No CDs thanks, we're vinyl

Is this the most colourful shop-front in the region? Probably.

Those Old Records, a shop dealing exclusively with vinyl, has an outstanding psychedelic-music section.  Which you might guess from the decoration!        But all eras are well represented - from 1950s jazz to coloured-vinyl punk.

You'll find the shop in Rugeley's Brewery Shopping Arcade, a sort of indoor market.

Sixties record shop lives on

The Bevans Music Shop in Longton opened sometime in the mid 1960s, and is still going strong - but now under new management.

The former owner, Ellis Bevan, is something of a legend in the old town, and when I saw him last a couple of years ago, he was still proprietor of the shop - but surely must have been in his eighties(?) even then. He never updated the shop it seemed to me, and I half expected Freddie & The Dreamers (or some such ancient group) to be living out at the back.
He has retired now.

The new owner, Tom Mitchell, is something of a vinyl nut. You will find some CDs and even some tape-cassettes, but mostly it's a spreading mass of vinyl records, all round a battered sofa and Dansette record-player (on which one can play the discs).
He has kept on the name 'Bevans Music Shop' as a sort of tribute-cum-continuity thing.

The old listening booth was hauled out of the storage rooms. It doesn't work any more, but is installed there in the main shop now as a... well... sort of tribute-cum-continuity thing!

Related Link: Bevans Music Shop - Tom's quirky blog about Longton, Bevans and music on vinyl

Astral vinyl

In Staffordshire, there are one or two small record shops, run by enthusiasts, which will stock a lot of vinyl. There’s one in Rugeley and one in Stoke town for instance.

But only Astral Vinyl (in Hanley) stocks nothing but vinyl. Dave (seen here on the left) really loves the stuff.  

Although the records are not in alphabetical order, it doesn’t seem to matter, as Chris seems to know exactly where everything in his shop is (and what he’s got).  Just ask him – it’s all in his head.

If you're a fan of the black stuff, you'll recognise the album sleeve that Dave is holding - it's from an LP by Jimi Hendrix.

Link: Astral Vinyl record shop