Last Shop Standing

As our love for vinyl & the independent record store continues to grow here at E.A.R HQ, it saddens us to know that some 540 record shops closed in the last 4 years.

Graham Jones, one of the founders of Proper Music Distribution and author of Last Shop Standing, has spent most of his life working in independent record retailing and this book is a heart-warming, if sometimes sad, true story about his experiences.

Graham has some incredible stories to tell and in Last Shop Standing he has amassed many extraordinary tales of the best shops he has done business with over the years and hilarious accounts of the worst.

But the most shocking part of the tale is the one that begins and defines Last Shop Standing: record retailing is an industry in crisis. Beset by the onward march of the supermarkets, the growing popularity of music downloading and a host of other rapidly emerging market trends, the traditional record shop has become an endangered species.

Although Graham recognises this fact, he also highlights the unique environment and social aspect that an independent record store brings to it’s dedicated following.  Some of the most inventive ideas have been conjured up by some stores in order to survive in this harsh trading reality.

All of which makes this a most timely and important book for anyone with a passion for the industry.

Graham has amassed a fantastic collection of anecdotes on his travels around the record shops of Britain, and Last Shop Standing is a unique slice of social history and record industry folklore.

If you love vinyl, be sure to read this.  The E.A.R copy is well-thumbed and dog-eared already…