‘Back street’ record shop named one of best in world

Chris Heard launched Carnival Records, selling new and used vinyl, in 2012 – at a time when many record stores were closing as they struggled to compete against digital music and streaming services.

But it was a gamble that paid off – with the shop having been named among the best in the world.

The Financial Times listed the store in Malvern, Worcestershire, alongside counterparts in London, New York, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney, Copenhagen and Lisbon.

Mr Heard put his success down to passion: “Records is our business, and it’s what we love.”

The shop, found in an alleyway off Church Street, opposite Great Malvern Priory, sells a mix of new and second-hand records, as well as cassette tapes – which Mr Heard said “amazingly have become a thing again”.

Mr Heard admitted it was a risky decision to launch a bricks-and-mortar store selling physical records in an age of online sales and digital entertainment.

But he thinks his shop offers something people have missed.

“It’s about that sensory experience,” he explained. “Unlike online, where you will go and click on an item and buy it and then it’ll tell you what you might also like, here you’re suddenly confronted with a few thousand records.

“We’ve probably got 200 to 300 regular customers who will be in every few weeks.

“Older generations who remember record shopping in the 70s and 80s, even into the 90s, when you would spend perhaps half an hour on a Saturday morning browsing for records. It was a weekend thing, and we are seeing that again with the younger generation.”

Mr Heard said it was “fantastic” to be recognised in an international publication.

“Those [other] shops in the article, they’re in some of the big cities – like London, New York and Paris,” he said.

“It’s obviously gratifying.

“But we’ve always just been here, doing what we do, in this back street in Malvern.”