Reckless Records closes down

Friday February 2, 2007

The closure comes just a day after prominent London record store Steve's Sounds also ceased trading.

Reckless Records closed down after what general manager Duncan Kerr described as an “extremely difficult” January. All of the shop’s staff have been made redundant.

“In our case, the downturn in trade for used vinyl and CDs has been just devastating,” says Kerr. “The internet has just changed everything. Trading files, cheap sales, downloading - the usual reasons - have had a knock on effect.

“When HMV is selling stock so cheaply, just to stay afloat, how can we compete with that?”

Kerr also rules out any chance of the shop continuing in any sort of online or mail-order capacity. “The liquidation will almost certainly mean the name will just disappear,” he says. “There’s no way of keeping the business going.”

The Reckless collapse comes after 24 years of trade. The shop originally opened in London’s Islington in 1983, with a second branch opening in Berwick Street a year later. In its prime, it expanded Across the US, opening stores in San Francisco in Chicago.

However recent market conditions have proved fatal for the business, and in the last two years it has been forced to close down its Islington and Camden branches.

“The closure is very sudden and a shock to everybody,” adds Kerr, “but not much of a surprise.”