A while ago, I wrote a poem about the experience of buying records in shops, as a kind of post-streaming, tribute to the irreplaceable, tactile, sensory atmosphere of physical stores. The poem ‘Unfulfilled Playlist’ has now been published on Wild Court: you can read it there:
https://wildcourt.co.uk/unfulfilled-playlist-a-poem-by-matt-gilbert/

When I was growing up, you really had to work to get hold of your music. I remember hearing Wonderful World on a Levi’s ad – the famous bath one – and embarked on a mini-odyssey around Bristol record shops in an attempt to track it down. 

Bristol then had lots of independent record shops; such as Disc N’ Tape, Tony’s, Plastic Wax, plus WH Smiths, Woolworths, HMV, Our Price etc. Park Street in particular, running up to the university had loads – every other shop then seemed to be a book or record shop. Now it’s mostly bars or coffee shops. At the top, on the Triangle, was Revolver, immortalised in Richard King’s book – Original Rockers.

My own 2011 tribute to it, as a nerdy, nervous would-be customer, can be found here – on this very blog. 

Hope you enjoy the poem.