The end is nigh.

Saturday, nothing better to do than buy some music, you would think so, right?

Sheffield, big city, 5th biggest in England. The new Ryan Adams and Nick Lowe albums are calling my name. i've resisted the temptation to buy them all week on Amazon, prefering to support my local music vendors.

But FOPP shut 5 weeks ago. No problem, i'll go to 'Meadowhell' and pick them up at either Virgin or HMV, simple task eh?

But Meadowhell was flooded in the rains a few weeks ago and the music shops are all on the lower floors, and they are well and truly shut and boarded up undergoing refits.

So i head back into town and go into HMV there instead. Except HMV in town only sells shit fit for kids and doesn't have either album in stock, in any format.

Neither does the Virgin Megastore, hardly very mega then is it?

And that's it, there is no independant record shop any more, hell even record collector doesn't actually sell records, let alone Cd's that aren't second hand.

There is nowhere in the whole of Sheffield where i can buy either of these albums in any format the week after they were released.

WTF?

 

e bay/internet mate.

 

thats the thing, i like to 'buy' my music. popinto the shop, browse for crap, it's just not the same.

 

My ocal stores in Telford and Shrewbury are not too bad....thats hmv and virgin. I agree you ahve to siift through a considerable amount of dross....

The thing I ahve found is that if your tyaste any thing other than mainstram cold play/ redhot chillppepers/ what ever they only stock the main albums ,...thye know ill sell or should we say eample of albums. So, if you ahve one album by say eva cassidy, you proabaly already have what they stock.

Also, jazz and blues are increasingly catergarised under "folk"....intensely annoying.

 

yeh im anything but centre-field in my music choice.

 

Sheffield is in fact the 3rd biggest city in England. 1st is Birmingham, 2nd is Leeds then Sheffield. London is made up of boroughs. The borough that has city status is the City of London. This has a population of 9200.

I have noticed this as well. Very annoying. But having seen the water levels at the time, I'm not suprised!

I was around the city centre today and noted that both HMV & Virgin had both titles in stock. Virgin was selling the Ryan Adams on for £11 & the Nick Lowe one for £14 while HMV were selling Ryan Adams for £10.99 & £11.95. Both stores had loads of copies of the Ryan Adams cd and a few copies of the nick Lowe cd (2 & 4 copies respectivly)

Try Jacks records in the city centre, they had a vinyl copy of the Ryan Adams album in orange vinyl. (either £10 or £14 I think)

Either you missed them or they have replaced the stocks from when you left the shops to before i got to the shops. You should have asked at the counter.

The major problem is having stock that sells. The internet has made it easier for companies selling less mainstream stuff to survive plus provided more competition for price of mainstream stuff. Alot of albums that get released will not sell huge quanities.

I did expect Virgin and HMV to have copies of both the Nick Lowe and Ryan Adams cds.

SCIDB

 

my faith is restored i must have caught them both after the gold rush.

 

Don't forget the City of Westminster (I think that's the only other one).

 

You seem to have forgotten Manchester.

 

I believe we have claim to being the second city, Brum being the third..... Any takers?

 

Hi,

I haven't forgot Manchester. Sheffield has a bigger population than Manchester. Also a bigger population than Liverpool. Bradford has a bigger population than Manchester & Liverpool.

Birmingham, Leeds & Sheffield all have over 500,000 people each.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_districts_by_population

SCIDB

 

Hi,

That is correct.

SCIDB

 

I just popped into Telford today, primarily to replace a brake light bulb; temptaton got the better of me and I poped into the town centre to check out a couple of cds..........

.............Virgin have gone!!! After all this time!

HMV is still there, though. One girl serving (helpful enough lass). Joss Stone was under easy-listening or something......not soul. Diana Krall was hidden away in a corner in a jazz section 6" wide.

The highlight of my excersion was a trip to b+q; in a moment of brain death o ) I couldn't remember if b+q included vat on prices (in mitigation many builders merchants don't). When I asked the casher (17 year old lad....... he said HE didn't know.......would I like to ask the shop manager? I gratefully declined the offer)

Back to the loss of Virgin in telford......is this a sign of hings to come....or go, more to the point?

 

Sheffield is different though, the big difference with Manchester it is is Greater Manchester which makes up one city pretty much with odd exceptions such as Rochdale and Wigan (which are no where near Manchester) being placed within the county.

Saying Manchester has a population of 420,000 is like saying London has a population of 10,000.

I live 4 miles away from Manchester City Centre, half a mile away from Trafford, 2 miles away from Salford, 4 miles away from Stockport.

 

What we normally understand by 'Manchester' is as mentioned above by Amazingtrade.

Salford and Trafford boroughs both have over 200,000 people living there who are not counted within the figures quoted above, yet most would consider them part of Manchester. Partly beause neither area has what I would consider a sizable shopping / amenities area on the scale of the city (Manchester) center (Salford Quays doesn't count, er neither does the Trafford centre, carbuncle).

I would also say that Liverpool and Leeds are much 'bigger' than they appear on that list. Incidentally they are also better served than Sheffield, in record shop terms. A pity because its a good place and I would have thought if nothing else the students would keep a few decent record shops going.

Manchester also has loads of good record shops too, the most notable (imho) being:

Piccadily Records
Vinyl Exchange

(I can't remember any others)

 

My local shop, KingBee records still thriving despite the MP3 boom. There are loads of record shops in the northern quarter, there is a good indie one on Hilton street.

 

I always use to use "Spillers" when we were in south wales.

A colleague said they were still operating a couple of years ago...don't know about now.

Have to say I haven't done vinyl much since i've been in shrophsire.

 

looks dubious....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/5264464.stm

 

There's at least one really good second hand place in Prestwich too, just opposite Richer Sounds.

Haven't been there for a while and last time the guy was talking about shutting shop and just doing ebay. Shame.

I thinkSpillers closed.

 

The end is truly nigh.

Just been into York to get the new Richard Hawley and lo and behold Track Records is closed!!!!

It moved last year and now it's closed altogether, after 28 years.

I suppose everything comes to an end but there are now no independent record shops in York any more (to my knowledge), just second hand vinyl / CDs. Virgin in York is truly crap and HMV isn't much better. They will drive me to Internet shopping from Piccadilly Records in Manchester or such like.

There are two fairly prosperous HiFi Shops in York, Sound Organisation (v friendly) and Vickers (miserable sods). I know that HiFi shops do not a market for records make but it still surprises me.

York is dire enough as it is unless you like quaint coffee shops, all you-can-eat Chinese restaurants, tourists or high street chains. And now this.

Signed;

Disgusted

YORK