Glasgow Sauchiehall Street: Assai opens new record shop

However, the once popular Glasgow shopping street is getting a ‘shot in the arm’ with the news that popular Dundee record retailer Assai will open its first Glasgow record shop on the street, The Herald can reveal.

Assai Records will take over the space vacated by the former Ladbrokes betting shop at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Blythswood Street, with an opening date planned for later this month.

Assai Records’ first store opened in 2015 in the Dundee suburb of Broughty Ferry, before opening a second vinyl specialty store in Edinburgh’s West End in 2017.

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Assai then moved Broughty Ferry’s store to Union Street in Dundee in 2019 to continue its journey as one of the city’s leading independent stores.

Both stores are known for hosting live in-store performances and are home to artists such as The Twilight Sad, Malcolm Middleton, Tom Walker, Idlewild, Lewis Capaldi, Foals, Divine Comedy, Two Door Cinema Club, Sam Fender and most recently Tide Lines and free love.

Assai also runs his own record label, Assai Recordings, which has supported Scottish talent such as The View frontman Kyle Falconer, Carousel, Brownbear, Billy Mitchell and Hamish Hawk.

The record store opens at 233 Sauchiehall Street. (Image: Newsquest)

After three years of planning, Assai owner Keith Ingram said he was “delighted” to open Assai’s first Glasgow store on Sauchiehall Street, having worked as store manager at the former HMV store on the street almost two decades ago.

He told The Herald: “I am a huge supporter of Sauchiehall Street and am delighted to open as I worked in a record shop on Sauchiehall Street almost 20 years ago and it’s great to be ‘home’ again. ”

Councilor Angus Millar, Chair of City Center Restoration at Glasgow City Council, commented on the news, saying it was “another sign of investor confidence” in Sauchiehall Street and the city centre.

He said: “There has been significant investment in Sauchiehall Street of late as we work to help restore this important city center street and it’s great to see Assai Records opening their first Glasgow store here. This move builds on the success of nearby McLellan Works and is another sign of investor confidence in the street and the city center.”

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Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney, a board member of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, also expressed his hope that the new Sauchiehall Street record shop would “create a short circuit”.

He told The Herald: “This is incredibly welcome news and will hopefully be a shot in the arm for an area of ​​Glasgow city center that has long been in decline. Sauchiehall Street was once the jewel in the crown of Glasgow’s retail experience, but for too long Glasgow City Council has allowed it to decay, contenting itself more with vinyl covering empty shop windows than trying to bring new business into the area to lure.

“We now have a small group of excellent small businesses from the McLellan Works to this new venture from Assai and hopefully it will give other businesses the courage to move to Sauchiehall Street. I wish the Assai team all the best for the years to come and look forward to a visit.”

The new store on Sauchiehall Street joins a rich landscape of vinyl music stores in Glasgow which is home to Monorail Music, Missing Records, Palais de Danse and Rubadub in the city center and Mixed Up Records in the city’s west end.