April 17 2013 – The 7th annual Record Store Day is coming this Saturday April 20th and we wrote about it in detail here (along with our rock recommendations). Today we take a look at the official film of Record Store Day entitled Last Shop Standing. The synopsis of the film is as follows:
Last Shop Standing inspired by the book of the same name by Graham Jones takes you behind the counter to discover why nearly 2000 record shops have already disappeared across the UK. The film charts the rapid rise of record shops in the 60, 70 and 80’s, the influence of the chart, the underhand deals, the demise of vinyl and rise of the CD as well as new technologies. Where did it all go wrong? Why were 3 shops a week closing? Will we be left with no record shops with the continuing rise of downloading? Hear from over 20 record shop owners and music industry leaders as well as musicians including Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Billy Bragg, Nerina Pallot, Richard Hawley and Clint Boon as they all tell us how the shops became and still are a part of their own musical education, a place to discover and cherish new bands, new music and why they might just have a brighter future.
This is a short 50 minute documentary that is broken into 3 sections. The Rise, The Fall, and The Comeback. Each segment looks at independent record stores and what transpired in each of the chapters. The Rise documents the glory years of these shops. It sort of touches the “Elvis era” but really bypasses the Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd era and jumps directly into Punk. Apparently punk was the golden era of vinyl for these shops (much to my surprise). We get very interesting info on how the charts were being padded by the record companies. Tales of gross underhanded business dealings were eye opening and is a constant reminder that everything revolves around the almighty buck, or pound as in this case. I kept thinking about Roger Waters lyrics on one of his tunes from his Amused To Death album “Can’t you see, it all makes perfect sense, expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings and pence”. After watching this segment it will all make perfect sense.
The decline segment touches on three areas. The first was the big mistake by the record companies to kill vinyl for CD’s in such a rapid fashion. There is great insight on this point and it really was logical. The second big change was downloading and how that obliterated the revenue for these stores. Third the movie touches on the paradigm shift of the appearance of CD’s in supermarkets in the UK. Supermarkets you see would sell them at a discount or even a loss (to bring people in). Take the potent effects of those three catalysts and you can clearly see why in the 80’s there were 2200 UK indie record shops and in 2009 there were only 269.
- Last Shop Standing
Part 3 touches on the revival of vinyl and thus the fortunes of the indie shops. This part really felt like an ad for Record Store Day which is positioned as the great savior. This segment is full of a lot of enthusiastic quotes but very little stats. The movie does not show any sales figures or lets the viewer comprehend how real this revival is. This is the movie’s weak part in my opinion and its only argument is “It’s true cause I am saying it is”.
Overall the movie is mostly stitched commentary from various record store owners and some musicians. It really does tell a story that everyone knows but does reminds that music is very powerful and there is great value in a physical vinyl record. My only real minor complaints about the movie are that it could have been longer and present more hard statistics. Another way of looking at my complaint is that I liked the movie so much that I actually wanted more of it! Truly a great choice for the official Record Store Day film.
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 – A very enjoyable way to spend 50 minutes. It will make you want to run out and find your neighborhood independent record store and discover some new music or a lost soundtrack of your youth.
If you want to get back into records check out great entry level record player we reviewed here. Overall great movie that made me want to say “let’s see your digital download collection look like this…..”
Review – Terry Makedon T-Mak World: Toronto’s Site for Music, Movies and Culture www.tmakworld.com | Twitter | Facebook Get the T-Mak World Toolbar below to get all the info you need
