Brighton graffiti

Enjoyed this pretty cassette tape themed graffiti whilst wandering round Brighton recently. There was plenty of it, all around the city. This was on the downward walk from the train station to the sea front.

Had heard that Rounder Records was rumoured to be closing down, and spent a while trying to find the store - it was always a little tricky to find. Sadly, when we found the square where it was based, was faced with this mural tribute:

Resident Records survives, as do a large number of great little second hand shops, but it is sad to see this loss. Memories of one particular day trip, on a scorching hot day, when I bought Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, plus a Royskopp album, and sat on the beach and walked all along the cliff tops, listening to both discs on my CD Walkman...

This visit, I had a good browse about the many music shops, and I bought The Last Shop Standing, the DVD about the closure of hundreds of independent record shops in the last couple of decades - the film is worth any music fan's time, as is the book. When the film flashes up that once there were over 2,000 shops, and now we are down to a little over 200, I must admit, I got a bit tearful. I love Borderline Records in the Laines. In fact the guy from this place was featured in the aforementioned DVD, and he's a very helpful, nice bloke. The carrier bags given with our purchases that day were outstanding, and I shall scan in a photo soon. I could buy a lot from here - it specialises in 60s/70s stuff, particularly psychedelic/garage/rock, and all kinds of specialist genres. My last purchases here was a sound recording of Jack Kerouac's poetry with live jazz music. My companion bought a compilation of 60s French female singer-songwriters, plus something by Brigitte Bardot.

Brighton was fantastic, as ever. I enjoyed the way that as soon as I got into Brighton, music played wherever I seemed to turn. The first cafe we happened to step into featured a Belle and Sebastian album playing, whilst cafe staff sung cheerfully along. Then wandering around the lanes, I smiled to hear one of my favourite Best Coast songs playing loudly into the street - from, not any kind of overtly music type store or hangout, but a bag/jewellery shop. On one of my last visits, I loved stumbling across a pub that was in the middle of a folk sing-a-long, and I had great fun sitting round the live musicians in the cosy, snug pub setting.