So, Where Is All This Hot New Music? (Part 3 of 3)

Radio Is A Sound Salvation

A little nod there to Elvis Costello as we arrive at the third part of this overview of the changing sources of new music here in the UK. 

In the first part, we looked at the music press, then last week we considered the role of your local record store - and here, we home in on the wireless world of radio.

And in many ways, radio is the most powerful medium for presenting great new music: you can hear it - and if there's a decent DJ curating the releases, you'll get to find out about the artists too. But, as with all these things, the simplicity of radio is complicated by the world it inhabits: tastes, politics and technology all have their part to play and, as we all know, these are ever-changing.

So, back in the early 60s when The Beatles hit the charts, where did you tune-in to find out more?

It was a a very controlled environment.

The BBC in the early 1960s

The only officially sanctioned UK broadcaster was the BBC.

Radio Times - 1950

It provided three national networks - The Home Service, The Light Programme and The Third Programme. The Home Service was mainly speech-based and is today Radio 4. The Third Programme focused on classical music and  survives today as Radio 3. But it is to the Light Programme that we must turn, and the very title itself could fill us with dread. Light: safe, inoffensive, peaceful - some words that might come to mind. Most shows at the time barely scratched the pop market: there were odd beacons of light (Pick Of The Pops), but by and large, popular music was sadly absent. Indeed, the light programme persisted with shows born in the dark days of wartime such as "Music While You Work" and "Family Favourites". The occasional sprinkling of something new might be dropped in, but for those seeking the hippest new sounds, other avenues needed to be explored.

1950s Radiogram  

This need to explore was aided by a technological advance in the 1950s - the transistor, a means of reducing electronic components down to a much smaller size and (amongst other things), enabling the launch of the transistor radio. At that time, most UK homes relied upon large, static radio sets - some complete with burnished wood cabinets that looked like a piece of living room furniture: those with the money could even buy a radiogram which also included a record player and storage space for your 78rpm gramophone records. All very swish and modern, but highly impractical and worse, reliant upon mains electricity. The transistor enabled portability with small hand-held sized sets powered by batteries - and (marvel upon marvel), a discreet ear-piece so listening could be done in the dead of night without suspicious parents being any the wiser.

Early 1960s Transistor Radio

And that was the thing - it was often the newly-minted breed of youngsters, the "teenagers" who took advantage of the new miracle. With the ability to flip the dial to the AM stations of their choice - and here in the UK, all of Europe was available - the 1960s teen could start to discover music for themselves: critically, this meant not just the BBC.   

Commercial radio didn't exist in the UK until 1973, but there was nothing to stop enterprising British operators from setting up in Europe and then broadcasting powerful signals back across the homeland. Many remember Radio Luxembourg which broadcast on 208m and, at times in the 50s, a serious rival to the BBC. It was more irreverent, it had ads, sponsored shows - and, from 1960 onwards, plenty of pop-music shows presented by specialist folk labelled by the then exotic term  "Disc Jockeys". Most shows were actually recorded in London and shipped out to Europe for broadcast. And thus,  the British public was introduced to such names as Alan Freeman, Brian Matthew, Jimmy Young and Keith Fordyce. Record companies got involved by sponsoring some shows and livening things up. The BBC with its long history did its best to ignore the brash young upstart, but slowly and surely, Luxembourg began to eat away at its listener base.

Was this the way forward?

Not by a long chalk: interesting things had been happening across the Atantic and revolution, it seemed, wasn't far away.

Caroline To The Rescue! 

In 1964, the first taste of US-style pop-radio hit the UK airwaves.

Radio Luxembourg with its pre-recorded and sponsored shows was about to face a challenger in the shape of pirate radio. Land-based commercial broadcasters were illegal - but there was nothing to stop a radio station being on board a ship, and that's exactly what entrepreneur Ronan O'Rahilly did. Starting with boats moored in the North Sea and the Irish Sea, both outside the four mile limit of British territorial waters, the legend that was Radio Caroline was born. Caroline proved to be a revelation in so many ways.

Good example of Reverse
Psychology at Radio Caroline

The major advance was the use of unscripted live shows presented by personality DJs: freeform broadcasting had arrived and with it, DJs such as Emperor Rosko, Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker and Tony Prince. The US-style approach was under-lined by the station broadcasting a number of syndicated shows from New York and this widened the musical base. Bands started to notice and got promoters and agents to get airplay for them. Caroline started its own charts, charts which were so different from those used by the BBC and the UK weekly music press. This was partly reflective of the search for new music by listeners, but also because *ahem*, Caroline was paid to play certain singles. 

With Pirate Radio, anything was possible and Caroline's pioneering efforts soon saw others spring up in its wake. Most visible was probably Radio London, know as The Big L, a station that opened at the end of 1964 and provided (in a large part) the template for Radio 1 in 1967. With promos and jingles "Wonderful Radio London", it brought us Dave Cash, Tommy Vance, the wild and inventive Kenny Everett - and with his hip show The Perfumed Garden, John Peel. Here's a link through to a selection of those jingle, produced in the USA by PAMS (Production, Advertising & Marketing Service) - and by clicking on this link,  the similarity to the later Radio 1 is really rather interesting:

Radio London - The Big L - 1960s Jingles 

Suddenly, it seemed that new music was widely available. The DJs seemed to *get* good music, they championed the latest releases which all helped to encourage bands and record labels to get their music played on Caroline and The Big L. Audience figures grew and for the music-loving hip young things of Britain, this was radio broadcasting for them. Subversive. Secret. Lively. Maybe even a bit anarchic.

Was it all too good to be true?

Marine Broadcasting Offences Act

Sun Setting On An Era

The BBC started to feel threatened and although independent of government influence, it was the nation's "state" broadcaster. Whilst there were BBC staffers who cried out for change, it was Harold Wilson's labour government who initially proposed a clampdown on pirate radio.

During 1966, they piloted the Marine (Broadcasting) Offences Act through parliament and as the rest of the UK thrilled to the 1967 "summer of love", the act became law on 14th August of that year. It made it a criminal offence affecting, as one key clause said:

"any person who supplied music, commentary, advertising, fuel, food, water or any other assistance except for life-saving purposes, to any ship, offshore structure such as a former WWII fort, or flying platform such as an aircraft used for broadcasting without a licence granted by the regulatory authority for broadcasting in the UK."

With the youth of Britain having greater access to music from more stations than ever before, the government in a single blow, removed that freedom and paved the way for big changes in the BBC. Radio London closed down the day before the act came into effect whilst Caroline, ever the defiant pioneer, manfully struggled on for a while and today, exists as an internet station.

Just over a month later on September 30th, the BBC radio stations were re-branded - and a new pop station, Radio 1, launched.

Early Radio 1 logo - "Flower Power"

To eager listeners, it did sound an awful lot like Radio London - the jingles were barely changed and, surprise surprise, there were all the familiar DJs and, better still, no ads. The downside was that Radios 1 and 2 (the latter replacing the Light Programme) shared frequencies, so Radio 1 was only actually broadcast for part of each day. But one good thing it brought, an unintended consequence of the BBC's agreement with the Musician's Union, was the Radio 1 session. The union agreement meant only a certain number of hours of recorded music could be broadcast each day - the so-called Needle Time: the rest, if there was anything, had to be live sessions specifically recorded for the BBC and *preserving* musicians' jobs in the process. Without that, the renowned Peel sessions may not have come into being - and today's Radio 1 and 6 Music sessions would not (perhaps) be the mainstay that they are in shaping our musical tastes.

BBC Expansion

Radio 1's Annie Nightingale - 1970s

Whatever the feelings of Radio 1 listeners, the BBC did try hard at first to push their new baby into the public consciousness. They set up the Radio 1 Club, they encouraged listener interaction and in the evenings, they introduced a range of excellent specialist shows which promoted much non-chart music and importantly, album tracks. With John Peel now a key BBC staffer - if perhaps misunderstood by his new employer - and other  DJs making their influences felt (Alan Black, Emperor Rosko and the first female DJ Annie Nightingale), the signs were promising.

But as time went by and Radio 1 day-time transmissions increased, the station slipped more and more into a rut. Maybe the BBC saw it as an unloved child: as other stations acquired FM frequencies, Radio 1 was limited to AM and the inevitable poor sound quality. This was particularly so in the evenings with dreadful interference from the increasingly crowded waveband as European stations came on stream. The daytime shows started to feel safe and comfortable again, not cutting-edge, and although some DJs tried (Johnnie Walker for example), the majority concentrated on the charts and chatter.

BBC Radio Leicester
1972

A lesser-known impact of the enforced closure of the pirate stations and the launch of Radio 1 came in November 1967: the birth of local radio. And it was the BBC that was at the forefront because, as was then the case, it was the only UK operator to have a broadcast licence. BBC Radio Leicester was the first on air on 8th November and tranches of other stations appeared over the next 20 years or so, creating the network of 40 BBC local stations that exists today. But, being the BBC, the first stations were earnest rather than cutting-edge, although to their credit, they persevered. Local stations enabled a better focus on local tastes and fashions: they proved to be good training grounds for presenters and producers - and they could forge closer links with local musicians too. 

In 1970, though, change came - and once more from a surprise quarter.

Ted Heath's Conservative party came to power in that year, rather against the polling trends and being a "private enterprise" champion, they pioneered a new piece of legislation - The Sound Broadcasting Act of 1972. This opened the way in 1973 for the creation of ILR - Independent Local Radio and the first truly British local commercial stations.

The BBC had competition once more as first LBC (London Broadcasting, a news and speech-based station) opened on 9th October 1973 and then, a week later, the station that would break the mould - Capital Radio.

Capital Sounds

Capital Radio with it's later,
 more familiar AM frequency 

Looking back, we shouldn't underestimate the impact that Capital radio had in London and the south-east. Broadcasting on 539m, it was backed by a powerful team of owners - Bryan Forbes, George Martin and critically, Richard Attenborough. From the off, it was brighter, more confident and more subversive than Radio 1 and the BBC local stations. The night-time shows demonstrated what was possible in a commercial world and presenters such as Nicky Horne ("Your Mother Wouldn't Like It") and Roger Scott soon became highly popular amongst the record-buying public. Kenny Everett, following his recent *sacking* by the BBC joined in and created a real vibe which, for the station's first couple of years, singled it out as the place to go for good new music and maverick DJs.

Manchester's Piccadilly Radio

Other local commercial stations opened up in its wake: Radio Clyde in Glasgow, BRMB in Birmingham - and Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. Smaller conurbations benefited too - Radio Victory (Portsmouth), Radio Orwell (Ipswich) and Radio 210 (Reading). By 1980, there were 30 stations - and more were promised.

For music-seeking folks, the choice was getting wider and wider, wasn't it?

Choice & Quality?

The thing that we must always bear in mind is that word "commercial": the new ILR stations were businesses, they needed to succeed, they needed plenty of advertisers and without them, they'd fail. As some did.

New radio threat?

When the economy got tight in the early 80s there were calls for a "lightening up" of the ILR's regulation of commercial radio. At that time, there were quality thresholds - a certain amount of speech-based programming, commitments to local groups and societies and so forth. These may have been worthy and lofty aims, but they didn't make for large audiences which caused concern for the advertising sales teams. The 80s also saw the launch of Music Television (MTV), a new network running on the back of the fad for music videos. There was also (from 1982) an extra terrestrial channel (Channel 4) which soon launched the innovative show The Tube and its reputation as the "music-breaking" show in the UK. Hosted by Jools Holland, it brought a welcome irreverence to proceedings as well as showcasing a wealth of new music each week. And, in a very London-centric musical world, it broadcast live from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

Guildford's County Sound:
first split frequency

The ILR responded by permitting commercial stations to split their frequencies - AM and FM - into separate networks, the first being Guildford's County Sound. The AM version often became an "oldies" station, leaving FM for a more focused "new" music outlet. The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher encouraged this as a way of "promoting more choice", but too often, "more choice" meant spreading the jam in a more meagre fashion and lowering the quality. This frequency-splitting approach formed the background to the Broadcasting Act 1990: the ILR was abolished, regulation became "light touch" and commercial radio, freed from many of its public service obligations, started its long decline into groups of stations with common owners and precious little local-programming.

Where now for the keen music enthusiast?

Go National, Go Regional, Go Really Local

The 1990 Broadcasting Act also enabled three other changes, changes which occupied positions at each end of the commercial radio spectrum. Firstly, three national licenses were to be issued giving commercial radio a truly UK-wide coverage for the first time. Next came a series of stations that could take a regional approach to broadcasting and cover a much larger area than an existing commercial set-up. The other extreme saw RSL stations - that is Restricted Service Licence, a phenomenon aimed at small community or special interest groups. It allowed such groups to set up their own little station for a maximum of 28 days in a row, no more than twice a year. 

Virgin Radio - First National
 Commercial Pop Station

At first, the national stations attracted the most interest and before long, Classic FM was on air and beating Radio 3 hands-down with its audience figures. Talk Radio was next and a challenge to Radio 5 Live. The pop world - and this blog - were most interested though in the third, a station aimed squarely at the Radio 1 audience and run by that very nice Mr Richard Branson. Virgin Radio was seen as a big threat, but sadly, it was lumbered with an AM signal - which gave it all the quality issues that Radio 1 struggled with in its early years. It tried gamely and put together a highly popular breakfast show - and managed to secure an FM frequency in the London area too. A number of owners have controlled it since, but the most interesting ownership was by DJ Chris Evans who, no matter what you may think of him, took the breakfast show from 600,000 listeners to nearly four times that in the first six months. His company - Ginger Productions - made a decent sum out of its purchase, but time and tide waits for no man, and it was later sold on.

Virgin re-branded as Absolute Radio in 2008 and today operates a "popular rock policy" which, sadly for our interest, doesn't mean championing lots of new music.

Smashy & Nicey - Or is it Harry & Paul?

The BBC didn't take all this lying down: the "night of the long-knives" came at Radio 1 as controller Matthew Bannister wielded the axe on many of the day-time presenters. Out went the "Smashy and Nicey" brigade and in came DJs and presenters who knew and loved urban music, dance music and several of the other sub-genres which were getting prescious little national air-play. Today, of course, Radio 1 is squarely aimed at the teens and twenties and is once again, a champion of new music.

The RSL stations, though, proved to be more interesting.

Often run by enthusiasts and music lovers, they were non-profit making and had quite tight rules as to what they could do in terms of selling advertising and fund raising. They could - and some did - give a platform to local musicians, artists and singers. They could also introduce a wide range of specialist music shows to reflect the demographics of their broadcast area. Some of these temporary stations could be quite big such as Radio Avalon which ran across the Glastonbury festival each year and XFM in London, a station which later grew and became an influential full-time broadcaster.

We shall see shortly how some of these low-key stations would change and grow their role in the years after the millenium. 

Commercial Pressures and The Digital Revolution

Meanwhile, back in the real world of broadcast radio, the late 90s witnessed some major structural changes. 

We've already hinted at the commercial pressures that local stations faced. Challenges arose from a number of areas:

• Increasing consumer access to music TV channels
• The rise of the internet after the Windows 95 launch
• Fluctuating advertising revenues

DJs - Hanging up the headphones?

This manifested itself in two ways, both driven by the need to achieve "the bottom line". Firstly, the larger stations started acquiring smaller stations, building up a group "brand" in key cities around the UK. Secondly, local news and journalism was cut back as was a range of locally produced music shows. The creeping regionalisation allowed "networked shows" punctuated by local advertsing and this is a trend that has continued through to the present day. With some notable exceptions, most commercial local radio has little ability to promote new music or indeed, genre music. Sadly much of the musical choice is simply generated by clever software from the station's database - no DJ involved and money saved.

It was the competition, though,  from the gradual rise of the internet that was to redraw the landscape.

Two things happened, both becoming mutually dependent upon the other.

In 1995, the government allocated the first digital radio licenses: these were issued to the winning consortia followed by a formal launch three years later. Digital radio wasn't broadcast in the same way as AM or FM radio and thus couldn't be received on existing radio sets. Special Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) sets were needed and, as with all new technology, were expensive and highly dependent upon the part of the country in which you lived for the quality of reception. But, and it's a "big but", the major benefit was that using digitial technology, many more stations could broadcast without impacting the existing crowded FM and AM frequencies. 

Early DAB Radio

Both the BBC and commercial consortia bid for various DAB licenses and today, something like 30% of all radio listening in the UK is via a digital medium. The BBC stations have evolved into Radio 1 Xtra (aimed at purely urban music), Radio 4 Extra (a station providing archive shows from the BBC Home Service and Radio 4) and BBC 6 Music, a station we shall return to shortly.

The other complementary event, hinted at earlier, was the rise of the internet. Windows 95 was a revolutionary operating systems and soon, increasing numbers of households were making use of home PCs and all the things that they could offer. Once dial-up access to the internet had been largely superceded by broadband access, there was a veritable musical explosion as suddenly, digital radio could be picked up via your PC. This meant not just access to stations in the UK, but anywhere in the world. 

And, in 2001, with Apple's launch of itunes, an internet service whereby music could be bought and paid for on-line and delivered instantly as a digitised download, each home had access to a vast database of sound.

Choosing & Discovering 

New Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Nick Grimshaw

But of course, there is still a large section of the listening public who consume their music in the traditional way, via broadcast radio. Except that, commercial radio was largely becoming homogenised and generic whilst the (potentially) greater role of the BBC in championing new music was going to require digital access. In many ways it's a tribute to the BBC that they've successfully re-positioned Radio 1 (as described above) and have more recently done the same to Radio 2, a station which has an audience profile in its late 40s and up - but one which is pretty music-savvy. Most of the shows and presenters hanging over from the Light programme days are long gone, some of the music-focused Radio 1 DJs moved across and today, Radio 2 is the most popular UK radio station with over 13 million regular listeners.

However, as we saw in the first two parts of this tale, with much of the music press falling by the wayside and your local record store in (probable) terminal decline, Radio remains a key method of discovering new music. 

And therein lies the dilemma. 

What do you do to find out about new music? Where do you go? Who can help you?

Around The World

Let's take a brief look. The internet provides a myriad of websites - legal and *not legal* - where music can be downloaded. A number of these allow samples to be played, the electronic version of the old record store listening booths. Then there was the advent of Youtube which allowed firstly old music videos to get repeat airings, but is increasingly used by bands and record companies to promote their music. Streaming services such as Spotify allow listeners to tap into a huge database of music and choose the songs they want to hear, build their own playlists and in effect, create theor own little radio station.  And these developments have been complemented by an ever-increasing number of highly specialised internet-only stations. In many ways one could be fooled into thinking, "we've never had it so good". The dilemma I talk of though is always there, hanging over us all: simply put -  is there too much choice, too many ways of seeing or hearing music, too many options which stop us discovering new sounds?

For many of us, it may well herald the return of a knowledgeable *curator* of music, someone able to sift and sort and suggest the new sounds that might appeal. Someone like a DJ. And increasingly, this is coming from two main sources: the BBC and genuinely local commercial radio. 

And incidentally, although the word "curator" might seem more associated with the world of museums, in recent years, it's been appropriated by the musical fraternity - most memorably at the annual London Meltdown Festival. It's a good word to explain the "added value" that can be brought to the listening experience by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable DJ.   

Let me expand.

Community Radio and BBC 6 Music

Proper local radio

In 2002, the Radio Authority (successor to the ILR) issued the first batch of licenses for what was initially known as Access Radio, in truth, the sort of thing that some of the temporary RSL stations had been doing in the 90s. These stations were not-for-profit, although they needed to be commercial and run along business lines: any money made had to go back into the station and critically, ensuring that it operated in accordance with its licence. This is a key point: the station operator applies for a licence by saying specifically what their station will do - music policy, community focus, promotion of under-represented groups and so forth. If a licence is granted, the station must stick to that licence.

In some ways, it's a throwback to the initial commercial stations and their public service broadcasting content: be commercial, but provide a specified service and be monitored against it.

Over 220 such stations are currently operating, some very small indeed with a handful of others not far short of an old-style local commercial station in terms of their professionalism, reach and audience participation. A good number of them focus on music - genre music and mainstream too - with shows aimed at sharing new music, new bands and acts, local artists, touring artists and more. It is this curation, this "bringing to the listeners' attention" which I believe helps send them off in search of that music, whether via on-line download, on-line dealers or a local record store.

In a busy and frantic music world, a guiding hand is a very useful thing. 

The larger local stations increasingly use the internet to widen the reach of their programming.  It also allows some shows to be syndicated to other stations, something which almost brings us back to the world of early commercial radio. Indeed, some of these stations have very healthy internet audiences, something which is easily measurable and a real aid to advertising sales teams up and down the land.

Beyond the internet, probably the biggest influence on new music promotion has to be BBC 6 Music, the digital station launched in 2002.

BBC 6 Music - Groovy

This station has a unique proposition. Most of its presenters are respected musicians or are those who have paid their dues in promoting music elsewhere. Thus, Lauren Laverne rubs shoulders with Steve Lamacq; Jarvis Cocker and Cerys Matthews provide a muso's insight to the sounds they play and, in their playlist, 6 Music is adventurous. Anything from the past 50 or 60 years could be played, whether a single or album track - but the most important thing is the promotion of new music across all the genres. It's done through regular live sessions, band interviews, mini-festivals, MP3 give-aways, a lively website - in fact, it's marrying up all that was good about the very early Radio 1 with modern technology to create a successful station.

And let's not forget, just 2 years ago, 6 Music was threatened with closure as the BBC sought economies to compensate for the (relative) fall in the latest licence fee agreement. The massive "Stop The Closure" campaign worked, and here we are with a relevant station enjoying a doubling of their audiences in that time. 

Listen When You Choose   

One more technological breakthrough must be mentioned - the BBC iPlayer. We have become used to its role in "timeshifting " TV shows and now, through the new BBC iRadio system, radio can be "heard again" at any time to suit the listener and in a wide range of digital formats. No more missing favourite shows or news on the latest musical sounds: better still, listeners can discuss shows and music with friends - and can then go off and listen for themselves.

Listen Again

And with the advent of "cloud-based" data storage, the smaller stations can also play the same game. Indeed, my very own show The Musical Box is available the day after broadcast via mixcloud - simply click on this link and away you go:

The Musical Box - Listen Again

Mixcloud and its on-line relatives also provide a boon to the budding musician: it's quick and free for a band or artist to upload their own music, be it demos, live sets, studio recordings or whatever. They can get feedback, listeners can see the creative process at play and there's a certain feeling of "exclusivity" when an artist responds to your comments.

What Now? 

And so finally, where have we got to with all of this?

We've established that there is probably more new music around today than ever before. This causes potential difficulties for the discerning music lover:

• We know that little of it will receive record company promotion.
• We can't use traditional methods to help us discover it.
• There are so many different ways that music can be sourced.
• Many radio and technology matters are in a constant state of flux
• We have fewer and fewer record stores we can use to give us new music "intelligence"
• The music press is fragmented

But we do know that as long as people want to make music and listen to it, there'll be ways and means of accessing it:

• The internet allows bands easy ways of self-promotion
• Social networking provides quick and targeted ways of raising interest
• Digital and Internet radio increases opportunity for more and varied stations
• BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 1 are more focused on new music
• Good commercial radio stations provide specialist musical knowledge and enthusiasm

So it's not at all gloomy.

We have to get used to change, to new technology and to different listening habits. Good music though will outlive us all.

And as the band Timbuk 3 so memorably sang, "The Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades". 

Next Time:

The New Musical Box blog presents "Variations On a Theme".

See you all then.

Alan  

And this is what it's all about...

         

So, Where Is All This Hot New Music? (Part 2 of 3)

Record Shops

Welcome back!

Last time (13th October), I looked at one of the ways in which, years gone by, we could find out about all the latest musical releases - the range of weekly papers colloquially knows as "the inkies". Today, their number has declined dramatically and we only really have The New Musical Express left of those we enjoyed in the 70s. That august paper has recently celebrated its 60th anniversary and, although print sales are declining, it has a powerful on-line presence. 

But the music press of yore had one big-downfall: it spent its time trying to describe the sounds, the vibes - the feelings - of pieces of music be it the latest single or the hottest new album but, readers had to imagine what that experience might be like.

Small Town Stores

Woolworths Record Counter - 1950s

The solution was your friendly neighbourhood record shop, a facility that most towns and cities had in abundance during the second half of the last century. The shops were a mixed bunch: some highly specialised and happening, run by devoted experts, others more generalised and chart-focused - and of course, the charts counted for so much more than they do today. And in addition to that, there were the hybrid stores, those that sold instruments alongside sheet music and records plus, the High Street chains such as Boots, Rumbelows, John Menzies and, primarily, Woolworths. Indeed, Woolworths probably sold more singles than all the other major outlets put together. The net result was that even the most modestly sized of towns had multiple outlets where fans could listen to music and buy their records of choice.

The Yardbirds in a London Record Store 1960s

My home town of Woking was a classic example. Aside from Woolies and the other shops already mentioned, it had two specialist record stores - Maxwells and Aerco. Maxwells was a rather high-brow affair that had started out selling instruments and soon expanded into sheet music - which is what the very early sales charts were based on. By the 60s, they had made space for vinyl too - and not just classical sounds. Casual browsing, though, was not encouraged - you were supposed to know exactly what you wanted and woe betide you if you didn't.

That left Aerco - a small outlet on the corner of the two main shopping streets and handily placed opposite the ABC cinema. Founded in 1945, by the late 60s, they were the place to go for chart singles and albums. Indeed, their album selection was always varied and changing plus, there were racks and racks of them where browsing was encouraged. Although it didn't have listening booths, the counter-staff were always happy to play tracks or singles for you. This was the essence of a record store, a friendly place devoted to music, plenty of choice - but not overwhelmingly so.

But that halcyon period was under threat and in a way that at first seemed a positive move.

The Chains

1970s logo

Like so much of the rest of High Street UK, the 60s saw the increasing homogenisation of the shops and stores available. This often increased choice at first and I can recall when the first proper W H Smiths opened in Woking (as opposed to a small book stall on the railway station): this was 1975 and suddenly, we had a large record department and competitive pricing. The knock-on effect - which we only noticed in dribs and drabs - was that other stores stopped selling records (Boots, Rumbelows) or just gave up all together (Maxwells). Before we knew it, it was either Smiths or Aerco. This happened across the land, but as with all revolutions, another was already brewing in the wings.

HMV - First Store - 1925

HMV started life as His Master's Voice, part of the Gramophone Group. It's first store opened in London's Oxford Street in 1921, none other than Sir Edward Elgar performing the honours. Ten years later, The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia to become EMI. The HMV store sold not just the music, but all the equipment to play it on, much of it manufactured by EMI themselves. By 1966, expansion had started in London as further stores were opened and the merchandise focused more closely on the range of recorded music -  pop, classical, genre, spoken word and all the rest. By the early 70s, it was the UK's largest specialist record retailer and, again, the benefits were apparent in terms of access and choice: specialist departments for classical music, genre music as well as pop. But there was a downside too: increased competition for the independents. 

Virgin Megastore at the other end of Oxford Street from HMV 

Change isn't always bad though.

In fact, it's often a good thing - and that's what has kept the music industry going. Big things can grow from small acorns and none come bigger than the Virgin Group. From selling records via mail-order using a nearby public phone-box, Richard Branson set up a record label which had instant success with Mike Oldfield's first solo piece, Tubular Bells. This led to a small number of record shops, but quite bohemian and basic in their approach.

I can recall the one in Leeds in 1975 - and it was the epitome of a fairly scruffy and enthusiastically run independent shop: plus, it sold second-hand music as well. I also remember in 1978 it closing and being replaced a few buildings along by a flash new Virgin outlet, one that was perhaps six times the size, sold everything you could possibly imagine, but one that was soul-less, had everything in shrink-wrapped plastic ("Factory packed and sealed for your protection") and worse even than that, had turnstiles to let shoppers in and out. Suddenly, it was no fun anymore - but it was a roaring success and soon, HMV had some major competition on the High Streets of these islands. 

In the meantime, the indie stores pressed on. Vinyl was still king, punk was on the horizon and changes were afoot.

Specialist Stores

LPs galore in the 1970s

Those indie stores, the ones that focused on recorded output, tended to be quite flexible in their approach: they sold tickets for local venues, sold self-produced records from local bands, had flyers and posters promoting local gigs and - more importantly - had founts of musical knowledge, and not just behind the counter. Some were a bit intimidating and it took time to feel *at ease* when browsing and asking questions. But, it did mean that you knew what was going on and what was new, they weren't just sales-outlets shifting product as quickly and economically as possible.

Spillers, Cardiff - Early 20th Cemtury

Some stores became legends in their own right. The oldest surviving record store is Spillers In Cardiff which can trace its origins back to 1894. For all the indie bands that emerged out of South Wales in the 90s, Spillers had been *musical central* for them. Another legend was Beanos in Croydon, a store run by Dave Lashmar and a place equally adept at being the centre of all things musical in south London. Spillers has struggled in recent years and Beanos has sadly closed. However, some outlets were showing increasing confidence in their futures, outlets often to be found in cities with large student populations. Leeds had - and still has - the estimable Jumbo Records, Manchester the superb Piccadilly Records whilst in Birmingham, there was Swordfish. With the launch of cassettes and then CDs, more music could be packed in, thus providing an increased choice. And for a while, there was the added opportunity of helping music fans replace their vinyl with digitised formats. 

Andy's Records - the original Cambridge store

Cambridge record store Andys Records, run by Andy Gray, decided on an expansion programme - and from 1976 through to the early 90s, it grew to over 30 shops across East Anglia, all with excellent choice and, critically, great prices. They were unusual in the way they filed their stock: it was alphabetical, but for solo artists, it was the first letter of the first name that determined where the record was to be found. It took some getting used to for those familiar with other outlets. The shops were well run and covered an excellent choice of bands and artists.

All important LP bag

This was certainly an expansive period for music sales too; singles were a declining breed but album sales continued to grow - and album back catalogues were increasingly seen as a valuable commodity. Other chains emerged: what had been between 1971-1976 six small shops called The Tape Revolution renamed itself Our Price and took advantage of something new: the rapid growth and penetration in the UK of commercial radio. Our Price ads were frequent and memorable and this, plus  their pricing policy saw them expand across the UK onto many High Streets. I still recall a London chum hearing an Our Price ad on Capital Radio and believing the chain was actually called "Arkwright's Records".

Megastore Logo

And thus, by the mid-1980s, national music chains - HMV, Virgin, Our Price - had become highly visible, highly efficient at selling and highly capable at taking sales from your local independent. Once you get to such a size, though, it's the structure and distribution methods of the company which start becoming the priority, rather than the musical knowledge and passion. W H Smiths saw their record departments under pressure and bought out Our Price. A flurry of activity over the next 15 years saw more take-overs, restructures and consolidations as our musical tastes and means of consumption evolved. 

The Majors Get Worried

T-Shirt with A Message 

The big retailers and record companies, though, had other battles to fight.They convinced themselves that they'd sell a lot more music if the consuming public didn't keep taping albums and passing them around. It was a grey and murky area legally: music fans believed that in doing this, they were actually increasing interest and sales, the record retailers and labels disagreed. In some ways, by focusing on this, the large chains and labels overlooked what was going on around then. 

Punk had introduced a DIY ethos in the late 70s: no musical experience was needed - just enthusiasm and energy. Fans joined in by producing home-generated fanzines, posters and promotional material. The only thing missing was good technology - and then, in the years that followed, along came the introduction of digital music. First with mini-discs and then the ubiquitous CD, bands could, before long, really become DIY and more self-reliant. The music chains and large record labels often failed to genuinely understand what motivated record buyers and casualties were bound to follow. 

US Invader - Tower Records

The late 80s saw a new phenomenon which really mushroomed during the 90s: the birth of large shopping malls. These were kicked off in north London by Brent Cross and then spread gradually around the UK, by-passing the High Street and encouraging what became known as "destination shopping". They also provided an outlet for US interlopers who had long been used to "megastores" in such out-of-town developments. They knew how to pile it high and sell it cheap: Suddenly, Virgin et al had increased competition from Tower Records, Borders and Sam Goody. 

Music & Video Club Logo

Indie stores also saw greater pressures as footfall fell across the older town centres: shoppers increasingly flocked to the malls, attracted by their bright lights and free parking. Some remaining record shops took advantage of lower rents for a while, but ultimately, it's the people coming into the shop and spending money that will keep it going: that and a great marketing idea. One final chain sprang up to add to the mix, a chain that had one of those *great marketing ideas* - they were The Music & Video Club, or MVC, a chain started by disaffected managers from Our Price who didn't like what they found when W H Smith took them over. MVC's unique selling proposition was that they'd sell CDs at two different prices: a standard price and a lower, member's price. Membership was free, but you had to sign up - and of course, with a database of customers, came the chance to promote more items to them. 

On-Line CD Selling Threat

And by the late 90s, something else had arrived - widespread use of the internet and especially the world wide web: now for the first time, technology, buyers and sellers were uniquely linked, twenty-four hours a day - and, in the comfort and safety of their own home. 

So where does this leave us? Well - there's that greater DIY approach from bands and artists exploiting technology to allow easier and cheaper production and sale of CDs, an over-supply of national music-chains - and the advent of file-sharing and later, downloading: inevitably, something was going to give.The dominoes were all set: how long before the collapse?

Decline

Woolworths - The End

Our Price was sold by W H Smith and was quickly snaffled up by Virgin. Many of the stores were small which no longer fitted in with Virgin's Megastore format: a large number were closed down. Woolworths had become part of Kingfisher and were struggling, no longer the musical leviathan of years gone by. It closed in 2008. Andys Records struggled with over-expansion and closed in 2003. MVC, which had started brightly with a fresh marketing approach, was falling behind and suppliers cut their credit lines. They closed in  2005, some of the larger stores being sold to discount retailer Music Zone who in turn closed in 2007. Tower Records went bankrupt here and in the US, Borders followed suit in 2008. Sam Goody withdrew from the UK.

Once an Indie -
Now HMV-owned

This left HMV and Virgin - and one quite interesting start-up, Fopp. Fopp was founded as a market stall in Glasgow and through careful acquisition, grew a select chain of stores around the larger cities. With a small range of fixed prices - £3, £5, £10 - it soon attracted quite a discerning customer base. It also had a good, solid in-depth range - not too big or deep to put off the casual buyer, but better than its competitors. Fopp also opened coffee shops in its larger stores (such as Manchester) and encouraged them to become social drop-in points, a place to come and chat, have a bite to eat and buy some music. 

But, expansion costs - and growing from a handful of stores in the late 90s to over 100 sites in 2004 saw financial problems arrive. They went into administration in 2007 leaving HMV to come along and cherry-pick the 9 best sites. Interestingly, HMV have kept the Fopp brand and style and those stores still exist today, a little oasis in the greater pool of homogeneity.  

In 2005, Virgin - probably seeing the way in which music sales of the future would increasingly take place (on-line, downloading) decided to sell their record stores. No single buyer wanted them all: the smaller ones closed and the rest were passed onto a new start-up group Zavvi.

HMV Logo

They struggled from day one and by 2007, were having problems buying stock. They soon closed and became an on-line brand. HMV picked up a few stores in under-represented areas to add to their portfolio, but even they have found it tough out there on the High Street.

Opportunity?

So where are we today?

• One high street chain HMV, a chain with a long heritage, but one that although safe for the moment, hasn't had it easy financially. It expanded heavily into DVDs, computer games and other complementary stock: calendars, books, posters and magazines and most of these are under the same downward sales pressure as CDs. 

• A vastly reduced number of independent record stores: some commentators say that the UK has barely 300 such outlets left and of the survivors, a good number are run more as a hobby shop than a business. 

Ben's Collectors Records
in Guildford

• A small number of specialist second-hand record shops: some have migrated on-line, others near closing. Some second-hand stores have struggled on, but their lifeblood - new customers wanting to buy vinyl and CDs - seems in short supply. And - their principal ways of buying-in stock (from record fairs and collectors selling-up) is equally strained and fragile right now. It's not just that the amount of stock to be found is diminishing, but the stuff which is there is hardly of the appropriate quality to bring in the real collectors and their money.

It's all a bit dispiriting, isn't it?

Rough Trade - Notting Hill 1970s

Not necessarily. The remaining indie stores have upped their game. By combining knowedge, social media marketing, in-store gigs and events - and on-line mail-order back catalogues, they are often so much more than they were before. Rough Trade is a good example of this. They started life as a single store in 1976 in London's Notting Hill area. It was an area filled with young bands and musicians, an area ripe for the punk explosion, and an area where this DIY approach we touched on earlier was able to burst out onto an unsuspecting world.

Rough Trade Brick Lane -
Live music amongst the stock

Just two years later, Rough Trade started their own record label and in a symbiotic kind of way, joined together consumers, sellers and bands in a three-way relationship. It hasn't all been easy for them, but in 2007, Rough Trade opened a huge 5000 square foot store in Brick Lane, an emporium which although not the cheapest (when compared to on-line retailers), certainly had a terrific choice of music, was based in a *happening* part of town and rode the wave of increasing interest from audiophiles and youngsters alike for vinyl music. With record labels taking less interest in nurturing new bands, this role can - to some extent - be taken up by these outlets.

You can still get to find out about music from your local store, it's just that there there's so much more new music around than ever before . And with store numbers still falling, how's a poor boy to find out about the blues?     

Next time we look at on-line retailers, digital downloads and - importantly, the rebirth of radio. Join us in a week's time for the third and final part of this musical overview. 

All is not lost.