We're Open!

So here's our first weekly newsletter.

Morning. Gary here.

Yes, indeed; last Friday Grinning Soul Records threw open our doors to the general public (well, this is Monmouth so it was more of a dignified unlocking than a “throwing” of the doors). It’s been a while since a newsletter has gone out, because frankly, we’ve been crazy busy. Not just with the shop, which was a great place to be on the opening day and the Saturday — we made lots of friends, had lots of great conversations about music, and even sold a few records (let’s not forget why we’re here, folks). It was a very encouraging first weekend.

There’s so much more to come from us, and the shelves are filling more every day with magnificent, beautiful vinyl albums, new and second-hand, of all types, from Hip Hop to Classical, from movie soundtracks to albums actually recorded in Monmouth (we even sold a John Denver Greatest Hits the other day).

The most important thing to say is, the people of Monmouth (and beyond) have been enormously supportive and enthusiastic of Grinning Soul Records. Over the first few days of opening, in fact, we were honoured with a deluge of mayoral stock (what is the collective noun for mayors? I’m going with “a chain of mayors”, but any better suggestions — or, indeed, the correct answer — you can pop them in the comments below). We had mayor David Evans visit us, deputy mayor Jackie Atkins a short while after (and she bought a cracking Last Poets album), and we were doubly honoured that former mayor Tom Kirton became our first customer — nobody will ever be able to that away from you, Tom.

In future, when things settle down a bit, we’ll be offering up plenty of recommendations and spotlights for records we have in the shop. The coming weeks will also see the launch of our website, and lots of other exciting things.

For now, if you have records you want us to get for you (we can source new presses, and turn detective if you’re looking for something rare and old) you can email us on enquiries@grinningsoulrecords.com.

But don’t be shy — you can come and visit us in the shop now.

7 White Swan Court, Monmouth NP25 3NY

We’re open 10am-5pm every day apart from Sunday and Monday when we’re closed, unless we get a spurt of energy and open up for the fun of it. You can always keep up with our erratic behaviour on our social media — we’re currently on instagram and Facebook.

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We’ll also be putting in this newsletter things that have spiked our interest and might be of interest to you. Such as this article from the good people at Discogs, correcting some misinformation put out earlier this year about the dip in vinyl sales. It starts like this…

Starting on October 14, 2024, news outlets including Yahoo and NME reported that year-over-year, the U.S. vinyl market was down 33 percent. The data for these articles came from a weekly report from Billboard called “Market Watch,” which automatically updates with data provided by the company Luminate. Amid the vinyl revolution, this news signified a shift in buyer habits: a sales decline among vinyl for the first time in 17 years. 

On October 15, Discogs contacted Chris Muratore, director of partnerships at Luminate, who confirmed that the reported data is incorrect. Vinyl sales are actually up 6.2 percent. Billboard has since added language to their “Market Watch” report, clearing up the error. 

And you can read the rest of it here.

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And finally this week, here’s a little playlist for your weekend, a taster of what we’ve been listening to in the shop, from new music from Goat, acoustic stuff from The Last Dinner Party, and classics from the likes of Mike Heron and John Mayall (all of it available from Grinning Soul Records).