Edinburgh's record shop Vinyl Villains has taught me two things, firstly how to spell 'Villains' and secondly that you can have a name that suggests you are not going to pay the best prices for used records or indeed put out stock that people might view as in keeping with any kind of real-world pricing structure and people wont care.
Not that I am suggesting that the walls of Vinyl Villains are covered with outrageously over-priced records in the style of Notting Hill Music and Video Exchanges 'Deletions' department for a second. It wasn't the cheapest shop I've ever been in but I certainly didn't come away with the kind of 'sticker shock' that can haunt your dreams after visiting certain other establishments like Beano's of Croydon for example (rest it's soul). I gave up going long before it closed it's doors due to the extra zeros and stray digits that seemed to appear in the strangest of places.
Anyway, why I like this shop: The shop front is unapologetic like a German high-street tanning salon but only with a Lake of Dracula theme. They had a Harvest records t-shirt for sale (see above) that I would have bought had the green not been a shade that makes me look drained and ever so slightly anaemic. The owner was friendly enough. He was otherwise engaged for most of my visit but the conversation I overheard was top notch record shop style banter, the kind of thing that means you can come away having learnt something rather than being insulted because you don't 'get' Bob Dylan's 'Street Legal'.
What I didn't like about this shop: New reissues in the racks with originals, no second hand only area meaning it's hard to focus.
Regardless, had this page got some kind of rating system in place so that the occasional reader could ascertain whether or not a shop was worth visiting and assuming said scale worked on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being: Utter fucking rubbish and 10 being: Pre-Ebay Amoeba Records San Francisco I'd give Vinly Villains a wholly reputable 5.
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