The Record Store and Black Music – Watch the trailer for the new documentary

Bluebird Records, Photo by David Corio

The Record Store and Black Music is a major new project that explores the cultural impact of UK independent record stores that specialised in Black music from 1950 onwards, will be released in time for Black History Month 2024.

Contributors include Trevor Nelson, Marcia Carr, Claudia Wilson, Ammo Talwar MBE, DJSS, DJ Rap, Jazzie B, DJ Spoony, Wookie and Jeff Smith and Simon Dunmore. Produced by Simon ‘Schooly’ Phillips, the film will premiere at The University of Greenwich on the 26^th October before being screened at independent cinemas, including Leicester’s Phoenix cinema on the 31^st October and will later be released online.

“A lot of us (DJs) kind of started at the same time and we all kind of grew together. Some I would just see in the record shops fighting over records or whatever. Hustling to try and get the latest import – actually, we don’t have that anymore. I miss that. We don’t have that kind of community where you just hang out and chill. Like I could spend hours in the record shop just chilling – there was a certain happiness, like a joviality to just being in as a punter and seeing certain regulars coming in again. I’d never thought of it like that before, but they were actually really good meeting hubs.” – Wayne C. McDonald – Newcastle

“There were very few women in these spaces. I remember a girl called Maria, she and I worked at Unity Records. And that was in the mid 90s. One or two women would come in, but again, it’s just very unusual to find us in those spaces. It’s just always guys. It’s like Willy Wonka finding the golden ticket to get the opportunity to be working in those stores. I saw as a privilege. And it was like a rite of passage almost for me, because not anybody could get a job in those stores. So that’s why I enjoyed the moment. The pay was crap, though. I used to get paid in records. Not actual wages, records. Get paid in records. And then if I did get paid some wages, I’d use my wages to buy more records. I just thought ‘I need this tune that’s in the brown paper bag under the counter’.” Marcia Carr – London

The documentary film is part of a wider project, which will also deliver a website, book, podcast series and KS3 education pack. Check out the official site for the film.

2Funky Arts Director Vijay Mistry said, “This has been our first national project, and we have been thrilled by the response – interviewing around 80 people and digging deep into this history. 2Funky Arts grew from 2Funky Records (1997-2012) – a specialist Black music store in Leicester, with an international reputation. So, we have first-hand experience of these shops as cultural powerhouses.”