Union Music Store - Groovy Times

Industry vet Del Day and musician Danny (The Champ) Wilson have been running Union Music Store in Lewes for five years. Groovy Times asked them if it has been time well spent

You have just celebrated your fifth anniversary of taking over Union Music Store. Congrats.
Thanks! To be honest it has flown by in a flash. It’s been anything but straightforward what with Covid-19 rearing its contagious head halfway through with symptoms dragging on way afterwards and to this day. But, yeah, it’s been an absolute blast most of the time. It’s been definitely time well spent, for sure.

When I first interviewed you and Danny in the early days, you both said you were attracted to the romance of running a record shop. Is that romance still alive?
Hmm, yeah, I still harbour the romantic vision of running a record shop. I tell people it’s ‘living the dream.’ After five years, me and my gal are no longer in the honeymoon stage. We do things to annoy each other and there are times when my eye may stray to that straightforward nine-to-five job every now and again – but then a box load of Blue Notes or some weird-looking Spanish imports arrives and love blossoms fully again. To be fair, if I asked my wife she’d say that was as romantic as I get!

Can you still remember the first album you sold in the shop?
We sold a copy of Culture’s Two Sevens Clash about five minutes after we opened the shop. I guess it was a sign that everything was gonna be okay!

You guys were both committed to the concept of curation and selling ‘good shit’. In fact, you said and I quote, “If I don’t see Marquee Moon or Remain In Light then as far as I’m concerned it’s not a record shop.” Are both still in stock?
We try and keep both in stock, and also a load of the other ‘touchstone’ albums we love – Byrds, Gram, Big Star, etc. To be honest we are still both very proud of the shops and try and make sure the racks reflect that. The curation route is something that, given the precarious state of the high streets and ‘old model’ retail finds itself in, is something we believe in more strongly than ever. The ‘build it and they will come’ ethos is the only real way forward. We just try and get as many people as we can to join us on that path. From our experience, there is no shortage of souls willing to be converted.

Did you have a manifesto when starting out and, if so, how closely have you been able to stick to it?
We started the shop with the idea that we would only stock records we loved and were enthusiastic about. However, as the business grows (a good thing!) and you start to ‘feel’ like a record shop you start to ask yourselves ‘should we have such and such album in stock?’ ‘That big indie record is getting a load of press, we probably need that?’ and before you know it your racks are bulging with a load of albums that you think you feel you should have rather than those that you want or even really truly love.

Saying that, at heart, we are both very much still music lovers and try our best to represent both our very differing tastes in what we get in the shop. We constantly try and put ourselves back on that path when things divert a little, supping ale in Dan’s local whilst putting the world to rights. To be honest, those times are my favourite and what really underlines the joy of being in this game.

Things must have been going fairly well, as you now have a sister shop in Sutton. Could you tell us about it?
Our good friends Hannah and Kieran opened a wonderful vegan and completely carbon-free music venue and restaurant, The Sound Lounge, as part of an artistic quarter regeneration of that town’s lower high street. They asked us early on in the planning stage if we wanted to have a record shop inside the venue and we jumped at the opportunity. It’s worked out very well. The venue has garnered rave reviews and is really building a great name for itself, and we are very happy to be part of what is a wonderful project and labour of love from two really good and honest souls trying to do something positive for their community.

What has surprised you the most about running a record shop over the five years?
That not everyone on the planet has got a copy of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac by now! It seems to outsell every other record about ten to one, still. Where do they all go? I think it becomes apparent quite soon that a record shop is much more than just a shop for a lot of people. We have a great deal of regulars who really view and use the shop more as a community hub than anything else. It’s a place where they feel comfortable and a place where they can be very much themselves. We are providing a service both as a place to buy vinyl and a social hub and that’s a good thing, right? Being record buyers ourselves we try and replicate the vibe we ourselves are looking for from a record shop.

Has anything changed, in terms of record-buying trends or the industry, from then to now?
The main change has been the steady increase in price for vinyl and this almost religious fervour for a million different colours. It’s becoming more and more difficult for many just to take a punt on a few albums they might not know as the cost ramps up pretty quickly. That aspect of record buying has changed certainly on the new stock and in our opinion untenable. The cratedigging vibe remains as strong as ever even though everyone now thinks they know what every record is worth thanks to the internet. They don’t, of course, but we always get people bringing in the 400^th press of American Pie and trying to pass it off for the cost of a small family holiday. Coloured vinyl, once a limited or special release version, is now the norm on every record. It feels like black vinyl is now the limited option and in many cases it is. But, let’s be honest, who NEEDS a red splatter vinyl copy of Ella & Satch? Like, no one right?

Does anything frustrate you about the business of running the shop?
I find that there are just too many new releases every week that it seems almost impossible to actually ‘live’ with a record for any real amount of time anymore before you are onto the next and the one after. I try and tell people to slow down a bit, enjoy the records they have and when they add to their collections give those new records a real, proper listen. As a record shop, the endless trawl through the new release and reissue sheets every week can really be a drain especially when a lot of it is just stuff we have very little interest in.

What have been your bestsellers in terms of genre and also individual albums?
Here in Lewes Jazz is really my bag. All the excellent Blue Note ‘Tone Poet’ releases consistently do well as does any good second-hand jazz stuff we manage to get in. Some stuff can be in racks for a matter of hours! I’ve also done well with a lot of the ‘post rock’ reissues lately – Karate, La Dispute, Duster, etc as I love those records and always recommend them to people looking for something new, they might not know.

What are your thoughts on the current price of vinyl?
It’s getting to breaking point, I have to be honest. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to some of the prices and sometimes just feels like it’s being randomly priced. It’s playing a part in what we order and don’t and is becoming a major discussion point with the customers. That wasn’t the case two or three years back.

Finally, what are your top five tips for aspiring record shop owners?
1. Stock records you like, don’t stock records you have no interest in. Simple.
2. Really use social media to tell people as much about what you love, recommend, and are passionate about as opposed to just trying to soullessly flog records.
3. You can never have enough Beatles’ vinyl.
4. Try and stay in total control of the back-office side of the shop. If you don’t it will outgrow the shop and with it slowly drain the passion and excitement of selling records.
5. Merch. Really try and get the personality of the shop reflected on any merchandise you do.

The Union Music Store is just a couple of minutes walk round the corner from Lewes train station. You can browse its superior vinyl wares online at www.unionmusicstore.com