Latest / The Price of Music / Radiohead's secret bunker; the Kanye/Wireless fallout; and how is the world's oldest record shop preparing for Record Store Day 2026? We chat to owner Ashli Todd to find out...

Transcript

Radiohead's secret bunker; the Kanye/Wireless fallout; and how is the world's oldest record shop preparing for Record Store Day 2026? We chat to owner Ashli Todd to find out... · The Price of Music

• 0:04
  Hello and welcome to The Price of Music, brought to you by
• 0:07
  Music Ally, the show that both looks at the finances of the
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  music industry while also bringing you stories and
• 0:13
  comments about the past week in the pop business.
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  Plus, this week, ahead of Record Store Day this coming Saturday,
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  we'll also be chatting to Ashley Todd from the legendary Spillers
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  Record shop in Cardiff about, well, not just the big day, but
• 0:28
  also the reality of running a record shop in 2026.
• 0:32
  Before that though, let's start, as we always do, with a
• 0:35
  financial fact you can amaze your friends or colleagues with.
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  It's Stuart's big number for this week, which is Stuart's.
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  I'm going to put on my Doctor evil face, if not voice.
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  It's $1 billion. It's a billion dollars of what?
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  A billion dollars. It's too much money.
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  Latin American music made for labels in the US last year,
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  which is the first time music from Latin America has topped a
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  billion dollars in a single year.
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  OK, that's, that's pretty. That's a pretty good fact.
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  What what's what's behind this though?
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  What's the story? Yeah, well, this is about, I
• 1:11
  mean, it's it's partly about Bad Bunny.
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  You had an enormous year. He was like the top streaming
• 1:15
  artist. But it's about other artists
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  coming from Latin America. So it's like, I think if you
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  followed Carol G, the Colombian artist, but she played Coachella
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  last weekend and was one of the biggest hits of the festival.
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  And it's even about this thing I've been learning about called
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  Musica Mexicana, which is very sort of traditional Mexican
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  music like trumpets and accordions and big, big story
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  ballads. So very, very traditional folk
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  music. But it's top artists are huge in
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  streaming and playing big venues too.
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  So it's like a a whole different bunch of different musics from
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  across Latin America, which you're catching on the US and,
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  and not just for people who are who are sort of Latinx descent.
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  It's about this is kind of breaking out to all listeners
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  there. So yeah, I think it's actually
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  like, do you remember when Bad Bunny was booked to play the
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  Super Bowl this year? And there was there were kind of
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  some protests from sort of right wing market type people were
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  saying he doesn't even sing in English.
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  He's headline Super Bowl. But what this stat shows, I
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  think, is that his music and Latin American music more widely
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  is having this really big moment in the US and not just for
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  Spanish speaking listeners. So yeah, billion dollar
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  business. A couple of other quick talking
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  points we should mention this obviously the Wireless Festival
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  you will have seen in the headlines in the press was
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  cancelled last week after the headliner, yay formerly Kanye
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  West, was refused entry into the UK.
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  This has been this has been a difficult situation for for
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  everyone involved, I think, but for the promoters in the middle
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  who initially backed the artist and explained the reasons behind
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  why they thought the geek should still go ahead.
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  But then, but then the Home Office withdrew the visa.
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  I mean, aside from the debate over, yeah, he's booking in the
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  1st place and where the different sides stand on that,
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  Where does this leave Festival Republic financially?
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  Because I imagine there's a lot, it's a massive cleaning up
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  exercise which everyone faces now.
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  And I don't know where, where they stand contractually and
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  where ticket holders stand either, particularly because
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  they, they imagine we'll be out of pocket at least probably to
• 3:21
  the tune of a booking fee. But start us up with with
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  Festival Republic. What, what's the what's position
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  do they find themselves in now? Yeah.
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  Well, so it it all depends. This is where I'm going to have
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  to hedge our bets. It all depends on the terms of
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  the contract with with Yay himself.
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  And it depends on their insurance policies too.
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  And those are the two crucial things.
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  So from the point of view of Yay, it's quite common, I think
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  now, isn't it, for artists headlining a festival to be paid
• 3:48
  a decent chunk of their fee in advance.
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  So we have to pay that back. It's very unclear.
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  And we don't know how much they paid him.
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  I've been learning some legal terms this week.
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  Can I try them out on you? Yeah, go ahead, I've.
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  Been learning about force majeure, which you may, but
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  that's that's the it's kind of the contractual vision that if
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  something unforeseen happens or uncontrollable events happen, it
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  frees everyone from their obligations.
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  Which would mean that festival public wouldn't have to pay.
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  Yay. It's all kind of it's like this,
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  we couldn't control this thing, we couldn't see it coming.
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  Now there's, there's been some lawyers discussing this going
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  well, surely they could see it coming.
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  When they booked EA in the 1st place, did they not consider the
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  fact the government might not let him in?
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  So there's debate around whether that will apply in this case.
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  But the other key thing, and this has come through, there's a
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  good article in the Guardian, there's a good one on Billboard,
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  that this was cancelled relatively early.
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  It was quick, quickly, so they wouldn't have started building
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  the stage and the sets, for example, at the venue.
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  They'd spent some money on marketing.
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  But if it'd been cancelled closer to the time, there would
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  have been a lot more money gone down the plug hole.
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  And the other thing people don't seem to know is there'll be
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  contracts with security, with catering, all the kind of
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  people. I mean, there was actually a
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  report, I'm trying to think what it was.
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  I think it was 2022, It's about 3 years ago on the economic
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  impact of the Wireless Festival. I think it generated, I think
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  there's £28 million for the UK economy that year and employed
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  around 2400 people across all the things to do.
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  So again, how much festival public is in the whole depends
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  on what contracts it's signed with all those companies and
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  those providers. And but the other thing I've
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  been reading about, I've been on insurance business magazines
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  website, because I know how to live very respected publication.
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  And it's talking about how the the financial impact, not just
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  for this year, but for other events going forward.
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  And what it got into this idea for the way event insurance
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  works is you have these clauses that are like about artist
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  specific risk, which if you're getting insurance through
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  festival, it used to focus on things like illness and injury.
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  So if the artist gets injured and can't perform, which we see,
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  then we like I remember, was it one year, I think the V
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  festival, Travis couldn't perform because the drummer had
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  a towel accident and someone else stepped up.
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  And obviously your insurance is probably more expensive if
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  you've got a history of injuries or a history of stuff that might
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  prevent something. But this, this, this article was
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  saying now it might start working in behavioural and
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  reputational risks. So you might have a clause
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  carving out, well, what if the government doesn't let them in?
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  What if they're part of criminal proceedings somewhere?
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  What if they make public statements that could get them
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  into trouble Even so I think that's the other thing that
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  people starting to like, well, OK, this year the wild festival
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  isn't happening, but next year when they and other vets try and
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  get insurance and this is this is obviously about Yay and that,
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  like you said, people, there's a whole debate about what he's
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  said and done in the past and people think about that.
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  But we've talked, haven't we, about like Bob Villain who
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  kneecap? This is something that could
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  apply to a whole bunch of artists that if you're listening
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  and you're thinking, I don't like what Yay did and said, but
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  there may be artists you do agree with who could kind of
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  fall under this and find it more expensive to get insured.
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  So yeah, that's a long a long book.
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  The other thing I thought is I was wondering, why not just get
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  another headliner? So that was my immediate
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  reaction was like, why not book someone else?
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  And you can probably talk about this more than I can, but the
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  the, the the general view and explicit is like, even though
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  it's in July, finding one artist big enough to play all three
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  nights who's free, finding three different headliners, I think it
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  wasn't that was not possible. That's, yeah, that's, that's
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  exactly it. I mean, by this point they're
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  probably already looking at who's playing next year because
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  everyone's Diaries are filled in so far in advance because, you
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  know, a manager, managers or management companies are, you
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  know, they're working 18 months, two years ahead.
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  So to it would be difficult I think unless someone was at home
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  kicking their heels to find someone with that pulling power
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  to step in so late. Even though it's early ish, I
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  know it's, it's early for us. It's very late when it comes to
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  to booking headliners, you know. And also wireless, I mean, one
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  of the things they've done, it's very bold is like last year they
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  had Drake do all three nights and that was a big deal.
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  So that was one time visit. So that's the other thing.
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  If you had if you had like a bill of three headliners and
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  supporting bills and one of the headliners pulled out, maybe
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  that is something where you can move someone up or do some
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  things. But when you've put all your
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  eggs in one headliners basket, it will just leave you with no
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  way to go other than to cancel and say, right, we're back next
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  year, yeah. Talk, talk, you know, actually
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  this is this is festival related in a, in a way where it relates
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  to Coachella actually. But have you heard Radiohead are
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  launching a new film and our installation.
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  But if you do want to see it, first you'll have to go to a
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  bunker underneath the Coachella festival.
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  This could not be more Radiohead than this.
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  There's always a bunker involved with Radiohead.
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  If you remember we were talking about Radioheads like all their
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  their treasure trove, all their all their old master types and
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  stuff is all allegedly folklore has it in a bunker somewhere
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  near Oxford. Now they've got a bunker beneath
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  the Coachella festival. Yeah.
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  And everything I've heard about Kocher says that it's probably
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  quite nice to disappear to a bunker sometimes during that
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  when the sun's kind of blasting down.
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  But yeah, so this this actually takes back to COVID times.
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  And I don't know, I don't know if this was on your radio at the
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  time, but it was on my radar because I'm a nerd, that back in
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  2021, Epic Games with the people who make Fortnite, they said
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  Sony had this really surprising announcement.
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  Like we're doing a virtual Radiohead exhibition called Kid
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  Amnesia, and you had to use it on your console or PC and you
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  look, you kind of wander around this virtual space full of films
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  and artwork from, it's from the Kid A in the amnesiac era of
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  Radiohead, which is kind of a fascinating creative time.
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  But what I didn't know until this month is it was supposed to
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  be a physical exhibition. They were going to have a proper
• 9:52
  exhibition you could go to, but COVID nixed that and now they're
• 9:57
  finally doing it. So yeah, it's a full on audio
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  visual installation. It's how it's described.
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  It's got a film at the centre of it, but it's other artwork too.
• 10:05
  Tom Yorke said it's a narrative about, here's the quote, A
• 10:08
  monster is trapped in a derelict Museum of the lost and
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  forgotten. So I think it sounds like a
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  great Family Day out, really. Doesn't it take the kids?
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  But yeah, so it's happening in this bunker under Coachella,
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  people who are going to, which was last weekend and next
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  weekend as we're talking. And you could register to go and
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  see it. Then it's going to visit
• 10:26
  Brooklyn, Chicago, Mexico City and San Francisco between May
• 10:31
  and February, May this year and February next year.
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  So I'm kind of hoping it'll come to the UK, but at the moment
• 10:36
  it's US and Mexico City, right. And here's the other thing.
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  I mean, we we could just kind of watch, you know, see it on
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  social media. But when you go in, they're
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  going to stick a sticker over your camera phone.
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  So you can't take video and photos in there, right?
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  Although there is, there's a TikTok account and a Threads
• 10:54
  account and an Instagram account.
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  So, weirdly, that might be the way you get to see it on
• 10:58
  Radiohead's official TikTok presence, which is a a phrase
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  I've never thought I'd be saying.
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  Right then it is time for the latest in our monthly series of
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  interviews looking at various aspects of the music business in
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  in a little more depth. So last month you might have
• 11:18
  heard Stuart talking to the band Picture Parlour about what the
• 11:21
  financial realities of being in a band these days.
• 11:25
  We also spoke earlier this year to Neve Byrne about artist
• 11:28
  management and Ricky Bates at the venue The Joiners in
• 11:31
  Southampton regarding the struggles of grassroots venues
• 11:35
  in the UK. All of these of course still
• 11:38
  available on our feed today though to throw ahead to Record
• 11:42
  Store Day on Saturday, we wanted to find out, do you want a bit
• 11:45
  more about what it's like actually being on the front line
• 11:48
  of selling music and how hard it is currently trying to balance
• 11:52
  the books if you're running a record shop?
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  To help us with this, we spoke to Ashley Todd, owner of
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  Spillers Records in Cardiff. Ashley, hello, welcome to the
• 12:04
  Price of Music. How's your week going?
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  Has the stock for Record Store Day started to arrive?
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  We're recording this on Tuesday lunchtime.
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  Is there a van outside with 100 boxes of vinyl already?
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  Well, I am very pleased to say that the vast majority of stock
• 12:22
  has arrived. In the main, that sort of
• 12:24
  happened last week. Alright, because Easter is
• 12:27
  movable and Record Store Day isn't where Easter falls effects
• 12:34
  sort of like shipping schedules. So on the downside, a lot of our
• 12:39
  invoices came through at the end of March, but because of where
• 12:42
  the Easter weekend was, the stock didn't then arrive till
• 12:45
  the very start of April. So the bills will be being paid
• 12:49
  sooner, but the stock is at least here.
• 12:52
  Mrs. Liz there just before we get onto Record Store Day.
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  I'm running a record shop in general.
• 12:56
  How? How did you get into the
• 12:57
  business of running a record shop?
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  And you should probably as but as well, just in case there are
• 13:03
  still people who don't know anything about Spillers records.
• 13:06
  Tell us a bit about Spillers as well.
• 13:09
  OK, so it was not the plan for me to be here still after what
• 13:14
  will be 30 years this coming May, but that is sort of how
• 13:20
  it's all panned out. And essentially, Spillers
• 13:26
  Records is the oldest record shop in the world, famous for
• 13:30
  having continuously sold physical music since the year
• 13:34
  1894. Just music, nothing else
• 13:38
  physical music. Although we did used to do
• 13:40
  repairs of gramophones back in the day.
• 13:43
  I'll have you know we predate the record going flat.
• 13:47
  Back in the day, it was wax cylinders.
• 13:51
  And we've moved a few times over the years, sort of like
• 13:55
  reflecting, you know, trends in music buying.
• 13:58
  And how did I end up here? Well, my dad was running the
• 14:05
  shop and then bought it in the 70s.
• 14:09
  Again, it wasn't his plan to have Spillers for for that
• 14:14
  amount of time. He was actually training to be a
• 14:17
  bank manager and also was a DJ of Northern Soul in his in his
• 14:25
  after hours world. And as a regular at the shop.
• 14:30
  He just happened to be in the right time at the right place or
• 14:34
  the wrong time at the right place and depending on how you
• 14:37
  look at it and ended up managing the shop.
• 14:41
  Anecdotally, he turned up on his first day wearing a full suit
• 14:47
  and you know, he's trying to make a good impression and was
• 14:51
  promptly told that that was not necessary.
• 14:55
  But you know, he obviously just wanted to put his best foot
• 14:57
  forward. And similarly I was given, well,
• 15:03
  I, I made the mistake of asking for pocket money to go to the
• 15:06
  cinema in the spring half term of May 1996.
• 15:14
  And I was promptly told, well, if you want some cash, you have
• 15:20
  two choices. It's either going clear the
• 15:23
  expletive out of the chicken shed excrement or come and help
• 15:32
  out in the shop, so I chose the marginally more glam glamorous
• 15:36
  option. You've been there ever since.
• 15:39
  And I've been stuck here ever since.
• 15:42
  There's a real sliding doors moment there, isn't there?
• 15:44
  Like somewhere in another world, you're now a chicken mogul of
• 15:48
  some. Yeah.
• 15:49
  Well, you know the price of eggs these days.
• 15:51
  I you know. I mean, I was going to ask you
• 15:57
  about the biggest changes you've seen over the last 10 years, but
• 16:00
  it's almost a bit unambitious given that it's 30 years.
• 16:02
  And what what have been the kind of the biggest things you've had
• 16:06
  to respond to in terms of what Spillers does?
• 16:08
  Because obviously there's been loads of disruptions and
• 16:10
  technologies coming in, but also like an exciting resurgence in
• 16:15
  in physical music. This is it.
• 16:17
  I think after this amount of time, it's a case of being able
• 16:22
  to take a bit of a pragmatic approach and realise that, you
• 16:28
  know, within different concentric circles, no matter,
• 16:32
  you know, how micro or macrocosm things do go in cycles.
• 16:37
  And I guess sort of, you know, we, we are, you know, very
• 16:43
  proudly stockists of all physical formats.
• 16:47
  You know, we, we, we've always sold vinyl.
• 16:50
  We've never stopped and even with the growth of vinyl, which
• 16:57
  still gets talked about now like it's a new phenomenon, but you
• 17:01
  know, I, I can tell you it, it is a, you know, 20 plus, you
• 17:07
  know, 2 decade worth of worth of growth, growth as far as I'm
• 17:12
  concerned. And even in a smaller scale, you
• 17:16
  know, I've sort of seen CDs take a knock from that.
• 17:20
  And lots of signals from the industry imply that there isn't
• 17:25
  really a continued market for CDs in exactly the same way as
• 17:30
  they sort of treated vinyl 20 plus years ago, which, you know,
• 17:36
  then fuelled its, you know, demise.
• 17:39
  It was, it was almost like just to bring the chickens back.
• 17:42
  It's a chicken and egg, egg analogy.
• 17:44
  You know, it's like if you say something is on the rise, it
• 17:47
  will rise. If you say something's on the
• 17:49
  wane, you know, inevitably that will sort of, you know, follow.
• 17:54
  But yeah, even in the last five years, I've seen CD sales take a
• 17:59
  dip like that. But then with the, what I see is
• 18:03
  the growth, you know, possibly fuelled by the, the, the, the
• 18:07
  growth in vinyl prices, the, you know, the ever increasing cost
• 18:10
  of vinyl CDs seem to have, you know, maintained quite a level
• 18:16
  price point. And I think the message about
• 18:19
  physical supporting for, you know, for supporting bands and
• 18:25
  your local record shop with, with, you know, buying physical
• 18:28
  music, which the message is definitely getting through.
• 18:32
  It's really nice to see that in the same way as I was drawn to
• 18:36
  vinyl in my teens because it was nostalgic what my parents used
• 18:41
  to pay. I play.
• 18:42
  I am seeing lots of teenagers doing what I think is is the
• 18:46
  same thing with CDs. It's it's retro.
• 18:50
  I was reading a survey today actually about a generation
• 18:52
  alpha, which I think is what for up to 1415 and how I think half
• 18:56
  of them are listening to physical music.
• 18:58
  It said like it's like you say it's it's not a it's not again,
• 19:02
  like you were talking about the whole people said to what Vinyl,
• 19:04
  though, is new yeah, people haven't talked about oh, isn't
• 19:06
  isn't it older people still buying physical music, but it's
• 19:08
  not it's really young people now it's.
• 19:10
  Really it is, I mean, you know, it, it's, it's very heartening.
• 19:15
  It is really heartening. And, and you know, they, they,
• 19:21
  they, they engage with it, You know, it's the whole process,
• 19:25
  you know, the browsing process. It's it's lovely to see it is.
• 19:31
  I suppose that, does that bring us to the, the make up of the
• 19:36
  community that comes into the shop.
• 19:38
  And have you noticed any sort of changes in the sort of the sort
• 19:43
  of people, the demographic of people who come in to your shop?
• 19:46
  Because you must, you must know they'll be regular faces,
• 19:50
  they'll be the person who's in Cardiff who pops in because it's
• 19:53
  a famous shop. But you probably get to see the
• 19:55
  same clientele. And I wondered if that's
• 19:57
  changed. I mean, this is the thing I
• 19:59
  think, you know, the, the cost of physical music comes into
• 20:03
  this. So I I think that that does
• 20:05
  naturally fuel who who we see more often.
• 20:09
  And it does tend to be, you know, blokes of a certain age
• 20:13
  perhaps who's, you know, retired or, you know, kid kids have left
• 20:19
  home and have a bit more disposable income, you know, so
• 20:23
  I would. I, I would be at pains to draw
• 20:28
  too many comparisons on sort of frequent, you know, sort of
• 20:34
  like, you know, a, a, a tally of how often I, I'd say more
• 20:39
  consistently across the board. It is all ages, but, you know,
• 20:45
  obviously different demographics have different budgets and, you
• 20:49
  know, different sort of volumes that they can buy.
• 20:52
  But it is across all ages. It is, it is always lovely
• 20:58
  seeing, you know, lots of the older customers, the more sort
• 21:03
  of middle-aged ones do seem to take a great sense of pride in
• 21:08
  bringing the youth in, you know, the next generation.
• 21:12
  And that's always lovely to see. You know, there it, it, it is
• 21:16
  something that's, that's that that is evident, you know,
• 21:22
  families in together or dads with daughters or, you know,
• 21:25
  grandparents with, with, with, with their, you know,
• 21:28
  grandchildren. And yeah, it's, it's yeah, I
• 21:35
  think it's really broad. I think, I think in terms of
• 21:40
  where we were 15 years ago, where I think, you know, things
• 21:48
  were, I think, I think it was more on a hope that things
• 21:55
  would, would, would turn. I don't, I don't think anyone
• 21:59
  really expected vinyl to keep on going in the way that it has.
• 22:03
  I mean, I, I am astonished constantly that there is still
• 22:08
  more room, room for growth in it.
• 22:13
  I, I really did think that, that, you know, what goes up
• 22:18
  invariably has to come down to some extent.
• 22:23
  But yeah, it's, it's a bit like Record Store Day is a really
• 22:27
  good example of this. I mean, they're, they're, you
• 22:31
  know, I'm the biggest cynic that, that you'll find whilst
• 22:36
  also being very enthusiastic. But I do have a cynic sort of,
• 22:42
  you know, based on experience of the industry and I think there
• 22:45
  are people who came to maybe say the 1st 5 or 10 years of Record
• 22:51
  Store Day have overtime gotten somewhat jaded with the event.
• 22:56
  You know, it's, it's grown and grown.
• 22:58
  You know, what was 100 titles is now 500 titles, which in and of
• 23:03
  itself looks, looks, you know, could be read as a cash in.
• 23:09
  You could see that as being trying to offer as broad a range
• 23:12
  of, of, of genres and titles to to, you know, keep customers
• 23:16
  happy. But that's by the by.
• 23:20
  But every year it seems that there is a new audience.
• 23:23
  So, you know, there there are people who have kept on going
• 23:26
  and have been supporting it, you know, for the nearly 20 years
• 23:30
  that it's been going on. But again, with that, you know,
• 23:34
  a lot of that is through some of the the more mainstream, as it
• 23:40
  were, artists that have gotten involved and huge profile
• 23:44
  artists, you know, Olivia Dean, Taylor Swift, you know, the
• 23:49
  Wicked franchise. And you can't knock that for
• 23:54
  bringing a a new audience in. And I think that's another thing
• 23:58
  is those sorts of titles for that specific day has also given
• 24:05
  me more confidence in an area that I really don't feel like
• 24:10
  I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, very able to judge popularity.
• 24:17
  You know, I, I often have to defer to the youngest person
• 24:20
  here and say, what is the young person's perspective on this?
• 24:24
  Is this? Is this cool?
• 24:26
  You do you. You sound like.
• 24:28
  So would you going back 15 years, was it more?
• 24:33
  Did you, were you in a more precarious position?
• 24:37
  Do you think at that point, do you feel running a shop now?
• 24:41
  Because I don't know, because I always imagine I'd be.
• 24:45
  So one of the things which I think it would stop a person
• 24:49
  like me starting a record shop is just trying to balance the
• 24:52
  books at the end of the month and being at the mercy of the
• 24:55
  record industry three who decide to put a load of records out one
• 24:59
  month and then nothing the next month or nothing good the next
• 25:02
  month. But in general, do you feel more
• 25:04
  stable now running the shop than you did maybe 1520 years ago?
• 25:08
  Well, The thing is, Steve is, as you and I both know, the whole,
• 25:17
  the whole premise of the industry and bands and
• 25:21
  popularity and what's in and what's not.
• 25:23
  It's it's so fickle that quite honestly, no, because week to
• 25:30
  week, album to album, I mean, there are so many different
• 25:34
  things that can affect sales. You know, it's, it's it, I'm,
• 25:39
  I'm acceptant of it and it's not, it's just a fact of the
• 25:43
  industry is, you know, you can have an artist who's the hottest
• 25:47
  property for one album, but then it can be badly received and
• 25:50
  then it you know, or, or you can have different factors that tie
• 25:54
  into it. So exclusives elsewhere and you
• 25:56
  know, you know, D to C going on or pre-order fan sale, you know,
• 26:02
  sign up for tickets and get the pre-order access or whatever.
• 26:07
  So there are so many variables and you know that that that can
• 26:14
  impact an artist's, you know, and and and the reach.
• 26:21
  And the thing I would really say is what you never know when
• 26:27
  you're ordering something there, there are two principal things
• 26:31
  that that that is just in a nutshell, the dichotomy of the
• 26:35
  wrangling that goes on with ordering is, is it going to be
• 26:41
  selling after week 1 because everything is so week 1 based,
• 26:45
  you know, for that sort of chart position.
• 26:48
  So is it, is it just going to fall off a Cliff because things
• 26:52
  invariably do more does than doesn't?
• 26:56
  And if it does take off and there is more in, you know, more
• 27:00
  longevity in, in it, is there even going to be stock in the
• 27:04
  warehouse to reorder? Because sadly, quite often that
• 27:08
  is not the case. And, and that is the, the, the,
• 27:14
  the, the duality of, of, you know, physical music in, in
• 27:19
  2026, very few labels and willing to sit on large
• 27:29
  quantities of stock in warehouses.
• 27:32
  They don't know what's going to keep selling what, what's going
• 27:36
  to have legs and run, run through till Christmas.
• 27:39
  And, and I think, you know, sorry, I say through till
• 27:41
  Christmas, you know, as we know, lots of things have a boost
• 27:43
  with, with, you know, sort of end of year polls and charts and
• 27:48
  whatnot. It's really exciting.
• 27:52
  I've, I've sort of decided to be excited about seeing what is
• 27:57
  going to be the one that's still here in the racks 2 years later
• 28:00
  rather than disheartened. And it, and it is, I mean, I, I
• 28:05
  often wonder are there are the same things that I, you know,
• 28:08
  I've been ordering key stock staples this morning and if it's
• 28:15
  OK to sort of name some names, you know, I, I wonder what other
• 28:20
  record shops sort of like run on ones are.
• 28:22
  I mean, Ezra Collective's albums still take over like, you know,
• 28:30
  with the disclaimer, these will all fall off a Cliff as soon as
• 28:33
  I've uttered their name. I will, I will never sell
• 28:36
  another record by these just just because that is the law of
• 28:41
  saying things out loud. But so, yeah, I, I'm talking
• 28:45
  about sort of more relatively contemporary artists, you know,
• 28:50
  I mean, I'm not talking about sort of cocktail Twins,
• 28:53
  Radiohead, you know, Pulp and, and, and that I'm talking more
• 28:56
  about the, the last 10 years sort of artists.
• 28:59
  So sorry. That's extra collective saying
• 29:03
  stop mentioning our name on that podcast.
• 29:05
  I'm. Going to take the batteries out.
• 29:08
  So essentially it's more it it you know, I'm talking about the
• 29:13
  sort of like, you know, bands from from the last sort of
• 29:16
  10/10/15 years. You know, when we all know that,
• 29:19
  you know, sales are not what they you know what they were
• 29:22
  sort of 30-40 years ago. You know who is going to be our
• 29:26
  new Pink Floyd for example. But you know, there are bands
• 29:32
  coming through that you don't really know if they're going to
• 29:37
  be in your axe in a couple of years time, but for a very, very
• 29:40
  short amount of time. You know, everybody want wants
• 29:44
  to get their hands, hands on it. And it's yeah, as I say, the
• 29:48
  drop off can be after, after, after the first week.
• 29:51
  It's you just don't know where the commitment is with, with,
• 29:55
  with, with people. Just to finish off, can you, can
• 30:01
  you settle an argument for us? Important argument this is.
• 30:06
  This is this has been an ongoing debate.
• 30:08
  Do do you want to ask Stuart? If you're filing PJ Harvey on
• 30:12
  the shelves, yes. Does she go into P under H or
• 30:16
  she want to do a curveball? Completely different letter just
• 30:18
  to throw things into chaos. But yeah, because we do.
• 30:21
  We disagree with you. I can't, but I think I was P.
• 30:24
  But were you H or were you P? I know I, I think, I think it's
• 30:30
  P right. Although controversially,
• 30:33
  weirdly, when I when I had a look on the shelves upstairs
• 30:37
  early in my own collection, I think it's I think it's under H
• 30:42
  where was well put us, put us right.
• 30:44
  Absolutely. Well, this is the thing.
• 30:46
  Like everything we've talked about, it's not as
• 30:48
  straightforward as it may seem. So in my opinion, correct me if
• 30:53
  I'm wrong, PJ stands for Poly Gene, right?
• 30:56
  Yeah. Her birth given name, Correct.
• 30:59
  Yeah. Not a pseudonym, is it?
• 31:02
  No. She's Polly Gene Harvey.
• 31:03
  So in my head that without any shadow of a doubt goes under H
• 31:09
  because that's her name. Where it gets more complicated
• 31:15
  is when you have your Blues artists.
• 31:17
  I mean, you know, Professor Long Hair, Muddy Waters.
• 31:20
  I mean, you know, he's not Muddy Waters and that, you know, I
• 31:24
  don't think that's his real name.
• 31:29
  And where it gets even more complicated is where you have an
• 31:35
  artist and band name, and also where you have a name that
• 31:44
  sounds like it would be a person, but it's actually a
• 31:47
  band. But I will be honest, that's.
• 31:52
  That's true. I hadn't thought about Tyler
• 31:53
  Ball Game. That's that's the name of the
• 31:56
  band. It's his name, but it's the name
• 31:59
  of the band. Yeah.
• 32:00
  Where does that go? But then also you have, you have
• 32:04
  you have, you have some band names.
• 32:07
  I'm trying to think of some, but some band names that sound like
• 32:10
  like they would be a person, but they're not a person, if you see
• 32:13
  what I mean. So you might.
• 32:14
  Think they were if you were coming to buy, yeah.
• 32:15
  Yeah, I can't think of any right now.
• 32:18
  So. So really, it's really
• 32:21
  difficult, but generally, I, I mean, if we said, for example,
• 32:29
  or I mean, Bruce Springsteen, I mean, there's no way in the
• 32:32
  world that he would go anywhere other than S absolutely no, you
• 32:36
  know, no, no way in the world, which ties in with Record Store
• 32:42
  Day because of formatting reasons on the list.
• 32:47
  Everything on record store day that we have gets filed as per
• 32:52
  the list, which is by first, you know, whatever comes from P on
• 32:58
  record store day, the rules are completely different in, in, in
• 33:03
  our filing process. So we have to have a mindset
• 33:06
  shift because because people are used to the list being in the
• 33:12
  list order as per the, you know, printed out slash look on the
• 33:19
  website, slash look in whatever publication you're looking at
• 33:23
  and everything there would be alphabetical by first name
• 33:26
  Robert Plant and our, you know. That's a minefield.
• 33:32
  Well, also if you're like a complicated.
• 33:34
  If you're running to get like one of the two copies in the
• 33:36
  shop and you go to the wrong letter, you're gonna because
• 33:39
  someone else has gone to R before and you won't be.
• 33:41
  I mean Zook. 'S fun.
• 33:42
  It's sweet, yeah. Yeah.
• 33:44
  Is it ever like that? I mean, how do you manage that?
• 33:46
  How do you people 'cause do you get that people running in
• 33:49
  trying to get the? Plants that was my biggest fear.
• 33:51
  And therefore we keep the stock behind the counter.
• 33:54
  OK, which is hence the following process.
• 33:58
  But the the the yeah, I could not think of anything worse than
• 34:03
  losing the last copy of something amongst all the
• 34:06
  records on on. Can you imagine?
• 34:09
  Yes, the system says that we have one copy of Simply Reds
• 34:13
  remixes, but I cannot find it. That would be that would be that
• 34:20
  would be the worst thing in the world.
• 34:23
  By the same token, I'm afraid week in week out we have
• 34:26
  discussions over genres on where to put people.
• 34:30
  I mean, that causes all manner of kerfuffle and, and actually
• 34:35
  in terms of misconceptions, my other favorite unwritten
• 34:39
  misconception that people seem to have is that when they walk
• 34:43
  into, and I do not think it would be exclusively our place
• 34:49
  that everything would be where you would expect it to be.
• 34:54
  And that sort of thing of, you know, do you have something I,
• 34:59
  you know, oh, I've checked there.
• 35:01
  You haven't got any of that. Or is this all you have or is
• 35:06
  this all your stock? And that's sort of not realising
• 35:09
  that we do our absolute very best to keep everything where we
• 35:14
  think it should be. However, as you have
• 35:18
  illustrated, we do not all think along the same.
• 35:21
  We don't all have a, a consistent agreement over filing
• 35:27
  over genres. You know, your Blues may be my,
• 35:34
  I don't know, swamp rock or whatever.
• 35:37
  And also, the second you open your door, anything can happen
• 35:43
  in terms of, you know, you. Is anybody mean to Primark?
• 35:46
  I mean, you know, I don't. Or Marks and Spencer's at
• 35:51
  Christmas time. It's it's, you know, it's like
• 35:53
  that, isn't it? You know anything can get left
• 35:57
  anywhere. Once went to lakeside and saw
• 35:59
  the next sale on Boxing Day from the floor above.
• 36:01
  Just saw it like top down view of everyone and it was just the
• 36:04
  most frightening thing other than being at the top of the Arc
• 36:06
  de Triomphe and seeing the cars going round that roundabout.
• 36:09
  The most frightening movement of humans I've ever seen.
• 36:14
  Well, listen, we should wish you all the best for Saturday.
• 36:17
  I hope you've got your orders right.
• 36:19
  I hope you're virtually sold out of all your stock by the end of
• 36:24
  the day. Would you like an exclusive look
• 36:26
  at the Simply Red 12 inch if I can find it within the next 30
• 36:29
  seconds or am I being or am I being too silly?
• 36:32
  No, go on. Well, this is going to be a good
• 36:35
  test. So Ashley's just walked out of
• 36:37
  shot. Now if this will tell you
• 36:40
  whether Ashley knows exactly where everything is or not, or
• 36:45
  whether it's filed in the right place, you're.
• 36:47
  Filed under Hucknall. It's a so simply simply well, so
• 36:52
  it'd be S given the rules for Record Store Day, which by the
• 36:57
  way, can I just mention there's a lot of live albums this year.
• 37:02
  There's an Air Moon Safari Live, Courteen.
• 37:05
  It's like that seems to be one of the big things.
• 37:06
  There's the odd remix record. There's a lot of radio sessions
• 37:10
  this year, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the complete radio
• 37:13
  sessions. There's a madness sessions,
• 37:15
  album sessions because it's all about.
• 37:18
  There's a lot of sessions, a lot of demos and rarities, including
• 37:21
  about for lashes and yeah, one or two remixes.
• 37:25
  But the live album, and can I just say, if anyone, if any,
• 37:29
  wherever I wherever I have to pop on Saturday, if anyone beats
• 37:34
  me to the last copy of the House of Love Live at Yulu 1988,
• 37:41
  they're going to be in big trouble because I was at that
• 37:43
  gig. Have you?
• 37:44
  Have you, have you found it? What I would like to say.
• 37:48
  Yeah, there it is. Look, looks lovely.
• 37:51
  Yeah, I will have you know that there is a Jar wobble radio mix
• 37:56
  on here which is Sly and Robbie featuring Simply Red of Night
• 38:01
  Nurse. So you've got Simply Red, Night
• 38:04
  Nurse, Jar Wobble, Sly and Robbie.
• 38:07
  That is gonna be a banger. So as.
• 38:10
  You told Steve. Yes, at the moment.
• 38:15
  And that is what is what is the customer service that we have
• 38:20
  come to come to expect. You didn't know you needed this
• 38:24
  and now you want I. Like the current, the covers.
• 38:26
  Nice. Because it's it's, it's not.
• 38:28
  It's very much steering away from a big picture of Mick
• 38:30
  Hucknall. Yeah.
• 38:31
  No picture of the Hucknall? No.
• 38:33
  I didn't say that, no. There you go.
• 38:35
  Sold. Thank you so much once again,
• 38:38
  actually, for spending some time.
• 38:39
  I know you're really busy this week, so to take an hour out of
• 38:42
  the day to talk to us was very kind of you.
• 38:44
  Yeah. We nice to sit down for 5
• 38:46
  minutes, thank you. So yes, thank you very much to
• 38:52
  Ashley for talking to us and good luck if you are heading out
• 38:56
  on Saturday in search of collectibles, Record Store Day
• 39:00
  this coming Saturday. And if you'd like to hear more
• 39:03
  from Ashley, that interview in full will be available to our
• 39:07
  Patreon superfans. Talking of which I must mention,
• 39:10
  we should give a quick hello to new superfans, David Elmore and
• 39:15
  Sarah Wells. Thank you very much for joining
• 39:18
  the gang. Thanks for your supports.
• 39:20
  You too can be a part of our super fan community.
• 39:27
  If you'd like some more details, you can go to patreon.com/the
• 39:32
  Price of Music where you can sign up and become part of our
• 39:38
  weekly lock in which we do as a bonus extra every week.
• 39:42
  Patreon.com/the Price of Music. Or if you have anything you'd
• 39:45
  like to share with us about the show or questions around the
• 39:50
  music industry that you think we might be able to answer for you,
• 39:53
  do drop us a line. It's always nice to hear from
• 39:56
  you. The Price of Music
• 39:57
  podcasts@gmail.com. Thank you very much for
• 40:01
  listening. Till next week, Cheerio.
• 40:04
  Goodbye.