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Track Records closing down

8:30am Friday 15th June 2007

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IT'S the end of the track.

Track Records, the independent York shop on which three generations of youth have converged for their top-of-the-charts hits, is to close its doors in Goodramgate - defeated by the internet downloading revolution.

"People simply are not passing through the doors," said owner Keith Howe, who in January closed his Doncaster branch with the loss of five jobs after sustaining a year's losses.

Now he will make another six redundant, including himself.

He plans to call in the liquidators within six weeks to formulate the exact extent of debt, but reckons he owes about £100,000.

His house in Boroughbridge Road, put up as collateral on a loan, is already on the market.

Mr Howe said he hoped insolvency would mean the personal guarantees to suppliers would be honoured.

Only last May, ten truckloads of stock and office equipment were transferred to the Goodramgate shop from High Ousegate, where it was based for 15 years.

It is a particular tragedy for 47-year-old Mr Howe, who said: "This business has been my whole life."

He first sold jukebox seconds on York's Newgate Market in his schooldays, before opening his shop, aged 19, in a dry cleaner's premises, in Fossgate, in April 1979.

Track Records then moved to the Coppergate Centre, in 1985, and High Ousegate, in May 1992.

The boom for Track Records and other record shop retailers reached its peak in 1996, but now, said Mr Howe, the industry was on its knees as websites and supermarkets undercut dedicated record retailers.

He said: "Anyone downloading a top album from play.com does not have to pay VAT, because it is based in the Channel Islands.

"Customers can get it, postage paid, for about £8.97, whereas it costs me about £9, that is £7.68 plus VAT, before I can think about making a profit - and that amounts to pennies.

"Most kids are downloading. Our student population in York is expanding, but I see very little evidence of it. There seems to have been a massive exodus of younger people aged from 12 to 24."

Mr Howe claimed, he was not alone, with many of the high street stores suffering, including HMV which had announced 100 redundancies after profit warnings.

The likes of Amazon, play.com and Tesco supermarket were taking their toll, he said. "It's the new reality of the market place," he said.

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Your Say YourYork Press

A user, Selby says...
9:03am Fri 15 Jun 07

This is a shame. I frequented this establishment when I was a kid and the help they gave was second to none. Blame the likes of computer download programs such as LIMEWIRE & KAZAA to name a couple for the problem. These programs allow users to download music & other content from one PC to another free and 99% of the time illegally. I wish you luck Mr Howe and thank you for helping me and thousands of others find music other shops were unable to do so.

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Mark, Tadcaster says...
9:03am Fri 15 Jun 07

A great shame. I spent many an hour (and £) in Track when it was based in Fossgate and still have boxes of vinyl and cassettes stuck away up in the loft. Good luck Keith.

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oldgoat, York says...
9:29am Fri 15 Jun 07

Another York icon passes!
I remember many hours spent in the Fossgate shop, and loved the fact that I could order obscure foreign imports that no-one else could (or would) get their hands on.

Good luck Keith - you deserve the best!

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tricky ricky, malton says...
9:50am Fri 15 Jun 07

it is such a shame.never again will we see such gatherings of uber geeks. what waqs it with that shop that made everyone look like nerds

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Jim Jones, JT says...
9:57am Fri 15 Jun 07

Hmmm, for shame, however times change and the big multinationals combined with internet downloading were always gonna force the Track records of this world out of business.

I count myself among those people who probably haven't shopped at Track because of other methods of obtaining music, and it makes me feel slightly guilty as a result, man, I still have albums and stuff I bought from the first shop and spent many a happy hour in the basement shop at coppergate.

Damd shame, maybe he can make a living on internet trading, I doubt it with everyone cutting each others prices.

Shame :(

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Jimbob, York says...
10:21am Fri 15 Jun 07

Track was a great shop. I visited it from it's days in Coppergate to the present day.

Thanks to all the staff over the years for a great service. You will be missed.

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topumpire1, York says...
11:07am Fri 15 Jun 07

What a shame, I also visited the shop regularly (less so now as cash is aty a premium) but Goodramgate is OFF the beaten track (excuse the pun) & has LOST a lot of its passing trade. therefore it is the shops own fault! where are we to get our hard to get albums now? on line? The big shops only sell bland lps!

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fat bloke, York says...
11:18am Fri 15 Jun 07

I too have found many a gem - - I gave up on HMV and Virgin years ago !!They are reluctant even to order discs for you

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Clubmurder, York says...
12:08pm Fri 15 Jun 07

Bum. Good luck to all the guys at track.

It's a real shame that York can't have it's own independent record shop anymore.

HMV and Virgin are basically DVD shops now.

Pants.

Stuart Jones

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Jim Jones, JT says...
12:17pm Fri 15 Jun 07

"Goodramgate is OFF the beaten track "

Have to agree totally with that, I thought Track had gone to the wall a while back actually, I was suprised to say the least when I found it in it's current location as Goodramgate isn't an area of town I often find myself in.

I wonder why it moved, city centre shop rates too high maybe?

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tricky ricky, malton says...
12:21pm Fri 15 Jun 07

I almost opened a shop in Petergate 2 years ago. The rates were going to be £33000 per year on top of a lease of £36000 per year. Rents and rates are far too high for independant shops

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Flan, Strensall says...
12:59pm Fri 15 Jun 07

This is terrible news. Track records has been the No 1 LP/CD shop in York for years. Best of luck to Keith and all his staff. Thanks for the memories!

As a footnote, I think the mp3 digital era has killed music in many ways. The golden days when you would buy an LP gatefold are gone - getting something for your money that was sizebably something! People just copy en masse now.

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chrisa17, York says...
12:59pm Fri 15 Jun 07

Track was wack, the cd's were all ancient as well as the people who workd in there

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Lou, York says...
1:40pm Fri 15 Jun 07

A sad day. In the early to mid 1980's I used to pre-order Iceicle WOrks, Phycidellic Furs, China Crisis to get the special edition covers, even got Orange Juice in the brown bag and the Ultravox coloured disks all in 45's. Never mind the 12 inches such as Blue Monday. Its only shops like this that sell the type of stuff Jogn Peel played - Half Man Half Biscuit and Poison Girls are just a few

Still have them all!

Best wishes to Keith and the staff.

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Jimbob, York says...
1:46pm Fri 15 Jun 07

If you like Metal there's still Hellraiser on Colliergate!

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ske1fr, Umm, York... says...
2:19pm Fri 15 Jun 07

This is a great shame, as I've bought records there, but sadly times change, and my tastes have changed, and now I can only obtain the music I like from Amazon, or other online retailers. They have the 'space' for an almost unlimited range, whereas a High Street shop will always be restricted.

The most interesting thing is this quote from Keith:

"Customers can get it, postage paid, for about £8.97, whereas it costs me about £9, that is £7.68 plus VAT, before I can think about making a profit - and that amounts to pennies."

The record companies still think they can charge these prices to retailers when every other retail market has seen falling prices. Customers know that manufacturing costs have fallen, and who knows where this week's number one CD was actually "pressed"? Although some of the online sellers have been defeated in the courts and forced to raise prices, there can never be the effective cartel on prices that they'd like to impose.

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Jimbo, York says...
2:50pm Fri 15 Jun 07

Yet more of yorks past slips away into history, good luck Keith in whatever you do next

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Dash, York says...
5:30pm Fri 15 Jun 07

A great shame indeed. 28 years ago I first walked into Tracks, bought most of my vinyl collection there. All the hard work Keith put in over the years and this is how it ends for him. All the very best to Keith and the staff for the future, you will be sorely missed.

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kimtortoise, York says...
9:32pm Fri 15 Jun 07

I take your point about Petergate, Tricky Ricky (it is expensive) but if you look at High Petergate particularly, it has nothing but independent shops and restaurants (Monkey Puzzle, Porta Dextra, Image, Little Apple Bookshop, Cafe Concerto), all of which are successful and very well established.

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magicman!, says...
11:05pm Fri 15 Jun 07

this is a combination of lazy shoppers and the council charging too much for city center shops. persons who have limited budgets will go to where they can get music the cheapest. Only the real music buffs will want the hard copies of music, in the CD/vynl case etc rather than just the sound of the music on their pc.
It's about time somebody took a step back and looked at york city center shopping... what is there?
big brand shops get the eyecatching locations. other locations in good places for retail have been lost. those are now Coffe Bars (starbucks, mainly), estate agents, or mobile phone shops. and now Subway is getting in on the act. if we have one (or possibly two) of a certain outlet in the city, we don't need five or six. rates for properties should be exponentially linked to the annual earnings of the buisness occupying the shop... that way independant buisnesses can still trade, and the council gets all the money they want, as they charge the larger retaillers more for their space.

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June, York says...
12:11pm Sat 16 Jun 07

That's what happens when modern technology takes over, it's not always for the better.

I often popped into the shop during my teenage trips into town on a Saturday. You knew that if you asked a question about music that it would be answered with knowledge, enthusiasm and confidence. It was like when we had all the old shops with proper tradesmen that knew their product, today few shop assistants are interested in what they are selling. If you ask anything about a product they read to you from the side of the box as if you are illiterate.

J.

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Golden Brown, Edinburgh says...
2:19pm Thu 9 Aug 07

I'm very sad about the closure of Track Records. It was always my forst port of call when I visited York. I enjoyed having a good rummage through the CD racks and finding an unusual one. The staff were always helpful and friendly whenever I ordered anything by phone. Good luck to Keith and thanks for many happy times in Track Records.
PS Record Collector magazine just isn't the same without the Track and Tonal advert every month!

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Clive Pownceby, Great Crosby says...
10:51am Wed 2 Apr 08

I mailordered and broused whenever I was in York - what a tragedy. How can you love a download? How can you study and learn from a download's sleevenotes? Well I won't be joining the revolution that's for sure.

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Keith Howe outside Track Records Adam Ant performs at Track Records in 1995 Track Records in 1985 Track Records in 1992

Keith Howe outside Track Records

Adam Ant performs at Track Records in 1995

Track Records in 1985

Track Records in 1992



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