Altrincham used to have a couple of record shops but in recent years has had none. Last Saturday, Record Shop Day, a new record shop opened- Beatnik Shop. I popped down yesterday with the wife and kids in tow. It's a cracking little shop, opposite the covered market and next door to the Belgian Bar (which could be handy). In their first week they've been in The Guardian and been visited by Mike Joyce. Not only does Beatnik Shop sell records (mainly second hand, a few RSD ones hanging around- mostly Aerosmith, unsold for some reason) but it also does coffee, tea and cakes, which bought me ten minutes rummaging time. There's a good amount of 80s indie and punk, 60s and 70s psych, folk and weirdness, pots of funk and soul, some wooden boxes with cds in and several boxes of 7" singles (Northern soul, indie etc). The range and quality shows it's stocked by people who know their stuff. They're promising in-shop performances and this Friday an evening in conversation with music journalist and writer Paul du Noyer. All in all a welcome addition to Altrincham, a town which has been on it's arse for a couple of years to be honest. I hope they manage to make it work. I will be back regularly I suspect. After a while I found a vinyl copy of John Betjeman's Banana Blush lp and scraped together the three quid required. The last song on it is this...
A Child Ill
6 comments:
Excellent news, a new record shop opening up.
We might pay it a visit before we go....(2 offers for house!)
I'll try and pop in next time I'm travelling between Sheffield and Wigan (nip up from the M56). Great sign, if they've got any sense they'll stick it on a t shirt.
Build it and they will come
It has nice window art too.
There used to be a second-hand book/record shop in Penrith (Australia) called Lazy Daze. Spent my youth trawling and trading. Gone now, sad.
There was also a tiny book shop without a sign, known to locals only as "Darrel's", the books were floor to ceiling and arranged in a mystical code that only the owner could fathom. It was so sad to hear that Darryl had died in his bookshop of a heart attack.
There is now a new place in Glebe called the record crate, relying on its cafe and live music aspects to stay alive, but something just isn't the same: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Record-Crate/467734953274527
£3 well spent.
A nice find.Will take a pop down there at the weekend and take a peek.
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