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Uptown Records owner believes youngsters are making vinyl trendy again – after having their ‘busiest Christmas’




The owner of the UK’s biggest independent record shop says business is the ‘busiest it has ever been’, thanks to retro trends proving popular for young people.

As young music lovers pivot towards a more traditional method of listening to their favourite artists, the founder of Uptown Records, Alan Barnsdale, 67, believes youngsters are driving the resurgence for the return of vinyl records.

He said: “We have tried to re-create an old school record shop at Uptown Records, and I think that’s what people love.

Alan Barnsdale founded the business
Alan Barnsdale founded the business

“Younger age groups don’t want to watch programmes on the TV anymore, they’ll be watching things on Netflix and listening to music on Spotify but, alongside this, they also want to buy record players again.

“There is definitely a trend in youngsters wanting to be more retro and everything comes around again so I can’t see it stopping.

“To touch and feel a record and show it to your mates, is different than saying you’ve downloaded a new song on your phone.

The uptown records store is located in Baytree Garden Centre
The uptown records store is located in Baytree Garden Centre
The record store also has more than 25,000 CDs
The record store also has more than 25,000 CDs
Alan Barnsdale with their collection of the Beatles first album Please Please Me
Alan Barnsdale with their collection of the Beatles first album Please Please Me

“We stock every genre for all age groups and that’s why we thrive.”

The record shop, which is located inside Baytree Garden Centre in Weston, has four rooms where visitors can enjoy ‘crate digging’ through more than 200,000 records and 25,000 CDs.

Following the death of his father and brother, Alan decided to pursue his passion and open a record shop with money he had inherited.

Alan Barnsdale with Benjamin Zephaniah
Alan Barnsdale with Benjamin Zephaniah
There are a wide selection of records available
There are a wide selection of records available
The record store is spread across four rooms with a wide range of stock
The record store is spread across four rooms with a wide range of stock

He said: “I lost my father and brother on the same day. The money I inherited from them, paid off my mortgage and after working a 9-5, I wanted to do something I enjoyed.

“I have been passionate about vinyl all of my life, so I started hunting the area for somewhere to open a record shop.

“When it first started I didn’t realise it would be as big as it is now. We first started at the old garden centre next to the Johnson Hospital, where we stayed for five years.

Alan with Gizz Butt from the band The Prodigy
Alan with Gizz Butt from the band The Prodigy
Local guitar legend Ray Fenwick and his band playing live in the shop
Local guitar legend Ray Fenwick and his band playing live in the shop

“I was told by the person who rented the site ‘who even buys records these days?’.

“We have been at Baytree Garden Centre for up to five years and this is the busiest Christmas we have ever had. On the weekends we are packed. It makes me sit back and admire everything we have achieved – it’s too good to retire.

“We meet lovely musicians, celebrities, radio DJs and music fans. Everyone’s got a story and you never know who is going to turn up.”

Some of the well known faces Alan has seen in his shop include guitarist, Ray Fenwick and his band, the late Benjamin Zephaniah and Gizz Butt from the band The Prodigy.

As part of the Grants4Growth initiative by South Holland District Council, Uptown Records was one of the businesses to receive funding and support from Advice4Growth to help continue its early success.

Both of the schemes were funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Alan added: “We can all be quite critical of the council but they have been very good with the grants and they have gone to business owners who have used them wisely.

“The grants have helped us buy traditional looking records and CD racks, so we can make sure our shop looks like it did 40 years ago, and keeps up the vintage image.

“We were also able to support other local business owners, as we purchased the timber for our new racks from Andrew and Co, which is a homeware shop in Spalding.”

Uptown Vinyl Records is also set to feature on television this week, after celebrities called in for a visit.

The shop will appear on an episode of BBC Two’s Celebrity Antique Road Trip, on Wednesday night (January 22) at 7pm.

Uptown Records was contacted as a place of interest because of their Jimi Hendrix exhibition – which commemorates the American rock star, who visited Spalding in 1967 to perform at the BBQ 67 event.

As part of the well known series, antique experts, Philip Serrell and Serhat Ahmet visited the vinyl shop with British Actress, Leslie Ash and actor and musician, Phil Daniels.

Alan said: “The team wanted to see the Jimi Hendrix exhibition for themselves and visited us in June last year.

“My historian Doug Kendall welcomed them to the shop and it was a real pleasure to have them here.

“They were lovely people and Phil Daniels said he would come back again with his wife who is a music collector.

“I am a bit apprehensive about watching it because you never know what they are going to actually clip the video down to, but it was a lovely day and a real pleasure.”

Graham Hawkes, one of the workers in the shop, also got the chance to teach Leslie Ash and Phil Daniels ‘Park Life’ by rock band Blur, on the guitar.

Alan also said he feels honoured and humbled after Uptown Vinyl Records featured in the Financial Times newspaper as one of the greatest record shops in the world.

The record shop will celebrate its ten year anniversary in April.



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