By Lina Arshad
Music-lovers will be celebrating the expansion of Leeds’ longest standing record store this week.
Jumbo Records has been situated in the St John’s Centre since 1988, and is moving back to the Merrion Centre where it was based from 1974.
The move will begin on Saturday after the regular closing hours and it will re-open on Wednesday in their new Merrion store above The Key Club concert venue.
Manager Adam Gillison said: “We’ve been thinking for a while that it was maybe time for us to make a move to somewhere different, a bit bigger and somewhere we could put our own stamp on it really.”
Mr Gillison believes that the developments included as part of the move can be made because of a positive link between streaming music online and record sales.
He said: “It’s a mixed blessing really. For a long time, the natural thing was to see downloads and streaming as the opposite of what we do but I think now people’s opinions and certainly our opinion is that these things can live side by side.
“For lots of people the process of streaming is a way of hearing stuff before you go out and buy it.”
Despite the change of scenery, Mr Gillison stressed that the company want to preserve much of the original feel and values of the shop.
He said: “We like it as it is in a lot of ways and we think our customers do as well so the majority of the racks are going to be the same and lots of the fixtures will too.
“There are some things that won’t really be any use for the new shop so we’re going to try and recycle them so there’ll be some sort of unusual references to the old shop in the new shop.”
Jumbo have high hopes when it comes to the new store, expecting it to be a lot busier, more exciting and more vibrant.
The company will also be collaborating with The Key Club on the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day which will be held on Saturday 22nd April to bring a range of diverse live bands to the concert venue.
The move will not disrupt Jumbo Records’ ticket ordering service and any tickets purchased from them will still reach the customer as normal.