Today, Saturday, will mark the end of an era as Stroud’s oldest record store closes its doors for the final time.
Trading Post, in Kendrick Street, can trace its history back 47 years, and for the past 23 years has been run by Simon Vincent. On Friday afternoon friends Tom Berry, who runs Sound Records, and Sean Roe and his wife Ritsuko Hidaka from Klang Tone Records made a surprise presentation of a cake in the shape of a record player.
“Simon’s the longest-serving record shop owner in town, so we wanted to mark his departure in style, so we thought a record player cake would be a fitting memory,” explained Tom.
Simon said: “I’m absolutely blown away by it – and slightly emotional, as I’m sure I will be for the next 24 hours – but these guys are great, and Stroud is very lucky to have Tom and Sean doing what they’re doing, so Stroud’s going to be fine for records, that’s for sure.”
Tom and Sean established Sound Records in Stroud in 2018 in Gloucester Street: “Simon was incredibly supportive to Sean and myself when we started selling records and really encouraged us and supported us and we’ve always appreciated that so we wanted to say thanks,” added Tom.
The sponge base of the cake was made by Janette Brain from Loganberry, and the record player design was completed by Ritsuko, using fondant to model the parts of the machine. Sean has also made a number of seven-inch singles into personalised notes for Simon.
“Customers of Sound Records and Klang Tone Records have been writing personal messages on the singles and we’re going to present those to Simon,” added Sean.
Simon will still be a part of Stroud and plans to have a presence at The Sub Rooms and continue selling records online through his eBay shop, Facebook page and www.tradingpostrecords.com.
