Last Shop Standing (film)

Last Shop Standing was based on the 2009 book Last Shop Standing by Graham Jones.[1][2][3] In 2012, Blue Hippo Media approached Jones about turning the book into a movie. A few days later, they met at a pub having bought Jones a beer and a Ploughman's lunch while he agreed to the idea. To finance the film, the makers posted a clip online informing people they were making a documentary on record shops and asked those interested to invest $25 to receive an advanced DVD copy of the film as well as a "thank you" credit in the end credits.[4] For the film, Jones toured England, Scotland and Wales for interviews with independent record shop owners.[5] Director Pip Piper said he visited record shops every weekend in his early teens in the 1970s.[6] In 2016, the same producers of the film created a documentary film on Norwegian dance music.[7]

The film focuses on an analyses of music sales in the United Kingdom.[8] In the 1970s, there were more than three hundred millions records sold.[9] In the 1980s, there were in the United Kingdom around 2,200 independent record shops. By 2012, however, there were only 269.[10][11][12][9] The film primarily blames the music industry as well as the new competing media of cassettes and compact discs.[10][9] Multiple independent record shop owners cited the advent of CDs as the end of the boom period for record shops.[13] The film includes interviews with Billy Bragg,[14][15][3] Norman Cook,[5][14][3] Richard Hawley,[5][14][3] Smiths' Johnny Marr,[5][14][15][3] and Paul Weller.[5][10][8][15] Record shops featured in the film include Brighton and Hove record shops as Borderline,[3] Chesterfield's C.E. Hudsons,[6] Birmingham's the Diskery,[16] Rounder Records (where Norman Cook worked),[3][6] Rough Trade,[10] and Sister Ray.[10] Rounder Records owner David Minns was interviewed for the film.[17]

The Last Shop Standing soundtrack was donated by independent bands and musicians like Clara Luzia, Half Man Half Biscuit, and the James Clarke 5.[4]

Last Shop Standing has received critical acclaim from around the world.[15] Il Fatto Quotidiano's Chiara Felice described the film as "interesting."[11] Gazeta Wyborcza's Robert Sankowski reviewed it favourably with "[m]uch better than any story."[10] Le Soir's Didier Stiers called the movie "good."[22] Wonderland's Zing Tsjeng remarked the film was "a love song to the British independent record shop (as well as its surprising resurrection)."[6]

The stories and shops in the Last Shop Standing film partly inspired the Vinyl Revival Record Shop Podcast.[23]

• Last Shop Standing at IMDb