THE NAKED CITY – LAST TANGO IN PITT STREET

THE NAKED CITY – LAST TANGO IN PITT STREET

Record stores have always had a great romance about them – a gathering place for the like-minded to chat about their favourite music, the excitement of discovering something new and exciting and the sheer mental pleasure of browsing through thousands of CDs and old school vinyl.

Whilst they are by no means extinct, and celebrations such as International Record Store Day testify to this, they are certainly an endangered species. One of the major reasons for this, especially in a greed-driven city like Sydney, is the often outrageous cost of real estate. If you are operating an independent record store in the city or just about anywhere in greater Sydney, you are often at the mercy of your landlord and a real estate market that shows no mercy.

Such was the case last week with the closure of Lawsons Records in Pitt Street, one of this city’s longest surviving record shops. The owner Jerry Pasqual was carrying a staggering rent increase from $1,450 to $5,000 a week and whilst the loyal customer base was still there, the overheads simply became too much.

Flashback to the early 60s when Lawsons first began trading and the southern end of Pitt Street, adjacent to the massive edifice of the Anthony Horderns Building, was one of the least glamorous parts of the CBD. Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s it was home to a number of ‘adult’ book stores, skid row accommodation and quirky pop-up style shops. Rents were cheap and one of the legacies was the proliferation of second-hand record shops.

This was Sydney’s ‘record alley’, home to stores such as Martins, Ashwoods, The Pitt and of course Lawsons. Not only did these shops sell largely second-hand vinyl, VHS tapes and later CDs, but they also bought from the general public. If you were short of a quid and prepared to lose a few items from your record collection, you could nearly always convert them to cash at one of these shops. The prices they paid were not particularly rewarding but it was the instant service they provided that kept sellers coming back again and again.

The shops became particularly attractive for music journalists and book reviewers, who often received multiple numbers of new books and CDs as part of their job. What they didn’t want often ended up at Ashwoods and the like, with the publishers and record companies none the wiser.

With their largely second-hand stock, these shops were also a magnet for record collectors who religiously combed the racks looking for that rare or very collectable item. The new stock was often put out overnight and it was not uncommon to find the more zealous record hounds waiting for the doors to open in the morning, ready to attack the crates.

Despite new shops such as Silver Rocket and a second Red Eye store joining the Pitt Street alley, come the new millennium and their numbers began to thin. Ashwoods moved uptown to a new location and Bob Gould took his chaotic jumble of books and records from The Pitt to Goulds Book Arcade in Newtown. Once the World Square complex was developed in the early 2000s, the southern end of Pitt Street underwent a predictable commercial gentrification and rents began to climb.

That Lawsons was able to survive for an incredible 55 years is testimony to the enthusiasm and business acumen of its owner Jerry Pasqual and a very loyal customer base, many of whom began shopping there when it first opened, in a smaller store just across the road. It might have been an anachronism in the world of streaming and Spotify but it was part of the true fabric of Sydney – a much-loved institution.

The demise of Lawsons is yet another sad loss for a city that is becoming increasingly soulless, stripped of its history and cultural identity. As rents skyrocket it seems there is no longer a place for the small independent retailer and the city faces the prospect of becoming one large amorphous Pitt Street Mall, dominated by global brands, Kafkaesque style food halls and multi-storey shopping complexes.

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