Music fans mourn Selectadisc

JIM Cooke reckons the first album he ever bought in Selectadisc was either some early Zeppelin or the first Black Sabbath album.

That was in 1969, when the shop had just found its first permanent home in The Meadows after starting life as a stall in Mansfield marketplace. Mr Cooke never really left.

"I've worked here for just over 30 years," he explained. "I've been a customer for about 40."

By the end of March, however, he'll need a new plan. The music store that has championed new and independent music for four decades will close at the end of the month.

If you're from Nottingham and you really love your music, there's a good chance you've got at least one story about an amazing find or favourite album you picked up at Selectadisc. Before he starred as Gavin of Gavin & Stacey fame, actor Mathew Horne was a music-loving kid from Burton Joyce.

"My fondest memory was picking up a limited-edition clear vinyl copy of In Utero by Nirvana the Saturday before the Monday release," he said. "Incredible. A very sad day when it closes."

It's a sad day that the shop's owner has been putting off for as long as possible, but that finally became unavoidable.

"We've been trying to avoid this for two years," said owner Phil Barton, who bought the shop two years ago when closure loomed.

"The shop has been basically uneconomic for the last two years. We've been trying to keep it going more as a social service than as a normally functioning business.

"There comes a point where you just say 'I cannot do this any more.' Unfortunately people are consuming their music in different ways and they are not using independent music shops in the same way. Ninety-five per cent of the traded music in the world is trading for free on-line."

Mr Cooke has been looking for smaller locations where a stripped-down version of shop – Mr Barton will allow him to use the Selectadisc name – could be set up.

"We started small and we got bigger and bigger," Mr Cooke said. "If it ends up going back to a market, well, nothing's lost, is it."

In the meantime, they want to give the much-loved business the final weeks it deserves.

"We're going to be running it until the end of March and hopefully giving it a dignified send-off," Mr Barton said. "I want to close it with dignity, and I want people to remember Selectadisc as a fantastic place, not something that went out with a whimper."