DESTINATION: COVENTRY

Steve Sutherland visits next year’s City Of Culture to discover an indie store named for The Big Lebowski and inspired by Kermit the Frog

- Steve Sutherland

A couple of months back I was browsing the alphabetised used vinyl indie section at Just Dropped In when I noticed the prices took quite a hike when I came across anything by Yo La Tengo. Why, I wondered, should this be?

Only one way to solve the mystery. I asked Alun Roberts, the owner. “Ah,” he replied happily. “That’s because I don’t really want to sell them!” A man after my own heart. Fan first, everything else comes after.

Just Dropped In is a nice and airy one-manowned and mostly solo-run independent record store located in FarGo Village, Coventry’s very own mini Camden Market. There’s a cool bookstore here, some vintage clothing outlets, antique sellers, coffee shops and cafes, all gathered around an indoor market space that, when the pandemic doesn’t interfere, hosts occasional vinyl and clothing fairs. Alun opened the store in October 2018. “It was a great place for a start-up as you don’t have the pressure of high street rents,” he recalls. “There are 40 businesses spread among Victorian industrial buildings and shipping containers. When there are events on, there’s a real buzz. It’s a unique place and easy for everyone to reach, only 10 minutes from the cathedral.”

Alun has history in the record business. The first record shop he ever went to was John Levers in Northampton, where he bought Blondie’s Denis 7in. From then on he was hooked. “I have memories of skipping school lunch to have money to buy records and then searching through the bargain bins at Boots and WH Smith’s. Then, as John Peel’s influence on me grew, Spinadisc, the best indie in Northampton, became my place to go. I used to worship the people behind the counter.”