At the Banquet Table
In the past decade we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the way that we consume music. We take for granted our favourite artists and the fact that they’ll keep cranking out tunes for the love of doing it or that they’ll continue touring for the love of the fans. It also seems that there are more bands out there than people who solely listen to music thanks to the internet, which made it so simple to put our own stuff out, into the world and promote it just as easily.
Obviously, this trend is going to continue and has spelled the end for some of the largest, corporate record stores in the world. However, this direction is also a blessing in disguise for smaller record stores that seemed to be on their way out in the early 2000’s. They’ve embraced the cultural shift, taken advantage of the demise of the huge record store and have re-invented themselves to be hugely relevant to the local music scene once again.
When you think of South West London, live music hotspot probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, thanks to the tireless efforts of Banquet Records in Kingston upon Thames, some of the most entertaining and more importantly, intimate gigs going on in London tend to happen there.
By intimate I mean the hugely popular, in store appearances by fairly big name, international touring bands that stop by the shop as a place to promote a new album and play to a group of fans without beefing security guys and a guard rail in between. Although these gigs take place regularly, one such show that really sticks out in my head was the April 9th appearance of Manchester Orchestra who stopped by during their UK tour to promote their new album, COPE. Equally impressive is the record label that they run under the same name, featuring new albums, UK releases such as Basingstoke’s Canterbury as well as overseas acts like Philadelphia PA’s Modern Baseball.
Wherever you are in London, there’s no reason not to support your local record store. It’s so easy to look for music online but unlike the local pubs we’re all disappointed to see disappearing from our communities, record shops have been able to make a small come back and it’s our fault. Let’s keep up the support, the good faith, the loyalty and attend these shows and buy these albums for something to have and to hold instead of just an mp3 file on iTunes. Let’s be music fans.
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