Vinyl Heaven, an Actual Record Shop(!!), in Frome
Well, this weekend marked a large break from the norm; I set foot in an actual record shop. The BBC have long been reporting the death of the record shop, so it came to great suprise to learn that there was one a mear 45 minute drive from where I live.
The first surprise was that, in fact, it is not one shop, but two! The first is rammed full of CDs, on the one floor. The second is nothing short of a vinyl goldmine, spread across three floors.
All the vinyl appears to be in very good condition and the staff are both friendly and knowlegable. Alas, their selection of drum & bass is not vast but, to be fair I found 1 or 2 12″s that I wanted, and picked up some pretty obscure prog rock & soundtrack LPs whilst I was there; There really is a vast amount of rock & pop, and also a great selection of really retro soundtracks; I picked up a copy of the soundtrack to cult 70’s horror film Don’t Look Now, which is great!
In an era where the internet itself has become practically the biggest record shop of all, it’s great to see that record shops do actually still exist; You can’t really beat the feeling of flicking through a few thousand LPs on a saturday afternoon; scrolling through a webpage is just not the same at all!
Vinyl Heaven aka Raves From The Grave
20 Cheap Street
Frome
Somserset
BA11 1BN
http://www.ravesfromthegrave.com/
It’s very easy to find something you like and stick to it. There’s plenty of people I know who do this, and that’s great. For me though, I feel like I’ve done that a lot in the past, and in doing so, overlooked tons of stuff that’s probably even better. It’s like the whole idea of having a favourite band, or a favourite song: at that point, you’re tying yourself to the concept that no artist or song will ever come along that’ll beat it. As soon as you think that way, you’re gonna miss out, so don’t do it.
The Sessions Podcast 