Another busy week thanks to city centre gigs - Kevin Buckle

Suede's Brett Anderson sings to the front row during the gig at Edinburgh Castle

Now Avalanche has two full time members of staff I’m able to work more from home which as we get even busier is needed just to place all the orders necessary and check the relentless arrival of emails.

In the same way I misjudged how busy it would be when Harry Styles was in town I didn’t really think that being off on the Thursday would mean I missed much, but the shop was busy all day with fans visiting after the Manics/Suede gig and National fans visiting before their gig which meant the day ended up as busy as we had been for the Harry Styles gigs.

Suede fans were the ones most obviously in town I’m told with some old CD singles we had quickly snapped up plus several albums on vinyl. Certainly while not on the same scale as the Taylor Swift influx these larger concerts in Edinburgh are certainly good for business and it is a shame that more has not been made of using Princes Street Gardens with all plans to redevelop the Ross Bandstand having ground to a halt.

Whereas the Taylor concerts had a more widespread benefit I’m guessing that being a record shop in such a central location means Avalanche benefits more than most from these other concerts being in town, but there must still be a decent amount of money spent if nothing else on food and accommodation each time a band is in town.

I’m told many of the customers had come especially to visit the shop, but it was also good to hear that others had seen the banner that has finally been put up after much negotiation with the centre’s owners on the corner of Princes Street and Waverley Bridge.

In general the signage in the city centre is poor and I know from my time in the Grassmarket that nowhere near enough is done to try and move people around the larger city centre, and there is certainly an irony in the fact that after trying so hard to improve footfall outside of Princes Street, Avalanche has now ended up right at the centre of things so reaps the benefit of the centralised city centre footfall.

I’m still hoping to improve our own signage further as there is definitely a need for the Waverley Market businesses to have more of a visibility on the Waverley Steps and of course the roof has for several years now hidden the fact there are shops below rather than promote. So I’m also hoping that when something is finally done with the roof, and I’m promised that should be quite soon, that it is not to the detriment of the businesses trading in the centre.

Currently the roof doesn’t look great at all but I’m told any new venture will go ahead with the council’s backing given the previous problems over planning so it is just a case of waiting to see what happens as the centre’s owners are keeping their cards very close to their chest so I’m not privy to what plans there are for the roof.