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Letter From
As the Rough Trade East shop celebrates it's first Birthday with a series of in-store gigs, it shocks me to realise that I've never even mentioned it in these pages. So let's put things straight now.
I live in east
After a year of no record shops in the area I was very excited by the prospect of Rough Trade opening just off
Then there are the books and new releases and the beginning of the main CD racks. Well, at least that's the order at the minute. All the shelves are on casters (I guess to move out of the way for in store gigs), and are liable to move between visits. The books and magazines are always in the same place, and you'll always find current favourites of the staff next to the tills on your right. Behind the counter there are the expensive boxed sets and the limited edition 12"'s. There's usually some exhibition on the walls (for the past few months it's been black and white photographs of your favourite music stars) and sometimes tucked away at the back, right hand corner, next to the T-Shirts. You'll find the stage for the in-stores right at the back too.
You'll also find a couple of listening posts in the shop, with a few CDs to peruse, and some promotion stands for the shop to hawk their weekly favourites. Oh, and don't forget the Apple MACs under the mezzanine where you can get free internet access. Then there's the CD racks. Rows of them. Now, one of the complaints that I've always had about Rough Trade shops is that I am baffled by the cataloguing system. Describing it, it doesn't sound too bad (new releases,
The other thing I've always found with Rough Trade is that they're a bit pricey. That's fair enough for recordings that you can't find anywhere else, such as imports or whatever, but on my visit last weekend I thought of a little test. Two CDs on indie labels that have been out for a little while: Spiritualized Songs in A&E and
I do love the fact the Rough Trade East is there, and I'll continue to pop in and buy the odd CD, but I won't be buying all of my records from there.
Pure Groove has a good pedigree. It's apparently had a shop in Holloway for years, but I've never considered a shopping trip to Holloway, so I'd never been. Now it's re-located to Smithfields, just a hop and a spit from Farringdon station. The obligatory glass front, gives way to a large open space (although not the cavernous space of Rough Trade East). Along two walls there's various CDs, 7"s and 12"s held in place with those clamps you used to get in school science labs. Each of these records has is labeled with a number and a description of a few lines. There are 100 corresponding hanging files which have the shops supply of that record. Thus, there are only 100 records on display, so I guess they must be shifting most of their stock online. There's also space for an exhibition, and some knick-knacks at the back. When I was in there the staff seemed to be preoccupied with setting up for a book launch (I think), but I was eventually served and impressed with the records they did have on offer. It, too, isn't cheap, but neither is it over priced.
Pure Groove is a great addition to the