Do you love vinyl? I do. So do all the people in this DVD. This documentary is really a love letter to the format. It's an interesting time capsule or timeline, too. You see, the story behind this might be as interesting as the video itself. A gentleman named Graham Jones wrote a book in 2009 titled “Last Shop Standing: Whatever happened to Record Stores?," and it was about the final days of the record store. That book became the basis of a documentary film of the same name.

Fast forward to 2019. Surprisingly enough, ten years later, vinyl really took off in popularity again. New record stores were popping up like crazy. So, Jones wrote a new book that goes under the name, “The Vinyl Revival and The Shops That made It Happen." The same person who did the first documentary (Pip Piper) created this one to go along with that book.

The video centers around interviews with shop owners, music historians, musicians (most notably Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Radiohead's Philip Selway) and music fans (of course, all the aforementioned people fit into that category, too). Suitably, the interviews take place in and around record stores. There is quite a bit of footage from Record Store Day (my favorite holiday) 2018 - so, apparently the video and book were done simultaneously. I highly recommend this for anyone with a love of music, and vinyl in particular. It should be noted that, appropriate for a documentary based on the love of a physical medium, this DVD comes with a short little booklet. That's a rarity with videos these days, and a nice touch.

The end of the video showed the future of vinyl and the independent record store appearing rosy. Given where the world is now, I'm not sure how those predictions appear. I don't think anyone really can predict where business will be going (particularly in-person business) in the new world. However, I would not bet against vinyl.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2020  Volume 3. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.