Death Of An Institution (s)

Throughout our rather short life span (we haven't even approached our first birthday yet!) Si's Sights And Sounds has sought to bring you the best from the City Of Culture 2013. But for every rise, there's a fall...

As a cultural rebirth takes place in other parts of town, a death takes place in another. For every new coffee house, sports store, exhibition or train line that opens, or re-opens, there's a HMV that closes.

Few may bat an eyelid, let alone shed a tear, at this news, especially in the days of modern online shopping. Sad as it is that the friendly and accommodating HMV staff are losing their place of work, the advent of Kindles, iTunes and Amazon have contributed to an unassailable decline, even a near-death, in regular, traditional retail marketing. Why travel to buy expensive records when you can do it more cheaply from the comfort of your own home?

Yet there is undeniable sympathy for the HMVs of this world, especially from the generation that grew up with them - and the Virgins. These were the major record stores that gave us our first and arguably best insight to the music and film universe - without them, we may never have developed such large and varied vinyl, tape, CD, VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray collections. I can still remember being overawed by my first visit to the Virgin Megastore in Birmingham, UK, in 1993 - everything I needed or wanted to know about entertainment was under one roof. The excitement and memories the Virgin Megastores and HMVs gave us - it didn't matter whether you were buying a product or standing there listening to your favourite song - will never be forgotten. These institutions were more than just a job for those who worked in them - they created all sorts of friendly and audio-visual memories that online retail cannot touch. When you hear Gotye's "Giving Me A Chance" play over the speakers in the rapidly emptying Derry HMV, it makes you wish that the powers-that-be would give the staff another chance...

But we must also admit that the writing has been on the wall for high street music retailers for years. The prices they charged - nearly twenty years ago, a CD cost me around £15 - sound extortionate now, especially in this very tough economic climate. With hindsight, Richard Branson's decision to leave his Virgin Megastores in the hands of their management several years ago - remember how suddenly all the stores were renamed Zavvi? - seems an extremely wise one. The way things are going, who's to say that Waterstones - the likes of which we will probably never see in Derry - won't suffer the same fate as Our Price, Virgin and now HMV?

It is now left for Cool Discs to become both the Championship Vinyl - you have seen High Fidelity, right? - and the major record retailer of Derry-Londonderry by themselves. And while I am certain they will do a great job of it, you do wonder and worry about what HMV's demise will eventually mean for Lee Mason's popular store.

As I leave HMV and stroll out into the frozen Derry streets again, I look across the road and notice that another "institution" is on the verge of closure, a place I bought some really good shirts from.

And I think to myself: For fcuk's sake, it never ends...