Jeanie Finlay’s film-documentary Sound It Out is brilliant. Summing up the varied world of Teesside’s finest vinyl lovers, it’s an awesome feel-good reality about Sound It Out record store, and it’s eclectic customers.
Apart from its content, it’s very comfortably filmed and relaxed. The stars of the show couldn’t be more genuine. The owner of the store Tom who has owned the place for over 17 years inspired me because of his distinct kindness and love for music. The only independent record store in the whole of north-east England is an achievement and a half. It depicted the owners passion and service that you simply don’t get when buying music these days. Now we pay £15 for an album which you personally have to find by some search engine, order through a robot, wait 4 days for delivery, realise you don’t like it, but can’t get a refund because it’s been opened, And people wonder why illegal downloads are killing the industry? However that is besides the point. Every one of his customers mentioned how he was some sort of music jedi, and kept returning because he could give them what they wanted every time. Tom is doing it for the love of music.
My favourite customer of the store was a man whose name escapes me. He was an older man, who liked women, and vinyl, and rock. The one liners and expressions on his face made me wish I knew him. There were a couple of metal heads in their mid teens who adored the store, one of them declaring if it wasn’t for the store he wouldn’t be alive, and the other showing off his crazy hand-embroidered “battle jacket”. A man called Shane who was the biggest Status Quo fan I’ve ever seen, and a reclusive vinyl-junky who made me really happy due to his alphabetical/chronological organising.
Besides all the fun and gags, it did show a more solemn side to Teeside, showing the effects of the recession and love for vinyl depreciation. One fact that Kelly, who worked at the store, said which shocked me was that we have as many independent record shops in the UK as America does. That sounds great for us, but if you think about how many stores we have… It’s insane.
The whole film was based around this record store, but I feel Jeanie’s main point was to illustrate the well-illustrated minds of Teesside, her hometown. Watching this assorted mixture of characters was indeed really comical, but I think these kinds of people are about everywhere and we as a community should embrace that more. This is definitely a must see and I will be spreading the word. In general, especially youthful people, need to be less afraid to speak to others and let go of contacting like-minded people only through social networking sites. Even if they seem a little crazy, chances are they’ve just had a good time in their life right?
By Claudia Waller, Level 3 student in Music Technology
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