Our First Review... š¶š¶ššš
- Meldepeche
- Mar 14, 2020
- 2 min read
Our first review....
To Have and to Hold Records | 6 Church Street, Tewkesbury
After growing up on our estate in the late 70s, it is funny what you recall, for me it is one kidās obsession with music that sticks in my mind. Locked away in his bedroom, he fashioned out of a hotchpotch of dilapidated and redundant electrical equipment a creation for playing vinyl records ā loudly! Out of these twisted and coiled ratās tails of flex, cables and wires, āRadio Britanniaā was born. The kid in question actively encouraged his family to request songs and dedications on his āradio showā as he broadcast to his family home, up on Priors Park; this performance of guilt-free joy, I am sure, helped cement a life-long infatuation with music. Back then we may have laughed at his kid-like innocence but Melvin Hardy must be enjoying a knowing last laugh nowā¦
It is perhaps laughable that a town the size of Tewkesbury does not have its own dedicated Record Shop. Melvin Hardy Esquire is determined to correct this omission ā on Saturday 4th of April 2020 ā To Have and to Hold Records will open its record box to the public for the first time. For, as Mel has stated many times: āIt is time to do something that I really want to do.ā Hooray. Surely, Iām not alone in thinking that this is music to our ears: a shop that celebrates the vinyl record!
For the record, as we know trends come and go, revolving and turning, round and round until what was ignored and rejected becomes the coveted and championed once again. Think about the bands we listened to at 33 and now ignore, or the vinyl we started collecting again at 45 that we had sold two decades earlier and what will our record collections consist of when we, hopefully, will still be dropping the stylus on the edge at 78? Life is at times a circular narrative and Melās new shop will be part of that story...
Melvinās recent narrative includes his 90s extravaganzas at the Watson Hall and the extravagant hosting of band film-biopics at the Roses theatre; these venerable institutions on Tewkesburyās High Street are our corner of little Britannia. Of course, together we will have to play our part for To Have and To Hold Records, at 6 Church Street (also available online) to ensure that the shop becomes part of our townscape for years to comeā¦I kid you not!
Ps And let's not forget the celebration of "The Purple Prince" at the Watson Hall Tewkesbury, later in the year on September the 12th.
nicholas.burford@virgin.net
The Swilgate Scuttler
š¶š¶šššš
Comments