Happy Birthday Swordfish Records!

I forget exactly when I first went into Swordfish Records but it was during its time in Needless Alley and I'm guessing it was 1985/86...yes...I know. For almost the next three decades, barring my three years in Brighton, I popped in most weekends spending many happy hours (and pounds) trawling through the racks or chewing the musical fat with Gaz and Mike. Today Swordfish celebrates its 40th birthday and (being based in Devon these days) I'm gutted that I can't be there in person to toast its history, present and...fingers crossed...future. One of the last times I was there was for Record Store Day 2015 featuring Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls which, handily enough, someone filmed (you can just about make me out as the camera pans across the crowd towards the end). Enjoy! And support your local record store.

PS: It's becoming increasingly difficult to recall what the world was like back before the bloody internet, quite possibly the worst thing to have happened to the human race since the bubonic plague (yep, I'm aware of the irony of writing these words on the bloody internet), but back then we actually went out to buy stuff from shops...shops that employed hundreds of thousands of people, created vibrant high streets and fostered a sense of community that's rapidly vanishing. To listen to your music of choice you had to buy it, in turn giving bands and performers the dosh they needed to do their thang. Now...now...I can listen to anything ever recorded for free from the comfort of my pit and do you know what...it doesn't mean shit. I don't mean the music by the way, I mean this bottomless pit of music. Give a thirsty man a glass of water and it will taste like nectar,  pour 50 gallons down his throat and he'll quite possibly never want to drink again. Yes, I appreciate that being able to listen to new stuff can broaden musical tastes but that's what places like Swordfish used to do and, as a result, discovering a new band or artist felt like something special. Clicking on a screen doesn't. End of story. Thankfully some people still want to own a physical thing and hopefully places like Swordfish, rare as they are these days, will survive though. For the sake of our musical culture I really hope so.