I finally made it to Blue Arrow Records on Saturday, and picked up two Bowie albums that I’ve been haphazardly hunting for: David Live at the Tower in Philadelphia and Aladdin Sane.
While I was in the store I determined that Pete Gulyas doesn’t see his job so much as shopkeeper but as a curator. This isn’t the place to go if you like digging through hundreds of records looking for one gem hidden among them. The chaff has be pre-winnowed at Blue Arrow, and every piece of vinyl you pick up will be a gem with its own particular lustre.
Apart from spinning records, there’s a few spinning racks of pulp novels, some indie-Cleveland clothing, cool jewelry and sundry other items, none of which are merely garnish. There’s a little stage with some turntables spinning store stock and I was glad to see that I made a good turntable purchase when I noticed that Blue Arrow uses an Audio-Technica. I even got a line on some places to hunt for speakers locally, and Pete said he hopes to broaden his stock offerings to include speakers, et cetera once Blue Arrow is a bit more established.
I forgot to ask him if he’s going to hunt for rare vinyl for people or stock stuff that might be slow to sell, like the 180g Neptune album I’m currently listening to, but I’m planning to lay more of my hard earned cash down on Waterloo at the 2nd Annual Record Store Day next Saturday. The two-hundred yards of Waterloo that holds the Beachland, Music Saves and Blue Arrow Records is like a giant candy store for music junkies.
You can read and see a bit more about Blue Arrow Records here: