Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: HMV shuts Southend store

It always seemed unlikely that HMV would keep two stores running in those places where it had taken over nearby Zavvis, and so it is proving: the Southend HMV is closing as the HMV-which-was-Zavvi takes over.

Not just any old record store, this, though: it was the record shop in Morrissey's Every Day Is Like Sunday video. It wasn't an HMV back then, though:



At this going down of the POS material, who shall speak for the store? Why, how about HMV's very own talking-talker Gennaro Castaldo?
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: “HMV has recently taken on a much larger and better positioned site in the High Street, which has enabled us to extend our music, film and games offers in Southend.

“While we are in consultation with work colleagues based at the old Queens Road site, where the lease has now ended, we’re confident we will be able to find alternative positions for anyone wishing to remain with the organisation – both in the new Southend store and in other HMV stores within Essex.”

Not outside the county, though. Buggered if they're going to let the Southend staff turn up in Suffolk.


2 comments:

Robin Carmody said...

Seeing that video is a bittersweet experience - it's sublime in itself, but had I been aware of such things at the time, I think I would have been able to tell very clearly that this sort of furrow could not be ploughed forever, and that if he was unable to reinvent himself (which it would probably have already been apparent to a ten-years-older me that he wouldn't have been) he would have been condemned to become a self-parody, worrying the old ghosts forever. And so it proved. To attempt to copy that song would be even more futile than attempting to copy most other great songs.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

I think you're right, Robin - Morrissey's trouble (not just musically but in those foot-in-the-mouth interviews he specialises in) is that he seems to approach everything with the thought "what would Morrissey do in this situation"?

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