Shirley Manson's starting point facing closure

After decades of neglect by the council, and (possibly made-up) figures of a million quids' worth of repairs, Inch Community Centre in Edinburgh is threatened with closure.

It's the place where a young Shirley Manson first learned to play.

And surprise, surprise - the building is being flogged off to a private developer.

The Avalanche falls: How Record Store Day closed a shop

Edinburgh record store Avalanche is closing up - and, ironically, it's partly the success of Record Store Day that is to blame.

In a blog on the shop's site, the grim story of how the revival of vinyl sales has turned out to bite the ass of the very stores which kept going through the lean times:

Then there is another dilemma. We go on social media and say this will without doubt be one of our albums of the year and many of our followers will simply go to FOPP or HMV and buy it because they are nearer. But there is more.

When the Frightened Rabbit album was announced I immediately received enquiries as to whether there would be an Avalanche or indies special. We had sold 110 out of 500 of the last limited vinyl. At the time HMV/FOPP were in administration and only stocking important titles on CD. Vinyl was not considered an important enough format for any artist even when they were playing an in-store as Frightened Rabbit were. I was fairly sure but not certain that this time there was no special format something that was recently confirmed. Meanwhile fans were encouraged to buy from the band’s Warners website with the vinyl a bargain £12.99 for a signed copy. Again as I suspected this is actually less than the cost to a shop who would expect to sell it for £16.99. Want a signed CD ? That will be Amazon or the band website at a price this time just above cost.

And where vinyl was once an audiophile treat, it has become so commonplace again that the sense of special event doesn't make sense; nor is vinyl any more bringing footfall:

Never mind the week before has some great releases. Explosions In The Sky with a limited vinyl except that their UK label put it on sale ages ago at again a price below cost. The Last Shadow Puppets also have a limited vinyl but you can be sure their label will email the entire LSP/Arctic Monkeys fan base to sell directly and if previous emails are anything to go by not even mention it will be available in shops. That leaves us with a limited indies only Mogwai vinyl which shops are at least given a fair chance to sell.

Depressing as all this might be for a shop like myself it is nothing compared to the Record Store Day list for this year. Given the fantastic rosters many record companies and labels have what shops have been offered is a huge disappointment but not a great surprise given vinyl reissues were once an unusual occurrence whereas they now appear every week. Collectors will still buy the artists they collect but it is no wonder so many shops are asking what people are looking for as it is impossible to guess what these once a year customers will buy.

And in news that isn't unrelated at all:

Sainsbury’s has announced it’s going to be selling vinyl albums from Monday March 21.

The supermarket will sell LPs for the first time since the 1980s following the success of Adele’s 25 which sold over 300,000 in the retailer’s stores.

We hear a lot about how vinyl is back. Not entirely convinced its back to such an extent that the market can sustain supermarkets muscling in.

Shopwatch: Avalanche, Edinburgh

Bad news from Edinburgh, I'm afraid: Avalanche Records is closing in January.

The announcement is not without hope - there are plans, someone trying to find a new way of financing the store; possibly some sort of move online. But, for the time being, there's nothing solid.

The reason for the closure? Here's what they say in their announcement:

In the 6 months from the start of 2011 many new releases from PJ Harvey to Bon Iver sold well and certainly the location was not a problem. However over the last year or so not only has there been less big releases for us but even those we would hope to do well with have not sold well. The new Animal Collective album is just the latest example. The last Frightened Rabbit EP and new Godspeed album were reminders of how it used to be. As happened with the Tom Waits album that FOPP seemed to fail to keep in stock we did get a fair number of people who came to the shop for the new Godspeed album on vinyl because FOPP were out of it proving unfortunately that our sales are not entirely in our own hands. We are not alone as the figures I gave recently showed the indies losing market share on new vinyl at the same time that sales were increasing by 10%.

However the biggest loss has been in selling local and Scottish bands. While our reputation has grown our sales have plummeted. As many will have heard me say more than once selling an album to fans is the easy bit. Selling it to those who don’t know the album or artist is far harder and often time consuming. If that is all that is left to a shop it simply isn’t economical. Even the latest Meursault album which is at No. 2 in our chart achieved that with just a quarter of the sales of the first album. Seventy per cent of those sales were on my recommendation.

Let's hope the plans to save the business come together before it's too late.

Mani says goodbye to the Primals

In order to concentrate on counting the money from The Stone Roses' reunion, Mani has stepped down from Primal Scream after last night's Edinburgh New Year gig.

The NME reports on that set:

Bobby Gillespie and co played a career-spanning 12 song set, divided into two halves by the traditional new year bells and fireworks.

A career-spanning set, eh?

'Movin' On Up'
'Slip Inside This House'
'Don't Fight It, Feel It'
'Damaged'
'Accelerator'
'Shoot Speed/Kill Light'
'Loaded'
'Come Together'
'Swastika Eyes'
'Country Girl'
'Jailbird'
'Rocks'

I hope the NME has its tongue in its cheek - Primal Scream might want to pretend that the first two albums never happened; you have to worry that the current NME hasn't even hearded of them.

George Best Week'end': It's What You Want That Matters

From the dark in Edinburgh:



[Part of George Best weekend]

George Best Weekend: A Million Miles

A short train journey across Scotland, to catch a Million Miles in Edinburgh:



[Part of the George Best weekend]

We are all of us in the gutter, but some are pretending to be seeing stars

They're taking We Will Rock You on a tour round the country - I think the phrase is "sharing the pain" - and they're planning to make a bit of a fuss in Edinburgh:

Queen stars Brian May and Roger Taylor have revealed they will join the star-studded cast of the smash hit musical based on the band for the opening night at the Playhouse next Wednesday.

Didn't ask Paul Rogers, then?

Still, a star-studded cast. That's exciting. Who have you got studding the cast with these stars?

The announcement is a huge boost for the thousands of fans who have already snapped up some of the tickets for We Will Rock You, expecting to see the likes of Darren Day and Coronation Street actor Kevin Kennedy sing Queen classics.

Is that a star-studded cast or not? Because the phrase "it's a huge boost" implies that, without the presence of May and Taylor, it'd be a bit of a let-down. "Cheer up, there's two of the people who actually got in the way of Freddie Mercury going to be on stage."

May said: "We are completely hands-on, and we will be visiting.

"People definitely come out of the theatre feeling that in a strange way they now know us, Queen, and our struggle, our journey."

They come away understanding your journey? But this is the plot of the play:

We Will Rock You' is a futuristic tale which tells of a massive corporation - Globalsoft - which sends computer generated music to all of the people on the planet. Singing, musical instruments, and any expression of creativity, are banned. But Lost Texts are known to exist which talk of music from years gone by. A group of rebels (the Bohemians) strive to discover the lost music, and bring down the corporation. The two heroes, Galileo and Scaramouche, discover musical instruments buried in rock, which they use to vaporise the head of the corporation (The Killer Queen), and send the Power Of Rock around the world to free the masses, thus enabling the masses to be musically creative once again.

You do know that isn't something which happened to you, don't you, Brian? If people are coming out of the theatre going 'thank god Scaramouche out of Queen found those hidden guitars', not only have they not understood your journey, but they've confused made-up bobbins with real life.

Gordon in the morning: Remember I told you

Given Gordon's ability to run a dozen stories that are wrong to every one that's sort-of right, it's perhaps unsurprising he's enjoying having been kind-of right earlier this week on the Oasis story.

Of course, if you read today's piece, you'd come away with the impression that Smart had written a piece predicting the actual moment that Liam would smash Noel's guitar rather than a hedging, cagey "could this be the end" type piece.

Still, he's making bold predictions now:

In ten years' time, if the money is right and Liam finally calms down from his permanent rage then maybe, just maybe, they will play again.

I hope they do. But it is going to take a long time for this one to blow over.

Still, you'll be wondering - especially in light of his boss James Murdoch insisting that The Sun and it's "independent" journalism is worth paying money for - who, exactly, on Gordon's team alerted him to the end of the current phase of Oasis? Let's see the News Corporation investment at work:

Scots singer AMY MACDONALD, who was at the French gig, said on Twitter: "Oasis cancelled again with one minute to stage time!!! Liam smashed Noel's guitar, huuuge fight"

Ah. So when James Murdoch was in Edinburgh railing at the BBC for telling people what's happening in the world without expecting people to pay, he should also be calling for the future Cameron government to dismantle Amy MacDonald for doing the same thing, should he?

Still, that independent journalism would have kicked in once Gordon was aware of the story, right? Gordon would have been sending someone out to get coverage of what was going on, rather than merely hitting F5 on his keyboard, over and over?

The man who first signed the band, ALAN McGEE, then chipped in on Facebook.

He said: "Just got phoned by somebody at Rock en Seine that Oasis have just split up an hour ago and manager or tour manager made the announcement to 50,000 fans. Madness are now playing 2 sets as they played already at festival. f*** knows..."

God, James Murdoch really has a point, doesn't he? If the BBC crush the likes of The Sun's online service, how ever will we get the chance to pay Gordon Smart for cutting and pasting from free news services online?

If only Noel had done his Amy Winehouse material at the festival

Dave - which is the name that UK TV G2 is living under as part of a witness protection programme - has been at the Edinburgh Festival in order to present an award for "the funniest joke of the festival". Surely Dave should be presenting an award for the funniest joke of last year's festival, but then present it again, and again, and again?

It's gone with a topical gag about Amy Winehouse. This might seem odd, as you might think that a topical joke will date very, very quickly indeed and it would be pointless to try and preserve it for posterity. But if you do think that, then, clearly, you're not in Dave's target audience.

Zoe Lyons' gag was this:

"I can't believe Amy Winehouse self-harms. She's so irritating she must be able to find someone to do it for her.

If that was the best joke told at the whole of Edinburgh, you have to feel sorry for people who bought tickets to other shows. They must be feeling as distraught as a Chinese company taking delivery of six thousand Liu Xiang: Champion tshirts.

Actually, it clearly wasn't the best joke at the festival, as Lyons' gag when she picked up the award was better:

"I am absolutely delighted to have won the award. I know self-harming is not funny but it's just a joke, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it."

[Thanks to Michael M for the link]

Gnarls Barkley's connection drops; hangs up on Vodaphone

If we're to believe the Daily Star, disappointing album sales have led to Gnarls Barkley dropping their Vodaphone TBA gig in Edinburgh in order to, erm, go out and promote the new album.

Take a hike, Ike: Calls for Turner to be dropped from fest

Campaigners against domestic violence are calling for organisers of the Edinburgh Jazz festival to withdraw an invitation to Ike Turner. Because of the wife-beating, not because he's not a jazz musician:

A spokeswoman for the charity [Shakti Women's Aid] said: “It’s well known that he abused Tina Turner when they were married, so I really don’t think he should be allowed to come and play here.

“Having someone who has admitted that he is a domestic abuser sends out completely the wrong message.”

Ike, of course, has been very precise in his admission of violence, insisting he never beat Tina:

“Sure, I've slapped Tina . . . there have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her.”

We're sure that as she lay on the floor, having been punched to the ground, Tina was thankful for the semantic nicety.

Brian Fallon, chair of the festival, is minded to keep Turner on the bill:

“Some will have their reservations about us featuring a man of his reputation in the festival and I can understand that.

“But Ike has paid his dues. He remains a formidable artist – he recently won a Grammy award – and we are confident that he will sell out the Queen’s Hall,” he said.

We're sure that when the Women's Aid centre has it explained to them that, yes, he might have beaten women up, but that won't affect his ability to sell out quite a large venue, they'll withdraw their objections in a moment.

Expanding fringe

T on The Park's Edinburgh festival spin-off T On The Fringe has announced that Johnny Borrell and the Razorlights will join the Foo Fighters and Kaiser Chiefs topping off nights in the capital this August.