In a recondite street in the center of Valencia, a few meters from the Local Gigantic of the FNAC, it is still standing, against wind and tide, the Oldies Disc Store.
There are those who would say that entering it is to immerse themselves in that smell of old man who irremediably refers to past times.
But they, Vicente Fabuel and José Salvador, would judge that smell as one’s own sexual act, that in which the relationship with music is lived caressing a vinyl.
That smell and tact, that fetishism, explain today that the oldest record premises in Spain seek new owner.
Someone who takes over for a “sanitized” business that is far from falling layer, but who needs a new personal impulse.
«The age tells us that the thing is already good», explain to the Fabuel and Savior world, the two owners next to Carmen Arnal and Isabel Aguilar from a store that opened in September 1978 and that today is about to attend the
Retirement of the generation of its founders.
To avoid final closure, they have proposed to transfer the business to whoever wants to pay 175,000 euros and is willing to “arrive late” after working.
«You also get home late when you go for a grocery …», Ironiza Fabuel.
And Oldies, after all, is worth it.
There are already those who have been interested in the business.
Although its owners have assisted the unstoppable decline of the disc stores in parallel to the generalization of the first and streaming piking after, Fabuel points out: “We are not at the worst moment of music stores, much less.
The store format is not exhausted and the young generations have come to give a new boost to vinyl. ”
Before entering the devotion of these passionate music by vinyl, it goes a secret.
The one of Oldies: “It is the diversity of offer, touching all kinds of music when the stores often have a smaller profile than, by the way, just portraying the owner”.
To understand us, the key to survival goes by being able to find a lady the single of her life or save as a treasure – waiting for the collector who pays 200 euros – that 60-year rock vinyl ‘n’ roll with
The Johnny Burnette Trio.
“This is the purest thing that has been done at the birth of all rock …”, highlights Fabuel playing the album delicately.
We return to vinyl.
“When we started, fortunately there were no CDs,” recalls Salvador.
“The CD has been something else, very practical for the car but … Aesthetically there is no color».
According to Fabuel, its appearance “was an economic event for the industry and, therefore, for Oldies, for all.”
“When the CD came out, we started selling them naturally, but also with pain.
Now it is easy to say, but then we were a minority that we were not rendered to that alleged modernity.
Oldies never abandoned the vinyl, nor in the times he was totally discredited. ”
And they resisted, what if they resisted.
Sentimentalism or faith in the format?
«We were not rare bugs, because there was a whole international and local current that was clear that vinyl has been the hegemonic support in the history of 20th century music, the support in which all the music that marked a before
And one later, “says Fabuel.
“There have been other formats and none has been able to overcome it;
In fact, it is the only one who has returned ».
From the CD (almost) nothing is known and the cassette has been as a vintage object.
And here it could be spoken of the aesthetics of the vinyl covers, of the unparalleled sound analogue against digital … or pure and simple fetishism.
“Music is something ethereal, and the only format that makes you believe that you can touch it is vinyl.
It is fetish, I will not say that it is something sexual but almost, because it is a touch, a warmth … », explains Fabuel.
Time – and music- has given them the reason.
“She feed us and fueled the soul.”
So long life al vinyl.
And Oldies.