A place for vinyl vibes A new sanctuary for record lovers opens

• Published date: 11 April 2024
• Author: Stuart Whitaker
• Publication title: Te Puke Times

When they were running Te Puke’s Marigold Cafe, one of the couple’s few recreational activities was hunting for records

“When we had the cafe, probably our one outing was, we’d be going vinyl shopping,” says Angela.

Now the cafe has new owners and they are about to become vinyl sellers with Blackbird Records at 132 Jellicoe St opening tomorrow.

While the shop will also sell CDs and possibly a few “little gifty things as well as a few plants” its mainstay will be new and second-hand records.

Angela says they felt the time was right to open the shop because of the increasing popularity of records.

“I don’t know if it’s since Covid and people have gone back to appreciating basic things in life, but people seem to want to have physical copies of music again,” she says.

“If you love an album and you buy it, if you look after it, you’ve got it forever.

“I think it’s maybe a tactile thing - you have the covers and you can read the books.”

“It’s also a wide range of people [buying records], young and old,” says Justin.

Their children, Eliza and Murphy, have also been involved in setting up the new shop.

“Both our kids have quite big vinyl collections,” says Angela.

It has helped with deciding what to sell.

“We listen to classic rock mostly. We veer off into a little bit of other stuff, but I always think we listen to mainstream music, but both our children are involved and that brings what the younger generation is listening to as well.”

But there is more to buying music than just going into a shop, finding what you want and handing over the cash. Justin and Angela hope their shop becomes a destination.

They plan to create a lounge area where people can relax and listen on headphones and a separate listening room “where people can close the door and sit and listen properly”.

“That’s the fun thing too. People who like music - I know we do - just enjoy going to the shop and you can spend a couple of hours in there, so it’s like the social aspect of it as well and we want to have somewhere where people can...