Tower Records Feature at Dawson St, Dublin on February 27th 2014-05Tower Records has been a music lovers den for over twenty years. The old shop was tucked away at the foot of Wicklow Street beside high end department stores like Weirs and Brown Thomas. The bright red and yellow signage and colourful window displays beckoned like a finish line to shoppers struggling to dodge the ever present charity workers prowling outside. Once inside the store, customers landed in a punky, vibrant, musical safe haven.

The ceilings were low and the colours were bold and customers were typically greeted by the sound of an obscure rock masterpiece wafting from the sound system; a selection by one of the in-the-know staff. The downstairs section was dedicated to pop and rock with a first-rate selection of vinyls and pop culture magazines housed at the back.

A slightly rickety, blue iron staircase led the way to the film floor which was home to a wide range of international movies and music documentaries. There was an extensive jazz and classical department located to the left of the stairs that always seemed particularly calm and serene compared to the rest of the shop.

Over the years many Irish record stores such as Golden Discs and HMV came and went (and then came back again) while Tower Records remained consistently successful in its approach. In recent years, Sound Bites, was introduced to the first floor, as well as a shoe section and an increase of merchandise and books.

Initially Dubliners were slightly alarmed to read that Tower Records would be moving out of Wicklow Street to be replaced by COS. Once the first waves of panic and nostalgia subsided, though, it became clear that the shop was not closing down or falling victim to economic pressures.

Tower was, in fact, moving onwards and upwards to a bigger premises just a stones throw away. The former Waterstones building on Dawson Street would now play home to Ireland’s biggest and most successful record store.

The new building has a dark decor with striking black walls and red stripes. Those who loved the old shop should feel right at home in these new premises. There are nooks and crannies to be explored as well as several new additions to the Tower Family.

Sound Bites is back, bigger and better than ever before, but is no longer the only external entity in the store. Clony Audio, specialists in Hi-Fi audio equipment, and Smash Labs, a phone and laptop repair shop, have both taken up residence in the store.

We spoke to Tower Records manager David about the shop, about their infamous in-store performances and about expansion and challenges in the current music market.

Tower Records Feature at Dawson St, Dublin on February 27th 2014-02

How was Tower Records first set up in Dublin?

It was originally set up with the shops in the States but then became independant about ten years ago. It’s been totally independently run from then on and we had nothing to do with them when Tower went bust in the States. It’s our 21st birthday this year and it was our 20th birthday in the old shop.

What caused the move and why did you want to pack up everything in the beloved Wicklow Street shop?

We’ve been looking around for a while for decent premises. We basically completely ran out of space in Wicklow Street. We had expanded on Vinyl and Classical and we just reached capacity. Thankfully the Dawson Street location popped up. The whole upstairs section is vinyl and we basically have enough room to expand again if we wanted to. We literally had to box up every single CD and DVD and bring it over but it was worth it in the end.

One of the best things about the move was we totally started from scratch, so we got new racks for everything. The window space is so much bigger so we’ve more opportunity for our art manager Kate to create larger window art.

It’s no secret that record stores internationally have suffered in recent years. How have you managed to maintain longstanding relationships with customers?

To be honest, we’re kind of still doing what we’ve always done. We have basically just expanded our stock, more than we ever had. We haven’t deliberately branched out into anything new to try and combat anything but regular customers have been coming to us for years and we have new customers all the time.

It’s the back catalogue that people are still really interested in. I mean, as I said, the main reason we moved is because we didn’t have the room to stock the amount of music we wanted to. Especially with vinyl. Actually, we’ve always stocked it but it’s ever expanding and it has just blown up over the last few years. It’s great.

The café is also up and running. It’s gorgeous. It’s still the same feel as in the old shop but the menu is a bit more expansive. I was lucky enough to try a bit of everything the other day.

Tell me a little bit about the new additions to the store in Dawson Street.

Down the back we have Smash Labs, a phone and laptop repair centre. We also have Clony Audio, they’re specialists in audio equipment and it’s proved really popular so far. They really know what they’re talking about and it’s great to have them.

Over the years Tower Records welcomed a wide range of acts for in-stores including the likes of Tegan and Sara, Bjork and Stereophonics to name but a few. What was your favourite?

Oh, good question. I think Donovan was probably my favourite. He did one not too long ago and stuck around to chat to everyone and sign autographs. There were a few people that came in a day or two after, and they kept asking ‘Was it a Donovan cover band in?’ [laughs].

Will this be an element you would like to maintain in the new shop on Dawson Street?

We don’t have a stage area in the new shop but yeah we’re definitely going to keep it up. We’re going to have in-stores around the shop and in the cafe. We can do it around the shop wherever we want now. We’ll have film screenings and book signings as well as other bits and bobs. It’s basically the old Tower from Wicklow Street but new and shiney.

We at GoldenPlec are very excited about the new shop and wish the team at Tower Records all the best with their future endeavours.

Tower Records Feature at Dawson St, Dublin on February 27th 2014-01

Tower Records – Wicklow Street Photo Gallery
Photos: Sean Conroy

Tower Records Dawson Street Photo Gallery
Photos: Shaun Neary