48

IN WHICH… A LOSS IS DEALT WITH, BY GEORGE!

London photographer Julian Ward’s record collection disappeared in an unexpected manner in 2012, outdoing all of the stories in the previous chapter. He explained: ‘My entire record collection, an over 30-year obsession with The Who, vinyl, and 12ʺ 1990s indie classics, had been mistakenly passed on to a charity shop by someone while in storage.’ Julian was left in ‘a desperate and frantic state’. Determined to replace them, Julian began scouring record shops in Brighton, where one of the shops he visited was The Record Album. This is a record-breaking shop in its own right, having opened in 1948, and been run by George Ginn since 1962, shortly after he’d bought himself out of the RAF. When Julian visited George’s shop, the proprietor was a still-youthful 82. The shop had a well-deserved reputation for specialising in film scores and soundtracks and Julian was so impressed by George himself that he ended up photographing and making a short film about the octogenarian which can be found online.

In 2018 George finally decided the time had come to retire from the shop and, ‘driving a hard bargain’, he sold it to two former Times journalists, Keith Blackmore and David Chappell, both of whom I’d come into contact with during my life in the betting world. When a mutual friend told me about their new venture, I knew I needed to go and see for myself how they were making the transition from Fleet Street to Terminus Road, Brighton.

I remembered visiting the shop on a couple of occasions when George had been in residence, even buying a couple of LPs from him. I particularly recalled, with some amusement, discussing with this elderly gent the work of 1960s acid rock band, Quicksilver Messenger Service. Misremembering that the shop was to the left of Brighton Station as the traveller exits the concourse, I turned in the wrong direction, but soon corrected myself and arrived in Terminus Road, where the corner shop with its blue frontage is in a prominent position, albeit only if you’re heading out of town away from the seafront.

‘George was very much old school,’ said David. ‘He had an ancient, 60-year-old, pound, shillings and pence till, which I must emphasise has now been decimalised, and he only accepted cash payments. He cleaned records in the shop’s sink with soap, warm water and loving care, and would have nothing to do with CDs – mind you, we’re not into CDs either and don’t sell them.’ George would also sometimes lose sales by telling buyers who only had credit cards with which to pay, that they’d have to go and draw some money out from a cash machine. David and Keith quickly introduced payments by card when they took over, telling me: ‘The place had really been preserved in aspic and needed something of an update without, though, losing its appeal and atmosphere. Fortunately, George’s long-term customers seem to be happy with what we’re doing and have not only told us so, but demonstrated their confidence in us by continuing to come in.’

Another easy-to-implement way of freshening up the appearance and appeal of the shop’s stock has been to ensure that all of their records are now smartly dressed: ‘A decent plastic sleeve not only protects the record covers from progressive adverse thumbing damage, but also transforms the overall look of the album instantly. There is a small cost involved, but since introducing it we have had to order in more plastic sleeves as people have begun asking to buy them from us.’

George’s declining mobility had influenced his decision to retire. A little surprisingly the deal done was to buy all of the stock – he didn’t want to take any of the records with him. ‘I think his wife didn’t want him cluttering the place up – and he was only allowed one record at home. Besides, he didn’t own a record player!’ While we were talking in the shop, George rang, asking whether he’d left his ‘Japanese Walkman’ (was there any other type!?) there. Despite a rummage through drawers, cupboards and shelves, there was no sign of one.

Keith and David had been looking for a suitable career change and were both enthusiastic about the record shop idea, despite having no experience of that side of the counter. ‘It was like becoming cub reporters again,’ smiled David, and Keith added, ‘I was already an interested amateur, so just had to add experience.’ Continued David: ‘We knew the deal would put us into a shop with a solid reputation and a unique niche market which we felt we could enhance and expand, even though it would mean a steep learning curve for both of us. George knew his trade inside out, but there are always different ways of approaching a business. For example, there is a great deal of stock here which has been in the shop for years without selling, so we’ll look at ways of moving it on. We also want to maintain his reputation for selling records in excellent condition with all the various inserts and extras they may come with. Building an online presence is an intrinsic part of our business plan and will really widen our prospective reach – but we won’t just dump everything online, we want to enhance the experience of coming in to a real record shop. We know we also have to increase awareness of our location, which is a double-edged sword – close to the station but not en route to the seafront, although we do pick up plenty of business from people coming down to the town from the other direction, walking or seeing us from cars.’

Even at this early stage they were already welcoming in a wider audience of buyers and sellers, both in age and music genres – ‘Six weeks ago someone brought in a collection of Led Zeppelin original label LPs all in excellent condition, which we quickly put for sale at appropriate prices, and we also acquired a brilliant condition copy of one of my great favourites, Van Morrison’s ‘Astral Weeks’. Keith told me, ‘We want people to be able to buy records from us that can be regarded as valuable artefacts.

‘Younger customers are also turning up now – it probably helps that we also often have younger people behind the counter in the shop, and they are buying classic rock records as well as material by newer bands – there’s definitely an upsurge of interest in LPs from the 1990s, for example, which was a time when vinyl was in a downward spiral as CDs were enjoying their heyday. Members of the generation which grew up then are looking to add vinyl copies of their favourites from that decade to their collections.’

I will be making a point of visiting the shop regularly in future to check out their progress and wares – and I made a start on supporting them practically by purchasing an Earth & Fire LP I spotted in their 1970s rack. It also helps that during our conversation David and I discovered that we were both already supporting something of mutual interest – Luton Town FC!

From the Brighton seaside I headed for another watery vinyl opportunity…