"We can order it for you, Sir..."
Those words echoed through my childhood... there was a chainstore familiar to both sides of the Pond called Woolworths that is long gone here, but it is where my late dad, in the 60's, used to go and buy the number one UK single every week, but once I got into more specialised music but shopped locally did not even stock Alice Cooper records or tapes... So, around the corner was this little record shop, and although they did not have a massive stock level they would order some items for you, for a reasonable deposit... I bought Billion Dollar Babies there, and Muscle Of Love, and WTM Nightmare, as well as some GFR, Made In Japan (by some minor UK outfit barely known by this forum's members), RB's Rainbow... all my formative stuff... I had two items on order for a year: one came in which I still have, albeit now mine after my dad passed as I got it for him; it is now considered to be Scotland's "National Anthem" and was the original artist/release on a private label in Scotland, so it has more than sentimental value... the other item was called Man On The Silver Mountain and due to a technicality it never came in - turned out it was released under the guitarists name, and not as a band name... I did eventually track it down but have now passed it on to someone who appreciates it more than I...
So, what has this got to do with what has happened today...? Well, the UK's last music chain-store, HMV, went into administration and is on the verge of closing it's doors forever...
As a company they failed to embrace the digital market and has been struggling to make headway for some years... this is symptomatic of the modern-world's love of the internet... only 10% of the UK is on-line, but so much music and DVD's are now bought via that means... Here, now, the only large-scale access to music and DVD's will only be through the "Wallmart" type outlets...
As for that "specialist" outlet...? Now gone and the site is part of a shopping centre/mall that has been there for over twenty years - the building of it also took out the instrument shop where I bought the Peter Cook...
The joy of browsing through a record shop and picking up a tape, an LP, or a single, or a video, or nowadays, a CD or DVD, even a computer game, are consigned to history, unless it is a top-ten seller...