Cardiff, UK | Cardiff store owner tells the story behind the oldest record store in the world: The owner of the world’s oldest record shop has shared the story behind Cardiff’s iconic music store and what makes it so special. In a video posted by Cullan Mais, host of The Central Club Podcast, owner Ashli Todd explained what makes the shop’s history so distinctive. It was founded by Henry Spiller in 1894, and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest shop selling records. Today, it is owned by Ashli Todd, who took over the business from her father, Nick Todd, in 2010, continuing a family connection that stretches back several decades.
Cincinnati, OH | A burst pipe won’t stop the music at the vinyl hub of these Cincinnati cat dads: Alien Records has become an LGBTQ+ community space. Now, the community is stepping up to keep things spinning. When Aaron Robbins and Timothy Henninger first started dating in 2022, they quickly realized they shared a passion for music. “Tim was an obsessive record collector and it was something we just loved doing together,” said Robbins. As Henninger was starting to get burnt out on his event-planning job for a Cincinnati-area venue, the two began strategizing how they could turn their shared love for music into an actual business. “We would visit record stores in Cincinnati all the time and really just turned to each other one day and said, ‘We should open a record store!’” said Robbins.
London, UK | Petition launched to save London record shop and venue BBE amid licence review: The independent label, which has operated from Helmsley Place in Hackney since 2016, is facing a review of its premises licence following noise complaints. BBE Store, the East London record label, shop and events space, is facing a review of its premises licence following complaints about noise. The team has launched a petition to garner support, revealing that a new residential building opened opposite the premises after the pandemic, in an area the campaign describes as largely commercial and industrial. BBE says it has worked with Hackney Council to address noise concerns, including installing noise limiters and acoustic curtains. However, it claims complaints have continued despite these measures.
Preston, UK | ‘We were up against a lot of legends’: Action-packed High Street Heroes Awards for Preston record shop. Action Records’ Gordon Gibson won four trophies at the High Street Heroes Awards in Preston, including Outstanding Achievement in Retail and Customer Service Legend, after a record 84,000 votes in the overall competition. “Music is different now, it’s not like when I first started. Now, you’d get a great-granddad and a great-grandson all mixing and listening to the same music!” …This week, the manager of Action Records, on Church Street, told the Lancashire Post that his favourite part of his career had always been getting to speak to the new and interesting people who come through his doors—but that he had been blown away by all those who voted him for four trophies at this year’s High Street Heroes Awards.
Las Vegas, NV | Zia Records to Open its Third Las Vegas Valley Store: Zia Records is slated to open its next store in North Las Vegas. Zia Records is expanding! The beloved one-stop pop culture shop with longtime Vegas roots is working on its third opening. Signs are already up for the upcoming North Las Vegas Zia Records store, expected to open this fall at 1366 W Cheyenne Ave, Suite 101-103. “North Las Vegas is untapped territory for Zia, but a location there has been heavily requested for years. We’re excited to bring Zia Records to North Las Vegas for our current customers in that area and for new people to discover Zia now that it’s in their backyard,” Zia Records Marketing Manager Christina Wilson said in an interview with What Now Las Vegas.
San Francisco, CA | Danny Bonaduce Surprises Fans by Signing Partridge Family Albums in Record Store Bins: ‘Partridge Family’ star Danny Bonaduce is the ‘autograph bandit’ in vintage record stores. Danny Bonaduce was known to be a bit of a prankster when he was a child actor on the ABC sitcom The Partridge Family. More than 50 years later, he’s been part of an ongoing prank at record stores that’s ultimately a great surprise for fans. Bonaduce, 67, routinely sneaks into record stores and signs old Partridge Family albums that are in bargain bins. Most recently, he stopped by Amoeba Music in San Francisco, where he spotted a $2.99 copy of the Partridge Family’s 1971 Up to Date album. “We’re in the clearance section, which is only slightly insulting,” Bonaduce said in a recent TikTok video he posted from the store. “By the way, we got caught this time so we had to talk to management. They were very cool.”
Audiolab’s new phono stage “brings vinyl playback into the modern listening age” with a headphone amp, Bluetooth and USB recording: English manufacturer Audiolab has announced the release of its first standalone phono stage in almost 20 years, the PPA7. The company says that the new unit is “much more than a traditional phono stage”, calling it “a veritable multitool for vinyl lovers.” It may not include a corkscrew or a nail file, but the PPA7 doesn’t fall short of its “multi-tool” status, with a built-in headphone amplifier and an analogue to digital converter (ADC). In this case, the ADC serves the dual purpose of enabling wireless streaming to Bluetooth headphones or speakers via Bluetooth 5.3 (with support for the hi-res aptX HD codec), and also allows the unit to be connected to a PC or Mac via USB-C for digitising and storing records.
Dinkytown, MN | Your Favorite Movie Nerd’s Favorite Movie Label Sets Up Shop In Dinkytown: Vinegar Syndrome co-founder Ryan Emerson talks preserving lost films, his MN connections, and the ‘renewed and growing enthusiasm’ for owning movies in a physical form. …there is a present and growing yearning, among the old and the young, for a time before Everything That Ever Was could be sold to us via a series of $24.99-a-month streaming service subscriptions. Anyone who grew up in the time before the Great Cataloging of All Culture on the Internet has some seemingly lost piece of culture tucked away in the archive of our memory yet permanently imprinted on our psyche.
I found out that video stores have their own holiday, and here’s how I’m celebrating: We’re pretty big fans of Blu-rays, DVDs, and 4K discs here. If you can relate, you might also be eager to observe this year’s International Independent Video Store Day (10/17). A multi-country celebration of the video store experience? It’s easy to understand why physical media fans would appreciate the appeal and purpose of such a day. However, those in charge of organizing International Independent Video Store Day aim to do more than simply remind us of the pleasure a local DVD and Blu-ray shop can offer. It seems their goal is also to demonstrate how an independent video store can offer a cure for underwhelming content.
Follow The Vinyl District on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE, Threads HERE, Bluesky HERE, and X/Twitter HERE.
