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Good news hopefully on the small venue front with the announcement from Glen Rowe and his Neko Trust charity that they will be looking to launch a small venue in Edinburgh.

I’ve known the jazz musician John Burgess since as a young man he came in the shop to sell his record collection.

An older American couple managed to make three of the points that crop up regularly in my column in one short conversation.

It is no great surprise that there has been renewed interest in the permanent Scottish music exhibition centre I have been working on for the last three years, given all the publicity for the opening of the National Museum of Scotland’s Rip It Up exhibition.

Avalanche has always had a very successful social media presence and in particular a popular Twitter account. I hope that I come up with some decent original content myself but I also have to thank many other accounts that provide an endless source of news, facts and entertainment all day and felt it was time to pay my dues.

I try hard to limit my columns about the high street but this week’s news that both Poundworld and House of Fraser are struggling has got everyone talking about whether it’s all over now, just as the Rolling Stones arrive in town.

Great news for Essential Edinburgh and their CEO Roddy Smith with a resounding 91 per cent of businesses voting to continue the city centre Business Improvement District or BID for another five years. BIDs in Scotland have had mixed fortunes but when they work well, they work very well indeed.

For anybody who works in the city centre in any capacity that deals with visitors, two things are clear – nobody would mind at all if a small amount was added to their bill to contribute to maintaining services in the city they have just stayed in and there is definitely room for more high-spending visitors.

Last week saw the release of Welcome Strangers by Modern Studies. While their blurb says their music might best be described as “kosmiche choral”, I’ll stick with chamber-pop. Signed to Fire Records and including Avalanche veterans Emily Scott and Rob St John, the album should build on the success of their first one.

I was determined to write something for Mental Health Awareness Week even before the sad news about Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison but I’ve found it hard as somebody who has certainly suffered from high levels of stress, never more so than over the last three or four years, but never encountered anything drastic enough to be called a mental health issue.

It was no surprise to hear that the High Street was losing even more of its stalls after one of the buildings that had four stalls in front of it changed hands.

Talking of supergroups, Voicex play the Voodoo Rooms on Friday, 18 May.

If not quite a supergroup, then certainly a super duo, Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert released a new album yesterday.

There was much excitement this week as I took possession of the best collection of vinyl I have ever seen in over 30 years of Avalanche.

I read this week that Glasgow should do more to promote itself as a music tourism city as Liverpool does.

I’m slightly concerned that never a week goes by these days that I’m not told by somebody that retail is all about the experience now.

Ruth Davidson’s announcement that she is expecting her first child with her partner Jen Wilson came just as I was considering what to write for my column this week about the effect having children has on all sorts of views and what can be considered “important”.

I had a rare night out in Edinburgh on Thursday and the place was buzzing on what was a lovely day.

I that time of the year again when folk are reminded to support record shops by buying limited vinyl.