Across the Local TV network, we’re visiting some of the oldest landmarks in the city, and while some cities will boast centuries old castles, pubs and buildings, nowhere else can claim what Cardiff has: the world’s oldest record store.
00:01We were established in 1894, so we've been continuously selling music in all that time.
00:07So from day one we were selling wax cylinders, obviously seeing the whole evolution of music formats and music buying and preferences.
00:19Spillers Records is a true icon in Cardiff.
00:21It opened over 130 years ago and has sold millions of records since they were first mass produced.
00:26It's more than just a shop, it's a part of the city and an integral part of Cardiff's music scene.
00:32It has moved around a few times over the years, but has never stopped selling music to the people of Cardiff in all its years around the city centre.
00:39Actually says though that it's the people who make Spillers what it is, the community which has grown from within it which makes it.
00:45As you can imagine, we have some customers who have been literally shopping with us for decades.
00:50It's fonts of information, guys in their 80s who have literally been coming here for nearly 70 years.
01:00And yeah, I mean, it's like on any given day you'll see people turn around and go, oh, there's my mate so-and-so.
01:07And they'll start chatting or people just making friends in the shop, especially when we have in stores as well.
01:14You know, lots of regular faces who come and support those.
01:19Record stores are a part of a massive community all across Wales and the rest of the UK and around the globe.
01:24So being the world's oldest, Ashley says she gets people travelling to Cardiff from Spillers.
01:28And when she goes abroad to different record stores, they all seem to know each other.
01:32Yes, regulars, but obviously as Cardiff has become sort of like, you know, more of a destination, which I've certainly seen happen in the last 10 years,
01:46you know, with events in the stadium, with the gigs in the castle, even with, you know, rugby and sporting events, it brings new people in.
01:59In the late 90s and early noughties, Spillers, the world's oldest record store, came very close to stopping selling records entirely.
02:06She says that some of the younger staff in the shop were adamant that vinyl had to stay on the shelves.
02:11And she's happy that they kept it that way.
02:13I'm really proud of the fact we never stopped selling vinyl.
02:16It was only out of stubbornness, really.
02:19I sort of recognised the people that were still buying vinyl from us were very, very committed.
02:30And it wasn't recognition out of some sort of lucrative, because as I say, it was losing us money at the time,
02:36but it was something about the way that these people were with their records, you know,
02:42because at the time streaming was coming in and you could get music for free, which really shook the industry up.
02:49And yet the counterpoint to that were people who were avid vinyl enthusiasts.
02:55And actually it's thanks to them that the whole revival is even happening.
