Being relatively new kids on the block in the indie scene we doff our caps to the established stores like Piccadilly in Manchester, Rough Trade and Sister Ray in London and Resident in Brighton! Also worth noting are the real specialist stores like 2nd Layer in Highgate and Tempest in Birmingham.
Sadly missed by us here are stores we used to frequent before opening rapture such as Polar Bear and Avid in Oxford or Selectadisc in Nottingham.

Click here to recommend a store.

While Avalanche is regularly described as Scotland’s largest independent record shop if truth be told that accolade belongs to One Up in Aberdeen. Located in the city centre and spread over two floors (more if you include the office) the shop covers every genre and format new and second hand. Add in a wide selection of tickets, t-shirts and other clothing and you may need to nip out for a coffee break if you want to check out all the stock. Helpful and knowledgeable staff mean if you can’t find what you want they will always order it for you. An honourable mention has to go to Action in Preston for the very good reason they have released albums by the Fall and Mark E Smith. Their website currently offers 131 items by the Fall. They do of course stock a lot more besides and are always worth a visit for everything from the latest releases to classic back catalogue.

Click here to recommend a store.

Our favourite independent record shop is Wall Of Sound in Huddersfield.  They haven’t got everything – who has? – but they do cover a lot of ground and are full of  items you didn’t know existed. Their vinyl basement is an absolute treasure trove – a real pleasure to walk round and spend the afternoon in.  One of our favourite days out is a trip across from Leeds on the train, a pint at the pub on Huddersfield station, and a trot across the square to Wall Of Sound, just two minutes away.

Click here to recommend a store.

Here at Rise, we all appreciate great indie record shops.

A lot of us grew up going to them to spend our spare bit of pocket money on Saturday.  There are too many to mention but here are a few… Spillers in Cardiff, Diverse in Newport, Selectadisc (RIP) in Nottingham & Berwick St., Resident in Brighton, Tempest, Swordfish & Hard to Find Records in Birmingham, Impulse & Replay in Bristol, Langlands in Wellington, Picadilly in Manchester, Sister Ray on Berwick Street, Vinyl Vaults & Badlands in Cheltenham….

I could go on but suffice to say all of the above offered an interesting range in particular niches and great service.  Something which we strive to achieve.

Click here to recommend a store.

Scott: For me, it’s places like Avalanche that I was most proud to see my records on the shelves of, because it meant something to me from before I was properly in a band, to now, just being a record buyer and a music lover which I still am. But places like this, which I have always thought were the coolest places on earth,  it was amazing when I finally got my record in there and I think they still play an essential role, I’ve been to cities where nobody would ever have heard of us if it wasn’t for this one really enthusiastic guy who works in a wee record store telling all his customers about Frightened Rabbit.

Conor O’briend, Villagers

Records are beautiful things. In times of peace it is a joyous thing to indulge in such luxuries. What else is there to fight for? I prefer Record Store Day to my birthday

Hayden, Wild Beasts 

I see our independent record stores as being akin to our still surviving local butchers and fruit’n'veg shops. There’s something wholesome and organic about listening to the music you’ve got from them. I suppose
it’s a generational thing but I can’t help but carry an unnerving guilty feeling with the download culture. It lacks a risk, a thrill if you will. I want to study the sleeve, the words, the small print, the texture of the paper and then decide whether to take the plunge or not. I don’t want the safety net of having a preview listen. I don’t want a
buffer. I want to be confronted. I want to be challenged. I want to find the most unlikley obscure piece of music and feel like I’m the only person in the world who’s ever heard it then watch with satisfaction as
the rest of the lazy world catches on. It’s purist. But isn’t anything worth having?

Glen Hansard from THE FRAMES & THE SWELL SEASON on Cool Discs

It takes tenacity and an iron will, along a real sense of doing what you love to keep going, even against the tide. Lee and all at Cool Discs are fighting the good fight still.. And At the heart of all the good fights is the sense of community, Cool Discs is more than a record shop, it’s a drop in centre for the those driven by
imagination, its a lifeline to those who want to start a band, it’s a museum of song, a hub of thinkalikes It’s much more than merely a small indedpendant buisness.. It’s bigger picture stuff! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when I found the Frames section! There among all that greatness, my band had a place in this small shop on Foyle
St, which allowed me imagine our place in the greater community of song.. It’s good to dream out loud! In fact it’s crucial..
This independent records day, head down and just hang out, and just be thankful that this shop is still there..  a deep well in a drought.. And if the well dries up, be ready to start digging!

Big respect to the good fight.. Glen

Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes on Resident Music

I have a real soft spot for Resident in Brighton. They always stock such excellent records; from new releases by brilliant bands and great labels, through to a lot of classic favourites and a good selection of new and obscure stuff that i might be having my latest obsession about… The staff are always very helpful, and are obviously music lovers themselves; always ready to have a chin wag about the latest cool thing in, and recommending records to me that have become real favourites. I have wiled away many hours sat in the comfy chair at the listening post!

Johnny Quinn from Snow Patrol on Good Vibes Record ShopYears later when Snow Patrol were signed to an independent record label, we had three months off and I was pretty skint, so I walked into Terri’s shop and asked him if he needed anyone to work there. He said ‘No, honest I already have too many staff and I’m losing money.’ But we carried on chatting about music and at the end of the conversation, as i was walking out the door, he turned around and said ‘You start on Monday’. That’s the sort of character he was, a guy who’d help out

Paul McCartney

There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. This is why I’m more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come.

Bruce Springsteen

I hate to see record stores disappear, and I’m old-school in that I think you should pay for your music. But what my kids do is download a lot of things, pay for them, and then if they love something, they’ll get the CD. That may be the future.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim

The independent record shop: A place to go where your obsessions are recognised, nurtured and actively encouraged. It was thanks to Oven Ready Records (no longer with us) in Aylesbury, that I realised that I did indeed have a soul.  A trip to a record shop… The potential thrill of a new discovery coupled with the fear of missing many more.

Billy Bob Thornton

Independent record stores are really the only places left with the actual spirit of music as I knew it growing up, and hopefully those will be around for 50 years from now because that’s where it feels magical – you don’t feel like you’re buying a tyre iron, tube of shampoo, a 12 pack, a bag of Cheetos and a record.

Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)

The ‘cool’ record store. It is where you can talk to people who are like you. They look like you, think like you and, most tellingly like the same music as you – the only comparable experience these days would probably be an art museum – an actual place where you can stand and simply be surrounded by your heroes.

Nick Hornby

Yes, yes, I know. It’s easier to download music, and probably cheaper. But what’s playing on your favourite download store when you walk into it? Nothing, that’s what. Who are you going to meet in there? Nobody. Where are the notice boards offering flatshares and vacant slots in bands destined for superstardom? Who’s going to tell you to stop listening to that and start listening to this? Go ahead and save yourself a couple of quid. The saving will cost you a career, a set of cool friends, musical taste and, eventually, your soul. Record stores can’t save your life. But they can give you a better one.

Joe Bennet (Truck Festival)

“Truck loves Rapture! The only dedicated record shop remaining in the whole of Oxfordshire, AND they’re independent too, which translates into staff who actually have a passion for (and an encyclopaedic knowledge of) music, and a shop with a wide selection of music that music-lovers will actually be interested in. Instead of shelves and shelves of cut price DVDs like some larger ”music” chains we could mention…”

   Lily Allen                                                            

 Ten years ago Lily Allen was a scruffy 14-year-old hanging around in Reckless Records on Upper Street. Now, she says sadly, the record shops have closed down, and everyone downloads their music, often for free. Not Ms Allen. Once a distributor of pirated play lists online, she has turned from poacher to gamekeeper, leading something of crusade against illegal downloading. ‘I didn’t realise the effect it was having – destroying good new music – and I didn’t even realise it was stealing.’ She still owns masses of vinyl: ‘In fact, cos I’m moving house, I can tell you exactly how many records – 7,000.’

 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23782423-capital-girl-how-we-all-fell-for-lily-allen.do

Frank Turner has played at Rise Cheltenham twice and Rise Bristol once and often commented on how he appreciated the support of the shop.

 Goldie Lookin’ Chain played at Rise Cheltenham in 2009 and whilst they were performing said it was a great record shop and they were amazed at what a turn out we managed to get for them.

 Radioactive Man

 Think I bought my first records at Our Price’ – bit boring eh ?

But my fave record shop would have to be rough trade, when it was in the basement of slam city skates in Covent Garden and also the one off Portobello rd.

Now it’s great in brick lane but slightly less personal.

   Brun (Swayzak)

 Favoured stores for me: Rough trade, London W11, Phonica, London W1

I like the customer service, and enjoy shopping for interesting vinyl in this day of digital djs.  I like to support where others don’t care, and I appreciate the support of the stores, if it wasn’t for them we swayzak wouldn’t be here!

In Soho there was a store called IQ which really set us on our way, they sold 300 copies of our first release, and then there was Fat Cat also helped us along! Both sadly gone…….

I used to work in two stores: Maeto Musik (Glasgow), Impulse records (East Kilbride), neither exist anymore and I bought my first records in listen Glasgow, Virgin, Hmv, Glasgow back in the days when they were big retailers.  Once in New York we travelled round several stores selling our 12′s just to pay for a hotel room for the night, but it was all good on the edge of the street!  Record stores used to be the link to the scene, and often where you met fellow djs to discuss music.  I even met Daniel Miller (Mute Records boss) in Rough Trade! 

 A. Skillz, (Jam City Records)

 Fave record store from back in the day would have to be HVR in Brighton, Owned at the time by Krafty Kuts. Mex (aka Black grass) worked there and I’d just go in to watch him scratch over instrumentals, then pretty much buy anything he was playing.  They always had the best new and old jams and were always good at playing me the stuff I liked. I remember once digging through some crates, only to look up and see Norman Cook digging through the opposite crate. If it’s good enough for Norm it’s good enough for me.

 John Parrish (PJ Harvey) 

I grew up in Yeovil in the 1970s. Yeovil did not have much going for it apart from Acorn Records.

 Acorn records was run, as are most independent record stores,  by a couple of silent & unsmiling blokes who seemed to know something about pretty much every record that had ever been released. My friends & I used to hang out there at lunchtime & after school on most days. Sometimes one of us even had enough money to buy a record. But Acorn Records was more than a place to just buy records. You would go down there to hear whatever music was playing in the shop, to argue with your friends about the relative merits of different bands, & to flick endlessly through the record racks. 

Yeovil did not have much going for it. Without Acorn Records, it would have had nothing. Every town needs an independent record store.

 Joe Steer (Broadcast 2000)

 Pure Groove in London is SO much more than a place to buy records (if that wasn’t enough!) It’s a venue, a gallery, a bar, an internet cafe and has got a REAL vibe about it.  The experience will never be available on Spotify, thank the lord. 

 Craig Morrison (Silicone Soul)

I actually get a little misty eyed thinking back as Glasgow used to have a lot of great selection of indie record stores. 

Fopp on Byres Rd (which is still there but isn’t really particularly focused on electronic music anymore) used to have a fantastic vinyl selection and if i remember correctly we both bought our first Soma release from there (Soma 006, Percussion Obsession?) and Lars (Funk D’Void) worked there. I think the first indie store I went to was 23rd Precinct (which is still going strong). I used to sneak off during my lunch break to pick up some 12”‘s and they used to keep a little bag of goodies ‘under the counter’. But even before I was into dance music, I think I was one of the first people in Glasgow to get a import copy of Guns n’ Roses Appetite For Destruction there (Which I’m very proud of) But the true beacon of underground electronic music remains Rub A Dub and they were the first store to introduce us all to the joys of Detroit and Chicago house and techno like Relief and UR. There were a couple of other great stores like Kushi and Bomba (Nigel Hayes later of Chaser fame worked there) but they fell foul of the demise of UK independent vinyl distribution. 

Tracey Thorn (Everything But the Girl) 

For me, the first independent record shop that I truly loved was the old Rough Trade shop in Notting Hill. Geoff Travis says he still remembers members of the Marine Girls hanging around in the Rough Trade shop in 1980/81, and this wasn’t just because we were valued customers, but because we loved being up there so much, that we would simply turn up and, like Girl Guides at a jumble sale, ask if we could be of any help. We would volunteer to put 7” singles in boxes, or stuff flyers into envelopes – anything just to be allowed to be there, not only in the shop, but BEHIND THE COUNTER! When we got to record our first album, Beach Party in 1981, Rough Trade agreed to take 50 copies to sell in the shop.  When they sold out, Jane and I went up to the shop ourselves with some more copies for them. That is what you could call independent distribution. We treated Rough Trade like it was a craft stall at the village fete, somewhere you could bring the things you had made and sell them direct to those who liked them. 

Uncomplicated, unmediated, welcoming – the dream of what an independent record shop should be.

 Dizzee Rascal 

Rhythm Division in Bow is an Independent store that was a key part of the (garage/grime) scene when i was younger… it fed people from my local and surrounding areas with a catalogue of tracks and CD’s that you wouldn’t be able get from your high street retailers. It gives young emerging artists the opportunity to secure an avenue in which to promote their music, not only that but also in gaining sales from it.

Rhys Jones 

My name is Rhys Jones and I am a session drummer from Pontypridd; I’ve played with Psycho Squad, SKWAD, Magenta, The Reasoning, Interstate and RPG – I come to Terry for music as well as drum accessories because he offers a warm, friendly welcome; a knowledgeable understanding of my requirements; and no-pressure sales advice. Terry has often suggested and introduced me to new products and music and is also happy to order anything I’m after if it’s not in stock. Terry’s Music is a traditional store with that much-missed personal touch.

Morty (Racing Cars) 

I’ve Known Terry for 30 years he has a very good knowledge of the stock he sells and he manages to get cds that are very difficult to find elsewhere. His stall has excellent mix of products CDs Guitars T-shirts, DVDs, Strings. He always has something new of interest (and stocks all the Racing Cars music).

Mudhoney Recommend Avalanche in Glasgow Click Here – Mudhoney

Field Music 

We had a great time at Rise. The staff were great and the audience for our show was really enthusiastic. It’s a pleasure to spend time in a record store where there’s a proper sense of community and an obvious shared passion for music

Click here to recommend a store.