Blog

TEAM AVALANCHE !

When Avalanche first moved to Waverley Market it was my intention to spend six months assessing the footfall and what we would need to add to the things Avalanche was well known for already helped out by friends and old staff members. I could never have expected events to overtake us the way they did. 

However we have come out at the other end stronger than ever and amazingly busier than we have ever been. As a shop that never gave up on vinyl its revival has certainly helped but we now have a great selection of t-shirts as well as exclusive prints and cards from artists and photographers mostly based locally but of course we are now known worldwide for working with Butcher Billy who is based in South Brazil.

We haven’t forsaken CDs either both new and used and we will soon be launching Avalanche Vintage bringing back vintage clothing and adding more posters as we expand further back into our shop space.  

I’ve been lucky enough to have had some great staff over the years but even those who have returned to help out admit working at Avalanche is far more complicated than it used to be. I do intend to put a team together now but there will be no simple shop assistant jobs.

I want to expand our online presence but in a selective way rather than the usual method of loading up huge files onto different platforms and updating every day. Certainly experience in online selling will be a help to any applicant as will be illustration and graphic design skills. Having a wide knowledge in music is not necessary but a good memory is essential so that knowledge can be quickly built up.

Avalanche is not a shop that has new favourite bands every week and neither do we claim to LOVE most of the new releases. At the same time it is an absolute pleasure to see youngsters being excited about music whether it is over artists we personally like or not. 

I could not be happier with the way the shop has developed with older folk saying it reminds them of the shops of their youth while younger customers feel they have found a shop that understands them. 

There will be two full time jobs with one focusing on our online sales and the other involving running the shop on a daily basis. Though full time it may be possible to take on somebody who already has their own small business.

The fashion designer Alison Harm of Psychomoda will be looking after our vintage offering and of course she already has a small presence in the shop but there may be opportunities for sales staff interested in that side of things.

Avalanche already has a fantastic backroom staff including a brilliant graphic designer which is the only reason I’ve been able to go so long without putting a sales team in place and covered that area mostly myself. I’m currently looking at more opportunities than I can take so to some extent how we move forward will depend on the people we bring in.

People travel from all over the world to visit Avalanche and it is important that they along with all our customers get the experience they expect.

I’ve never found application forms a particularly good way to get staff and we have drawn many staff before from customers or people we come across working in other shops and clearly have something about them. 

Applicants who feel they have something to offer can pop in the shop to discuss things further or email [email protected] with details of relevant experience. 

Once I get a feel for the interest we are getting I will update things. I must stress though that none of the positions will be simple shop assistant jobs.

Boys Don’t Cry Butcher Billy Giclée print

Link for print

http://vsilly.com/avalanche_shop/index.php?id_product=443&controller=product

RSD DROPS 2020 @ AVALANCHE

Saturday is the first of the RSD drops a time for David Bowie and Pink Floyd fans this year joined by Cure fans to worry that they might not be able to buy a release they already own several times already.

Since we reopened customers have been nothing but sensible so I’ve decided to where possible try and have some elements of normality to the day. We have never opened at 8am as that is no time to be selling records and as the mall is still on reduced hours 9am is not possible so we open at 10am.

We have never encouraged queueing but if you must queue before we open the queue will start at the Waverley Bridge entrance and there will be signs with further explanation. Any queue should extend towards the gardens.

Once open we can cater for ten social distancing groups in the shop but no group can be more than two people. There will be a further monitored queue in the mall extending towards Waverley Bridge.

I’ll be disappointed if we run out of the most sought after release which for us is the Biffy Clyro single. We have a lot! Once I’ve seen what stock is left after closing at 5pm I’ll decide what to do with it but won’t be rushing to list at 6pm. I’ll leave that mayhem to others. As always I will list what we have left on Saturday night so folk can come along on Sunday knowing what we still have. I imagine I’ll list online anything remaining on Sunday night.

It hopefully goes without saying that face masks should be worn and if you do feel unwell please be sensible and take the online option.

Exclusive Butcher Billy prints @ Avalanche

Avalanche has never relied too much on Record Store Day financially but this year I’d been very hopeful that with Easter falling the week before the lull we normally get beforehand would be filled by visitors in Edinburgh for the Easter holidays.

This was well timed as while we have been given a great deal by Waverley Mall so we can be there Edinburh Council are not so generous and we had a large rates bill to pay by 5th May.

As things have turned out it hasn’t been a complete disaster with online vinyl sales showing a huge increase but the t-shirts that we do so well with now are not really something we push online. We have for some time now done really well with Butcher Billy t-shirts as well as bags and travel mugs and they have been featured online.

We did bring over some prints from the States but each time we sold them so quickly there was nothing left to list online. Now many of the prints are sold out stateside and in particular the Robert Smith print was sold out before we placed our first order.

The plan had been to enhance what was on offer on Record Store Day with some new BB shirts and maybe some prints. I had got the shock of my life when Billy had walked in the shop earlier in the year after a client had flown him over from Brazil to Scotland to discuss a project. Billy had thought it would be funny to not tell me and just walk in. We had discussed then the possibility of doing prints and cards and he was also keen on canvas especially after seeing the large Gerry Gapinski canvas in the window.

It is therefore with great pleasure I can announce the first twenty Giclee art prints from Butcher Billy each numbered and limited to either 50 or 100. Cure fans will be pleased to see five different prints, with five more to follow, and David Bowie fans will be equally happy with their five prints. There are three Thom Yorke plus Siouxsie, Freddie Mercury, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash and the famous Ian Curtis as Batman.

Grimey’s in Nashville may have Taylor Swift as a benefactor but in entrusting us with his images BB has made a huge difference in getting through the tricky months ahead. It goes without saying that this does only work of course if people buy the prints and soon the cards but we have deliberately priced them to be affordable and if truth be told an investment !

Billy is not the only Avalanche supporter and expect to see more news soon from a range of artists, photographers, illustrators and cartoonists. The first of those projects is already available as a t-shirt from Royston somebody I dealt with a few years ago when we did a very limited “nipper” shirt and did indeed also pop in the shop this year to say hello.

On top of all of this I’ve spent the last few months sourcing a new range of t-shirts with everything from Slint to The Smiths and even a Leonard Cohen “Songs Of Love And Hate” the album Avalanche got its name from via Nick Cave. They will all be available to pre-order at the weekend.

You can find the prints and more from Butcher Billy here

http://vsilly.com/avalanche_shop/index.php?id_category=21&controller=category

and Royston’s t-shirt here

http://vsilly.com/avalanche_shop/index.php?id_product=460&controller=product

TV21 album on vinyl

I haven’t completely given up on the TV21 album on vinyl. Originally it was twinned with the Scars album but I’m now seeing if there is any way we can still do this on its own. 

Obviously as soon as I know which should be soon I will let everybody know including the band !

Scars vinyl refunds and the CD box set

I’ve almost finished the refunds for the Scars LP on vinyl. A straightforward refund wasn’t possible because of the time that has passed so each one had to be done manually as a gift. PayPal became funny about so many payments calling it suspicious activity so I’ve had to just do a couple at a time. Having said that refunds should be complete soon. I don’t have any further information about the CD box set Cherry Red  had planned but all the extra tracks were cleared with the band a long time ago.

Each refund comes with this message. 

“Sadly we have had to give up on Cherry Red delivering the Scars album on vinyl so we are issuing refunds. I don’t have any explanation beyond them still not having the required licence from Universal despite talks having been originally successfully instigated by Paul Research. I can only apologise but at the time we had the go ahead to pre-sell from both the band and Cherry Red and expected it to coincide with last year’s Rip It Up exhibition.” 

Best

Kevin