Andys: a vital force in retail. (mw comment).

Last week was a truly sad one for British music retailing. Aside from the tragic news about Garry Nesbitt, the confirmation that Andy Gray's Andys Records was going into administration provided a chilling sign of the times.

Just four years ago, Andy Gray was picking up a Music Week Award for best independent retailer, for the sixth successive year. How things change.

As a young lad growing up in East Anglia, Andys played a particularly crucial role in my own musical development. Some 20 years after the event, I vividly recall the exciting, musty smell of vinyl--brand new and second hand--in Andys stores in Bury St Edmonds and Colchester.

They were among my first experiences of buying music and shaped my enthusiasm for the business we are in. Indeed, they provided an exciting environment for all developing music fans.

In these days of file-sharing and downloads, when the cool guy in the class is the one who has just burned the new Metallica album--or not, as it happens--it is easy to forget that there was a time when the kid who has just bought the latest Smiths album was the one with most credibility points.

The debt that the industry owes to chains such as Andys--both over the past 30 years and ...