A new record shop in North London around the Holloway Road? What in the High Fidelity is going on! Musical excellence, of course – it always warms the heart to see a new independent spot opening up centred around the love for vinyl. Will the folks here be obsessively ranking their top five favourite albums of the eighties (with no Simple Minds included) when you get there? We can’t confirm or deny… though we can probably deny, at least to the level of Nick Hornby’s characters.
This one won’t be called Championship Vinyl, either, and it won’t be failing, but thriving, as it opens on the Holloway Road this week, with One Eighty One landing at – you guessed it – 181 Holloway Road on Friday (December 12).
Credit: @oneeightyone.uk, via IG
One Eighty One
While it’s largely about the records, we can expect a few things from One Eighty One, in a similar vein to spots like Next Door Records around the city. They’ll serve as a bar & café as well as slinging vinyl, so it’ll be a one-stop shop for music lovers to hang out with others and share the artists they’ve discovered with others.
It’ll be perfect to relax in during the day, and once the sun sets, it’ll be a space to sip on craft beer while enjoying live DJs and events for artists and record collectors.
There’s plenty of musical pedigree behind it, too, with Rod ‘Spin Doctor’ Gilmore opening up his own place after thirty years in the music industry, doing everything from putting on club nights in Shoreditch and the Royal Albert Hall to working in London’s Jazz Café and Truman Brewery to spinning the decks himself and creating his own series about records he digs over on his page.
A music lover’s shop for music lovers is always a winning recipe, and you can see how it all goes from the end of this week. The opening night will have DJs playing into the evening, and those who arrive early will be treated to a complimentary drink.
One Eighty One is hosting its launch party Friday, December 12, and you can find it over at 181 Holloway Road, N7 8LX.