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Piccadilly Records has been around since the late 70s and in its current home, Manchester’s Northern Quarter, since 1997. It’s a great creative area and we’re surrounded by other record shops and like-minded people. We’ve always seen ourselves as more than just a record shop, we’re part of a community of musicians and music fans, dreamers and artists. We’re a place where friendships have formed over a mutual love of music, and many of these friendships have grown into bands and club nights, fanzines and blogs, and it’s been amazing to see things constantly evolve.
Over the years we have faced lots of challenges but nothing on the scale of what we face at the moment. It’s with a heavy heart that we’ve had to temporarily close our doors. We’re going to miss arguing with each other over the shop stereo (although, to be honest these arguments are carrying on via our Whatsapp group as I type this!) and debating who makes the best brew (definitely not me), but most of all we’re going to miss our customers, as our Barry so excellently summarises here:
It's a testament to the importance of community in record shops that while I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to get some bread, that most of my worrying is about whether Geraint's wedding will still be going ahead, or how Gary will get his Third Man editions. How will Francis know what records to buy without giving them a spin first, and how is Patrick doing without gigs going ahead (see also - Beth, what do you do of an evening now?!). I'm not thinking about these people because of the business, but because they're all (amongst MANY others) part of the fabric of our day to day life. Music is obviously hugely important, but it wouldn't be what it is without the people that come in and talk about it with us, and every one of us has been driven to listen to something they later love because of someone elses input. The shop is still operating in a mail-order capacity, which is essential, but let's not forget how important it is to speak to people and to go to gigs and to laugh, often closer than 2m from each other. I love Piccadilly Records, obviously but I love the people that love Piccadilly Records even more.
