Angela says they felt the time was right to open the shop because of the increasing popularity of records.
“I don’t know if it’s since Covid and people have gone back to appreciating basic things in life, but people seem to want to have physical copies of music again,” she says.
“If you love an album and you buy it, if you look after it, you’ve got it forever.
“I think it’s maybe a tactile thing - you have the covers and you can read the books.”
“It’s also a wide range of people [buying records], young and old,” says Justin.
Their children, Eliza and Murphy, have also been involved in setting up the new shop.
“Both our kids have quite big vinyl collections,” says Angela.
It has helped with deciding what to sell.
“We listen to classic rock mostly. We veer off into a little bit of other stuff, but I always think we listen to mainstream music, but both our children are involved and that brings what the younger generation is listening to as well.”
But there is more to buying music than just going into a shop, finding what you want and handing over the cash. Justin and Angela hope their shop becomes a destination.
They plan to create a lounge area where people can relax and listen on headphones and a separate listening room “where people can close the door and sit and listen properly”.
“That’s the fun thing too. People who like music - I know we do - just enjoy going to the shop and you can spend a couple of hours in there, so it’s like the social aspect of it as well and we want to have somewhere where people can come and enjoy some music and flicking through records.”
Angela and Justin’s vinyl collection has also grown in recent years, but they have always had a big CD collection.
“I think [CD’s] popularity is starting to pick up as well. I think a lot of people want the physical record, but a lot of the younger ones can’t afford that, so younger people are also turning to CDs because they are a lot cheaper,” says Angela.
“For us, when we were teenagers, a lot of the music we listened to, they didn’t press on vinyl it was the CD time, but a lot of it is getting pressed now so that’s great. We buy a lot of new records a lot of things we listen to wasn’t pressed when it was released.”
Buying new records to sell in the shop has meant connecting with different distributors, but securing second-hand stock is a different proposition.
“It’s actually getting quite hard to get hold of because so many people are getting into selling it now,” says Angela.
“But the advantage of having second-hand stuff is people don’t know what’s there - I like looking at second hand moreso than new vinyl because you don’t know what you are looking for until you see it,” says Justin.
Preparing for opening day has meant many hours getting the shop ready, and many nights getting the stock ready.
“We’ve been cleaning second hand records for months, but they are all cleaned and rebagged now,” says Justin.
Pricing second-hand stock has been particularly time-consuming, as the specific pressing can make a big difference to a record’s value.
“The beauty of the new records is they are already sealed and already know what the price will be.”
Blackbird Records will open for the first time at noon on Friday.
