Does anyone still shop at HMV?

Buchanan Street is staying open.

I heard that was going as well.

When this is all over, anybody fancy throwing in together and opening a record shop in Central London?

Jumping off Westminster Bridge might be a quicker and cheaper alternative, given it would probably come to the same conclusion.

Buchanan Street hasn't been on any of the lists for closure and I've heard that they negotiated a huge rent reduction for the space. It would be foolish to think anything is safe, but I certainly haven't heard anything about it closing.

Ah well, that's something, I suppose. Can't imagine somewhere the size of Glasgow without any HMV at all. Any news about Fopp (Union Street and Byres Road)?

There was the odd rumour about people being interested in buying Fopp out, no idea if it'll happen though. The London branch is looking pretty forlorn these days, I hope they survive at least.

Fopp in general I mean, not just London.

The Glasgow Fopps have almost no decent stock in them now, if they were to survive then they would need to be significantly replenished from somewhere or other

Fopp (2.0) were always an overspill outlet for HMV with a few recent releases. Dont know how it could survive without HMV.

unless it was totally revamped and turned independant.

and who is going to buy an independant record shop chain these days?

Well HMV did when they bought Fopp!
Hmm, you may have a point.

The Buchanan street HMV shop would just lay empty forever if HMV closed because I cannot imagine anybody moving in there.

The Buchanan street HMV shop would just lay empty forever if HMV closed because I cannot imagine anybody moving in there.

given the number of city centre shops around the bristol hmv that are empty now, i suspect this is probably going to be the case for most closures.

the rent & rates for that store must be huge (even with a rent reduction)

There is a degree of hearsay to this, so forgive me if it is nonsense, but what I heard is that it was £1 million a year, which was just negotiated down to £400,000 as part of that particular store's survival ploy. It doesn't sound unrealistic. I don't know who actually owns the building/space however.

Although there is a lot of development going on at that top end of town, if the rent rumours are true, then I have to agree with our man Goalkeeper that it would be an incredibly large and expensive space to fill, even in a prime Glasgow centre location. It would be too big for most stores, but not probably not big enough for a department store.

its a shite store with hardly any cds, lots of empty floorspace and the ground floor never has any music on it except maybe a crappy sale. That shop could be amazing with shitloads of back catalog cds and vinyl but i assume with the rent and rates they could never make enough profit.

One excess 'not' in that final clause, sorry.

tell $andy to rent it ;)

Ha, I'll offer them £10,000 a year for it myself!

if you were a billionaire with no caring for profits you could have too amazing (but lossmaking) stores in the HMV and old Tower Records shops.

Absolutely!

believe me I've dreamt about winning £150m in the euro lottery (that i dont even play) and opening the best record shop ever in the old tower store

i believe you, algerian goalkeeper

glasgow still has a p gd selection of independent rec shops imho, fuck hmv (new volcanic tongue just for eg is nice bright space that literally shuts the outside world right out - esp if coltrane is the stereo system, as it was when i visited recently)

is ON the stereo system - tho might now get a t-shirt w/ 'coltrane is the stereo system' printed on it

Worth bearing in mind a load of old established businesses were pushed out of the top end of Buchanan Street by those high rents in order to facilitate development a few years back. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear HMV is now (apparently) getting a reduced rate.

right.

some info.

fopp is not going to be sold off seperately as a going concern (: 'they dont want to create a competitor - as this was one of the reasons that hmv bought fopp in the first place'

25th of march - or thereabouts - is the crunch date as the next 3 month rent payments are due.

given the dearth of decent stock in both hmv and fopp now, going to be interesting what happens between now and then.

oh, and you have to love the large decarations of "70% off!*" signs scattered around the shops.

( * = calenders )

HMV intent on dragging Fopp down with them then...dunno what would happen if it all went tits up, could some plucky entrepeneur just pick up the Fopp brand at that point or would there be complications with doing that? Assuming that Fopp actually has any value as a business concern, which may or may not be the case.

'they dont want to create a competitor - as this was one of the reasons that hmv bought fopp in the first place'

ladies and gentlemen, may i present to you BRITISH BUSINESS ACUMEN. all hail the job creator.

I had a very similar discussion with an acquaintance from the Argyle Street branch just last night mark e - the 3 months rent/end of March issue is certainly true there too and the fact that despite facing closure they are still getting new stock delivered daily in very large quantities (like hundreds of copies of big new releases).

I hadn't thought about the Fopp issue like that, but it makes perfect sense. Could you hint as to where you heard that so specifically?

no hint necessary : bristol

oh, and i should clarify : they do have new releases in ..

just that the back catalogue stuff is nowhere near as extensive as prior to the chaos ...

(and yesterday in the hmv - they were removing shelving as they were all empty !)

Volcanic Tongue which does underground, presumably Wire-friendly stuff (oh shops, where were you back in '78 and '79 when I was scouring around Glasgow for free jazz cutouts?). So again it's a niche shop, and if no HMV and only supermarkets, then huge middle ground is lost.

It's ironic that you can get Wire in every branch of WHSMiths: streets, stations, airports, and so on...

but you cant get the records they cover anywhere unless you go into a big city

exactly.

Oh, "Republic" has just been saved, by Sports Direct.

Only a tiny number of new CD releases in Nottingham Fopp, along with stacks and stacks of the Skyfall DVD of course.

This week Atoms For MVE are #2 in the midweeks. Last week Nick Cave was #1 in the midweeks but lost out to the Brits swoop (i.e. people who won't buy anything until they see it on TV, even if it's been out for a year plus). Neither was in Sainsbury's.

So without HMV or Fopp (or Virgin or Tower or...) to provide that essential middle ground, it's going to be bland-out time in the album charts from now on.

Looks like the new MBV album is only available physically in Certain London Record Shops (I got mine at Sister Ray last Friday) and given the limited distribution plus the fact that it's been available to download for a month, that'll presumably be number nothing on Sunday.

guys, the album chart is going to be bland from now on

Only until they add in view counts for Youtubes of people holding up album covers.

It has to happen.

Marcello, at least in Glasgow there is us at Love Music and Monorail. We both cover huge amounts of the middle ground and will happily tackle new avenues if they will sell!

yep, Love Music gd for metal and well priced back cat, Monorail v. excellent independent/eclectic range w/out going down the VT route of cd-rs and whatnot

Russell gets in lots of good metal for Monorail.

Both shops do their thing very well. Between them they cover most of my needs whenIm in Glasgow (which sadly isnt often - once a year usually)

Wandered into the Piccadilly Circus HMV last night to have a look around - the jerks have raised the price of all the back catalog CDs before marking everything 30% off. So, say, any random old REM album or whatever is now priced between £13 to £15 (some were at £18!) before the 'discount.' Good riddance.

there is no longer the blue cross sale on.
the stickers are still on the cds, but they called it quits last sunday.

Huh. The shop I was in had everything marked down 30%, with a little chart above each rack telling you how much the discount amounted to.

Yeah, that is still happening.

Still, I got the CSS album, New Order "Get Ready", and Basement Jaxx greatest hits, all for £2 each.

This was in morrisons, not HMV, but hey.