Music blog

So Woolworths has finally done the honourable thing and decided to close down. This is probably not that upsetting for the Saturday boys and girls whose only real loss will be the lack of "free" Pick N Mix as a Saturday supplement but it will no doubt be distressing to many of the chain's more permanent staff. Of course, our sympathies are with them.

However, for anybody who has an interest in music the end of Woolies is actually a glorious and wonderful thing. For years Woolworths has ruled the roost on the musical, small town High St, putting independent record shops out of business by selling their tapes and CDs at ever so slightly less. If you've ever seen your favourite record shop disappear the news about the demise of Woolworths should be music to your ears.

Now many people would place the blame for the demise of the independent record shop at the feet of the supposedly big hitters - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's etc, the places where people go to pick up the latest Leona Lewis album alongside their weekly supply of Turkey Twizzlers, but that is what Woolworths has always wanted you to think. Woolworths has always given the impression that it is your friend. It talks to people in its friendly, slightly dopey voice saying things like "hi guys, we're a bit messy, like your little sister, but we're actually really nice and we've got loads of stuff in here at really cheap prices. Please be my friend, we're nothing like that evil step-father-tyrant Tesco." Well it's all lies, Woolworths has been a sneaky little bugger for years.

The friendly face act never stopped Woolworths stealing people away from shops where the people were genuinely passionate about music, where there was an actual range of genres and formats and where you could find that single you heard on John Peel's show from that band you and your mates knew were going to be the next big thing. All Woolworths had was an old Kula Shaker single, loads of copies of Shampoo's 'Trouble' and every single CD from Take That, Westlife and Boyzone. That's not to mention the Tupperware, baby clothes and passport photo machine - things that should never be present in the same place where you can also buy CDs!

People might say that with the growth of the internet and downloadable music, the future for independent record shops was numbered many years ago. This may well be true, but Woolworths was gloating in its position as king of the small town High St for many years whilst it crushed your lovable independent store. Which is why there should be no shame in feeling ever so slightly smug if you sometimes miss that grumpy man who didn't say a lot but loved his music in your local, long forgotten record shop.