Hey – hope you are having a great week!

Unfortunately employees of FOPP all across the UK are not having such a good time and so I thought I would take time out this week from my normal Blog, to tell you about what's going on with them.

There was a great deal of speculation in the music industry a couple of weeks ago around why FOPP stores were closed for a day – "it was a stock-taking day", FOPP spokespeople told the press. And whilst this was probably the case, it was because the underlying reason was that the company was going into administration! As a result 700 employees across the UK have effectively been made redundant, with little hope of getting paid for their last month of work or holiday pay and overtime – let alone any actual redundancy monies – so you can imagine they must be feeling pretty cheesed off!

However in the face of adversity they are trying to help save their and most music lovers, fav record store by setting up a specific MySpace profile 'Help Save FOPP' – check out: http://www.myspace.com/helpsavefopp and make friends!

They have also set up an online petition to help save FOPP – you can sign this for yourself at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SAVEFOPP/

In addition they are trying to set up a number of benefit gigs across the country to help raise monies for those who need to pay their rent and other living expenses; to raise cash for those unsigned bands that were selling their cds in the store – who will now not get paid for the sales made or even see their stock back; to commemorate the end of what was a great shop and to celebrate music generally. So if you hear about a gig in your local area – get involved if you can or just attend!

The closure of FOPP is a real blow to the record industry and to the purchase of physical formats of music in the high street. You will not get such a great deal from other record stores, who are also having a 'hard time' with sales – and why is this? – for many reasons, but one being because the major supermarkets have got in on the deal.

So please, please support your local independent record stores – you get a much better service from them anyway – as their knowledge of music is second to none and you won't be able to find the obscure record/cd from those supermarkets!

A final word has to be an excerpt from an article in Music Week (14.7.07) which states: 'One former FOPP employee says, "The real tragedy is that FOPP had at least 25 to 30 very good shops, which were very profitable. FOPP was ideally placed, bucking the trend on the high street, staying off-pitch – just like record shops used to be – keeping the range individual and maintaining as far as possible the indie ethos." "The level of sympathy expressed from all sides of the industry reflects the knowledge that it didn't have to happen, which makes it the more sad that it has."'

Let's hope that something positive happens with those 'profitable' FOPP stores, if not all of them, and that a buyer will be found to take them over. If only I had that kind of money…

In the meantime, I take my hat off to those FOPP employees, who are taking great steps in order to try to move forward with their music careers – keep up the good work!

Until next time - a very saddened, but optimistic, Linz xx