Scotland on Sunday: “As unexpected a pleasure as finding a mint pressing of the Stones’. Their Satanic Majesties in a WRI jumble sale.” ****
December 1st, 2011 | Published in Reviews
“For most people, pop music is merely pop music. Catchy songs on the radio, an assortment of groups on your digital player. But for other people, pop music is defining and addictive, and some of them shop at Sound It Out, the last record store in Stockton-on-Tees. “There’s an HMV,” acknowledges counter assistant David Laybourne, “but we don’t really count that as a record shop.”
The store is a sanctuary for the collectors, obsessives and regulars who drop in to rifle through its stacks; its owner, Tom, knows where on Nancy Sinatra CD lies amongst thousands of unruly rock riffs and is, unusually for a indie music shop owner, pretty non-judgemental about customer satisfaction, even handing over Dire Straits without editorialising on the choice. They are also diplomatic when presented with a stack of battered LPs for possible resale (“Too well loved”). Other boxes are rejected as too obviously stolen.
Director Jeanie Finlay has crafted something as personal and archaic as the Sound It Out customer service, contrasting the hard-knock exteriors of the north-east with the warmth inside the shop. Customers include a Status Quo obsessive who wants to be buried in a coffin of melted vinyl, two articulate metal heads and a suicidal teen. As unexpected a pleasure as finding a mint pressing of the Stones’. Their Satanic Majesties in a WRI jumble sale.”
