It was a 'Jim'll Fix It' reference.

Regular readers of the blog may be aware of my penchant for record shopping on a Bank Holiday Monday. It just seems so right. Not that it ever seems particularly wrong. Hmm, this may just be a thinly veiled excuse for buying more records. Anyhoo, as I had a wander round my nearest music emporiums of choice I noticed that Elvis Costello's 'Momofuku' had indeed crept into the UK shops. Fopp were blasting it out at a quite magnificent volume and had it prominently displayed on their new releases shelf. However, the most disturbing moment of the whole process was the discovery of a copy of the vinyl in their meagre racks. £13! Bargain. Pretty much the price I paid for the US import that's not proved to be particularly speedy. It's moments like this, moments when you think that you've cleverly circumvented the machinations of 'the man' only to have your face - or ears, I guess, as this is music related - very much rubbed in it (whatever the figurative 'it' is), that really piss me off. I shouldn't be annoyed. I'll have the album in no time at all on vinyl, a kind soul shared their bonus download code with me so that I can actually enjoy it already and yet, there I was smarting at its presence in the racks. I have to confess, dear reader, that I did spend a minute or two attempting to conjure a reason why I needed two copies of 'Momofuku' on vinyl thus rendering the purchase of this copy an absolute necessity. Thankfully, common sense kicked in (a new experience in a record shop) and I left without it. That said, if it doesn't turn up soon I may lose the plot.

Fopp are in the middle of a big clearout, with plenty of CDs at £3. Once the price is this low, I find it quite hard to avoid temptation and duly left with six titles from the vast range on offer. I still feel a little dirty shopping in Fopp in the same quantities I used to. It's a bit like when you see celebrities so desperate to appear 'trendy' that they start wearing a Stooges T-shirt for every TV interview they do. Fopp is HMV in a Sex Pistols T-shirt, and it's not quite right.

Oh, and this blog proved how scarily instant the interweb can be yesterday. Mere hours after I'd posted about the new Costello album, a quote of the entire post appeared on the exact forums I referred to, link and everything. Kind of appropriate once you've heard the lyrics to 'No Hiding Place', the opener on 'Momofuku'. Hi all. Be regular readers, won't you?

Noisemonger utters a cautious squeak once more

Right then, who's got all of the vinyl copies of the new Super Furries album? Can't find it in the shops, and my online order still hasn't been posted. Tut-tut. Mustn't dwell.
Went into a re-opened Fopp today and I have to confess it was a little bit weird. I spent most of the time thinking, 'wow, this is exactly where it was before they closed,' which is felt rather odd. I was almost surprised at how normal it all felt. The stickers have changed over to the ones HMV have been using for a little while, but the pricing seems mainly the same. Obviously the odd title has gone up, but I think it's important to avoid rose-tinted spectacles when looking back at Fopp simply because then it was technically an 'indie' and now it's owned by HMV. I spoke to one of the staff who's been there as long as I've been meandering through the doors on a regular basis, and he seemed made up about getting his job back. I'm aware that there are plenty of ex-Fopp staff for whom this won't be the most pleasing news, but something's better than nothing, no? Anyway, they've only been open since Saturday, and he said things have been pootling along slowly as trading resumes. Naturally, his pay from the old days is still in limbo because it's in the hands of the administrators, not the new owners. Still, the problems seemed to have been surpassed by being back at work, and it was strangely reassuring to see him there again.
As for the stock, I was quite impressed. There appears to be an increase in £3 clearout stock - with a lift in quality, with the like of Blur's 'Think Tank' and the deluxe edition of Morrissey's 'You Are The Quarry' the highlights. In addition to this, there's plenty of £4 stock now, before we even get to the old school £5 bargains. Loads of excellent soul bargains in the £4 category, including some of the Sly & The Family Stone reissues from a few months back. I noticed that plenty of titles I'd meant to get just before the problems at the end of June were now a quid cheaper. Now, I'm not saying that that means everything is cheaper, because it clearly isn't going to be, but ultimately I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to buy much, but it was as satisfying a bagful as I'm accustomed to from Fopp.
I'm well aware that this isn't the most exciting of posts, but then I've been trying to get info about the re-born Fopp through the internet for the last few days, and have found bugger all, so hopefully this'll be of use to someone. It was like having an old friend back, and while I knew something had changed, I couldn't quite pinpoint what.

Relevant links (and other bits to make this stick out in search engines):

The Help Save Fopp Myspace

Fopp Returns


Fopp is open again
Fopp reopened

It's just MVC repeating itself...

And so it was confirmed today - Fopp is dead. Internet rumours suggest that the staff were told in an email, yesterday afternoon, that they were out of work and would not be receiving their pay for June. A fairly shabby way to treat your staff, especially when they've been having to trot out nonsense excuses to the public for the last week.
I used to love Fopp. I first discovered it whilst at uni. The first few visits were slightly too overwhelming to result in actually spending all that much. That was a problem I soon ironed out and was frequently to be found exiting with £40 worth of CDs and books every couple of weeks. The nearby rival in Nottingham is 'Selectadisc', who altered their pricing policy to be competitive against Fopp's 'pile it high, sell it low' approach. It was at this point that I realised that if continued to do what I was doing - and, let's face it, many other people in the city were doing the same - then one of my favourite record shops, Selectadisc, was losing previously guaranteed custom. This wasn't so much of an issue while Fopp was still genuinely different to all of the big stores, but in the last few years it was becoming predictable and faceless. Far too much of the stock and pricing was interchangeable with HMV and Virgin. Vinyl disappeared from many of their stores and the few remaining bargains tended to be in the book section. My spending in Fopp tailed off dramatically, and while I've still used them in recent years (£25 last month on the Sly & The Family Stone reissues alone) it had lost that excitement factor that musos feel when going out record shopping.
My loyalties were even more torn in recent weeks when I found out about the plans for a new Fopp in the Eagle Centre redevelopment in Derby. As I may have mentioned in the past, I have an unhealthy love of Reveal Records in that their city. It's like a big blanket in winter, and a chilled foreign beer in the summer. I can never buy only one thing in there, and their constant 2 for £20 and 2 for £18 offers (on vinyl as well as CD) ensure that each desired item is suitably paired off. I popped in today and spent twice as much as I had intended to. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable. The stock is varied, well-presented and competitively priced. They've got a healthy vinyl section and the shop is light and airy. It is, to my mind, the best record shop in the UK.
Another rumour that circulated the internet in recent times (and I restate that this is nowt but a rumour) was that there was a bonus available to Fopp staff in new branches, if they killed off the local indie store within months of opening. Now, this does sound rather like fanciful nonsense put about by those poor indie stores that are on their last legs, the length and breadth of the country, but it does fit with the increasingly sour image of Fopp in recent times.
I hope to see them breathe again in some capacity. If only so I can have one more visit. But it's unlikely that it can be a going concern as a business. I can't really envisage a time without physical record shops, but it's clearly becoming harder and harder to even break even. I was worried the day that it was announced that Fopp had bought up the Music Zone stores and sadly those fears have proved to be justified.
They treated music fans well for a while. How about justice for the staff?