After celebrating their 100th year of trading (the first store being opened in 1921), a big part of HMV's birthday celebration was to re-launch and focus on 'Live and Local'.
This company-wide initiative invites local artists to come and play in HMV stores to like-minded music fans and customers as well as giving local artists/bands an opportunity to have their albums stocked in our stores without the need to go through a label.
This well-known British music and entertainment retailer also created its own record label "1921 Records" with stores nominating local artists that had performed in their stores as part of 'Live and Local' with HMV selecting one of the nominated artists and printing the final winner's album to sell in stores!
India Arkin was the first act printed to 1921 records in 2022 with us awaiting the result from the 2023 vote.
Our very own HMV store here in Milton Keynes has recently seen two 2 artists/bands play in-store, local singer-songwriter Beth Merill being the very first person to play a live performance, followed by Lake Acacia who have since played 2 separate gigs in-store.
The store manager of HMV in Milton Keynes Paul, comments, "The Lake Acacia show was a great barometer of how live music would come off in-store with a fully amped setup, it was very loud, it captured an audience as the band played and annoyed some of the neighbouring stores with the volume and a fantastic level of song quality making fans as they played in store.... is there anything more rock and roll than that!
Having the initial experiences first with Beth and then with Lake Acacia (as well as seeing how well other stores were doing with Live and Local as the Newcastle and Carlisle stores have fantastic Live and Local shows) really made us want to push on and see how much more we could do with Live and Local in Milton Keynes".
HMV look to give a 'stage' to all levels of performers so whether it's a band or artist that has experience playing live venues and touring or whether HMV is one of the first times they may have played live, they aim to provide a platform to anyone that just wants to play and promote themselves locally.
HMV encourages artists of all abilities and genres to get in touch with them on their store Instagram account @hmvmiltonkeynes - They can give you more information on how to set up an in-store performance and answer any questions potential acts may have on Live and Local.
Paul continues to express the passionate goals that they have for our local HMV store including some great partnerships and projects to be announced.
He concludes, "For many of us who work at HMV, music and certainly live music is a passion and to have it happening in our stores creates such a great buzz for the artists doing it, the customers, and staff. It's definitely one of the most exciting things we've done for a while and we can't wait to see how it grows, fingers crossed HMV becomes one of the places people come to, to watch local talent and enjoy live music in the Centre MK".
Follow @hmvmiltonkeynes to keep up-to-date with the latest on Live and Local.