Interview with Graham Jones, author of Last Shop Standing.

In order to gage a broader understanding as to some of the main reasons why there has been a significant revival in vinyl popularity and sales of the last couple of years, I was fortunate enough to arrange a telephone interview with author of 'Last Shop Standing' book and now documentary film. I have been able to watch several clips from 'Last Shop standing' and was particularly interested not only with the content but with the generally bright and positive style of filming and the relaxed and very nostalgic vibe it created. Therefore I felt he would be perfect to inform me about not only the vinyl revival but also about his approach to the documentary.

Graham Jones- Producer and author of ‘Last shop standing’ interview.

Why do you think there has been a significant increase in popularity of records over the last couple of years?
‘It all started with record store day which started about six years ago in America. The record companies got behind it and put out a few hundred releases that you could only get on vinyl. This got people going back into record shops to gain collectibles and record companies are now putting a lot more things out on vinyl. It something people actually treasure and collect and the whole package of a vinyl record means something to people. When I use CD’s I will listen to them in the car but when I finish I throw them into the glove compartment or throw it on the seat but when I think of listening to a vinyl record I would never think of taking it off the deck and throwing it across the room and I like to look after it and keep it in perfect condition.’

How far do you think that record shops are responsible for this?
‘When I wrote the book last shop standing it was in 2009 we only had 269 record stores left in the country. Now in 2013 we have 298 so that’s 30 more that have opened in the last 5 years than have closed which to me is great news and all down to vinyl because you’re never going to see Tesco getting out 12 inches next to the baked beans the way they did with CD’s. So people buy vinyl from record shops as appose to getting them in the post and it’s that reason why we have more record shops now than we did in 2009.’

What do you thing is the main attraction of a vinyl record over a CD or download?
‘There is nothing wrong with buying downloads or CD’s, music is now more popular than ever, we have more options of listening to downloads than we did. The music industry tried to get rid of vinyl and tried to get us all to buy are music collection all over again by buying CD’s and they did this because when the CD was invented they said to the artists we cant pay you as much because its cost so much to develop as on a LP so artists were getting far less royalties on CD’s as they were on Vinyl records so therefore the music industry wanted us as consumers to buy our record collection all over again because they were making a lot more money on CD’s than they were on LP’s. There is nothing wrong with LP’s I think the sound is actually better but the industry wanted us buy CD’s so they could make more money off them. These days the industry wants us to be downloading as they will make more money off them than they would off LP’s and CD’s.’

What is the main target audience of people buying records?
‘I think it’s more spread out now. A few years ago you would find a lot of people buying records would be male and over 30. But since record store day took off so many young bands now are putting stuff out now on vinyl. It many cases it might be 500 copies of a 7 inch or a 10 inch or a 12 inch. I still work for a record company I still go out and visit record companies every week and about five years ago we would put about 2% of our leases out on vinyl an now every key release that comes out we put out on vinyl and it comes out on download and it comes out on CD. The record companies are making some really good vinyl and it comes with a download card or it comes with the CD so you could listen in the car and listen to the vinyl in your home. Things are improving vinyl sales are going up by big percentages every year whereas CD sales are continuing to fall. Digital sales are going up for not by as much as someone like me thought a few years ago I certainly thought at this stage digital would be a lot further.’

What was your initial approach to your documentary and what sort of view did you want to get across?
‘Blue print media approached me and said they wanted to turn my book into a film. I did think it was going to be very difficult to get a lot the humour that was in the book into the film but it seemed to work. What we tried to do was tell the history of the record shop so we went to the oldest record shop in the world and we went to the oldest family owned record store in the world, we went to a record shop that used to have the Beatles as customers and a record shop that sold 500 copies of Bill Haley’s Rock around the clock when it came out. We showed all the good things that happened but also we filmed a record shop closing down.  But it finishes on a really positive note; we interviewed a shop in Southsea called pie and vinyl that only sell pies and vinyl. It shows these day record shops have to diverse to survive they can’t just rely on all the things they did in the past. Rough trade is a perfect example everyday they've got bands on, they've got an artist or a book reading but they have an event on every day. They've got a café, they've got computers, they've got great merchandise and a great selection of books but there are so many records shops out there who are like rough trade where they have groups on every week or month and they serve coffee or they've got cafes. One shop said to me we make a 300% margin on our coffee and we make 30% margin on our music, that’s the problem with record shops, the profit on music is so small and I'm pleased to see they’re actually surviving.

One of the big reasons why we lost so many record shops and why record shops are opening now is because the government introduced a law called low value consignment release 12 years ago and it was designed to help dairy farmers of the channel islands and it meant anything shipped form the channel Islands under twenty pound they didn't have to have VAT on it. So what happened was a very clever company called Play.com realised they could ship CD’s into the UK without having to pay VAT and before you knew it Amazon, Tesco and HMV and all the big high-street supermarkets all set up operations in the Channel Islands. So if you bought a CD off the internet 3 years ago 95% of CD’s plus ones bought online were shipped form the channel islands to avoid paying VAT. The government eventually scrapped this release and within a few months they left the Channel Islands. Therefore all the prices on CD’s went up by about £1 or £1.50 but the nation didn’t seem to really notice but for record shops it’s been fantastic because it’s now a bit more of a level playing field. So if a few years ago someone could go your selling this for £9 but on Amazon its £7 because record shops had to pay VAT so that has made a huge impact on record stores as they’re working a much bigger margin than they were two years ago.’