Record Shop Story #3: Capsule Records, Hove
Could heaven ever be like this? I can't think of many better places to spend Record Store Day than the expertly curated Capsule Records on England's south coast
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The adjoining seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove are not short on either independent record stores or coffee shops. Throw a stone off the pebbly beach and you’ll probably hit one or the other.
So it takes some chutzpah to launch a new record and coffee shop in Hove. But that’s exactly what couple Lawrence and Sarah, and co-founder Simon, did just over a year ago. Capsule Records is the mightily impressive result.
When I dropped in to visit the other Friday, I left with a copy of Idris Muhammad’s 1977 classic, Turn This Mutha Out, and with the chorus from the opening track swimming round my head: ‘Could heaven ever be like this?’
It’s a track that always makes me feel that all is good in the world – coincidentally, the same feeling I had flicking through records in Capsule.
On one level, it’s not doing anything so different to other record shops. It sells new, sealed vinyl – there are no dusty crates to rummage through here.
But it knows how to make buying new vinyl in a bricks and mortar store a seductive experience, and one you’ll want to return to, again and again.
Find out what Capsule is doing and stocking for Record Store Day UK.
Record shop first, coffee shop second
‘The main idea behind the shop is to make new music discovery a joy,’ says co-owner Lawrence Bleach. ‘Music is such a joyful thing, but discovering new music in bricks and mortar shops can sometimes be pretty hard.’
Lawrence wanted to create a record shop that offered something altogether more accessible than his all-too-common past experiences in ‘male-dominated “digging dens”.’
‘We wanted to make being in the shop a joyful experience. So we invested in the fixtures and fittings. The [PMC] sound system we put in is quality – not some dusty speakers on a shelf – so when you walk in, you can hear the music clearly. Which seemed pretty important for a record shop! Then we created the seating space at the back where you can chill out, have a coffee or a beer, or even sit out on the terrace.’
Capsule undoubtedly looks, feels and sounds like a cool place to spend some time, and the flat white Simon knocks up for me from locally roasted Cast Iron beans is tasty. But the store isn’t style over substance. ‘It's definitely a record shop first, in which you can have a coffee,’ says Lawrence, keen to point out that the coffee’s there to augment the vinyl, not the other way around.
Capsule collections
I’m always interested to know the story behind record shops’ names. In this case, it’s central to the way the vinyl is selected for the shop, but also a nod to its history.
‘Before we bought the place, it was a women’s fashion shop for 25 years,’ says Lawrence. ‘And one thing women’s fashion does really well is capsule collections – they make it easy for you to buy outfits that work together. So we started dreaming up this idea of capsule collections for records.
‘Sarah and I spent a lot of time listening to Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM breakfast show during lockdown. About once a week he went through his top 20 albums in a certain genre – records you just know are worth having. That got me thinking about this idea of really heavy curation and assembling records in a way that makes it easy for you to buy great stuff.’
Lawrence, Sarah and Simon have done a superb job of this. I’m visiting a lot of record shops at present, and had to really restrain myself to buying just one bit of vinyl. I could have easily bought twenty.
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