, several turntables—except for the customers. Rajul Yadav, 31, and Shikha Sinha, 29, became vinyl heads—a term used to describe those obsessed with the analogue medium—during the pandemic when a friend introduced them to records. “Once you go analogue you don’t go back,” laughs Sinha who works in a Delhi-based publishing house. Agrees Yadav, an HR manager in a global firm: “The quality of music on analogue is so superior that I can’t bring myself to listen to the same song on Spotify anymore.”
Wenatchee, WA | A spin back in time thanks to Wenatchee’s music man Bob Godfrey: I met him back in ’64 while hunting 45s. BG would also help me find LPs. The KMEL DJs whet my appetite for more. And that’s how Bob became a friend to me. Bob Godfrey, whose celebrated record shop was an iconic fixture in downtown Wenatchee for four decades, died June 29th. One of the highlights of the summer was being invited by the Godfrey family to participate in a “celebration of life” for the Wenatchee Valley legend. In preparation for sharing my poetic tribute of Bob, I sorted through my collection of 45s and vinyl albums I’ve saved from my youth. There in the stack was the very first record I ever purchased from Bob Godfrey’s store when it was located in back of the Public Market (the current Antique Mall) on Wenatchee Avenue. Most appropriately, the first 45 I bought from Bob was “Downtown” by Petula Clark. The year was 1964. I was 12 years old. Our family had just moved to the Valley from the Seattle area. I was about to discover just how significantly downtown Wenatchee would factor into my life.
