In a thread on the Guardian Website about record shops that changed our lives a shout out is deserved for The Sound House of Ashton under lyne. Where Hip Hop heads met Heavy Metal fans in a very small cramped space tucked away on a back street where those in the know would go.
It later moved to the more shopper friendly arcade but still kept it's independent ethos. Andys Records killed it off with its chain store mentality, which in turn died off due to being expensive and shit.
The quite frankly pointless HMV is the only place in Ashton now to buy music. These big chains killed off the smaller independent shops as they just couldn't compete. The internet is killing off the big stores not because they can't compete but because they just didn't know how to provide a service for people any more. For some insane reason I felt the need to re-buy Iron Maidens first album last week (I'm having a heavy metal midlife crisis) I knew it was £3.99 all over the internet but was willing to pay a couple of quid more to get it there and then. In HMV it was £13.50 thats over triple the cost so they didn't get a sale. On looking throught he new releases it's the same selection at Tesco, the internet is the last refuge for the music collector. Although |Vinyl Exchange in Manchetsre is still going (hopefully) strong.
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