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24 Music Week 30.11.12 RETAIL


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Manager: Jimmy Shannon THE DISKERY


Give us a bit of background on the store... The store was opened in 1952 by a man called Morris Hunting who unfortunately died in January this year. Liam and myself are the two men who have fronted the store over the years – Liam’s been here for 40, I’ve been here 45. We moved to the location


we’re in now in 1972/73 from a much smaller premises down the road. The store originaly started


with Morris dealing in 78 blues and jazz records. Out of that, I assume, as popular music exploded onto the scene after the war, people would ask if he could get various releases. He found there was a business here and as it grew the shop grew with it. By the mid 60s the shop was


trading a lot and seeing quite a bit of business in what eventually became reggae. DJs used to come in by the dozen for soul music as well.


Not longer after I started


came the emergence of progressive music and we cleaned up in a nice way because our ear holes were quite tuned in and still are now.


How’s business today compared to other points in your history? It’s still good. It’s never been easy. You shipped box loads of records years ago rather than just a bag full these days. There was plenty for everybody but as things went on that was no longer the case. That’s one of the reasons for


the decline in indie stores apart from the obvious effect of the internet and how much music people can get for nothing or at least much cheaper than a shop. You can go to Sainsbury’s these days and buy an album for cheaper than I could buy it from a warehouse. It’s changing all the time and


we can’t see what’s coming but we stay tuned in to what’s happening. We don’t stock a lot


INTERNET VS HUMAN


“What’s kept us going is the strength and depth of our knowledge and our stock of vinyl in the shop, which people still seem hungry for. If we relied on the sale of CDs, we wouldn’t be here” JIMMY SHANNON, THE DISKERY


of current music like chart, indie stuff and big bands. But we still do very will with what I call ‘grown up’ rock music and we recommend it to customers.


How do you go about taking on the internet? I don’t know. We aren’t on the internet and that’s something we need to put right. I don’t think you can combat it, but we


trade a lot of excellent condition second hand records and stock all styles of music and most people like to look through it and browse. What’s kept us going is the strength and depth of our knowledge and our stock of vinyl in the shop, which people still seem very hungry for and I think always will be. If we relied on the sale of CDs, we wouldn’t be here.


How much of an impact do you think the Last Stop Standing book and film have had in raising the awareness of indie record stores and their plight? I think it’s been very healthy. It was healthy when Graham Jones published the book in the first place and I think the DVD is fantastic. I loved it to death and


99 Bromsgrove Street Birmingham, B5 6QB t 0121 622 2219


thought it was a really great, balanced account of how the trade has been from people who generally know what they’re talking about.


Is there anything that the music industry could be doing to help indie retailers? I don’t think they care, so no. You can’t beat the internet and they didn’t stop piracy years ago so what can they do now? I saw a poster where Sony


was selling the idea of downloading music to the public. Where does that put a shop like us that’s selling the end result?


How confident are you about next year and the future ? I’m never cocky about it but I’m pleasantly confident.


This week’s High Street Hero Jimmy Shannon takes on his digital rivals ...


WE SAID WE LIKED... ONE DIRECTION Take Me Home


AMAZON RECOMMENDED... LITTLE MIX DNA


JIMMY RECOMMENDED... DAN PENN The Fame Recordings


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