EP/24: THE VINYL REVIVAL
Is the Vinyl Revival Here to Stay? with Pip Piper and Graham Jones.
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In this episode we look at the disappearance of record shops in the UK in the late 2000s, followed by a sharp resurgence that continues into the 2020s. While it seemed record shops were going the way of the 8-track and the cassette, the industry did a complete 180 and did the unthinkable - and boutique record stores started popping up again all over the UK.
To take us through the downs and ups, Pip Piper and Graham Jones join us from Dawlish, England. During his career as a sales-rep, Graham visited more record shops than any other human. His 2008 book ‘Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops' documents the decline of the record shop, while his 2018 book ‘The Vinyl Revival and the Shops that Made it Happen’ documents the subsequent rise. Both books were made into films of the same name by Pip Piper.
Outside of the UK you can download ebook versions of Last Shop Standing, Strange Requests and Comic Tales From Record Shops and The Vinyl Revival and The Shops That Made it Happen from Amazon Kindle. Graham’s blog has 100 plus features on vinyl and record shops: https://grahamjonesvinylrevival.blogspot.com/
Watch the films Last Shop Standing and the Vinyl Revival on Vimeo and learn more at: thevinylrevivalfilm.com
ABOUT GRAHAM & PIP
Graham Jones spent 32 years travelling the UK, selling to independent record shops and during this time visited more record shops than any other human. His book “Last Shop Standing Whatever Happened To Record Shops?” documented the sad disappearance of record shops from having over 2000 independent record shops in the UK in the 1980s to just 269 in 2009. Jones spoke to 50 record shop owners to see why they have survived while nearly two thousand others had closed. In 2012 Last Shop Standing was made into an award winning 50 minute film, featuring interviews with Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Richard Hawley, Paul Weller and Billy Bragg, alongside many of the record shop owners featured in the book. In the subsequent “The Vinyl Revival and The Shops That Made It Happen”, Jones explains why through 2018, the UK reversed the trend, adding a hundred more record shops than it had in 2009.
Pip Piper is the co-founder of Blue Hippo Media, making films with a passion to discover and tell great stories to the right audiences in the right way to achieve the best impact. His first feature film "The Insatiable Moon" won best foreign film at Moondance festival USA and best Actor and best supporting Actor at the NZ film awards. His film "Last Shop Standing" is about the rise fall and rebirth of the UK indie record shop featuring Paul Weller /Johnny Marr / Billy Bragg. Its follow-on “The Vinyl Revival” is about renewed interest and increased sales of vinyl records. Pip has made other feature length documentaries and feature dramas and set up an initiative to develop film talent and low budget genre feature films in Birmingham. He also helped establish a new MA in film at Birmingham City University and works on it part time as a VL connecting students with industry.
