Drifting in Totnes

There was a time - back in the 1980s when I was Head of Sound at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre - that I used to list among my hobbies "browsing in record shops". Not so in recent years, with the late departed Virgin/Zavvi and HMV [His Master's VIDEO?] relegating music to small corners of the upstairs floors.

So it was a pleasure to take a break from Christmas shopping in Totnes [twinned with Narnia!] today to call into 2 great independent record stores - Backtrax Records and Drift Records.

Drift Records [a record label as well as a record shop] is at the top of the long hill in Totnes and a chance to catch breath.


Today, they had a grand selection of indie bands from Scotland on display, including Le Reno Amps [on their label so to be expected] but more surprisingly Broken Records [usually engineered live by good friend Kas] and Sparrow and The Workshop, who I caught live earlier this year at Bristol's Theka [supporting the aforementioned Broken Records].


In the backgound, rather than sub-standard Christmas pap [no, not a typo error] was an ethereal voice. Enquiries revealed that this was "East of Eden" buy Taken By Trees - and no, a copy wasn't available for sale, the man behind the counter just liked it. Apparently, singer Victoria Bergsman [former lead singer of The Concretes] is heavily featured singing "Sweet Child of Mine" on the new John Lewis Christmas ad, after it was initially used for the the trailer of Wes Craven's remake of "Last House on the Left".