Sad news in Bristol, Vital Distribution is closing the Bristol warehouse. Now the name Vital, may not ring a bell with most people but for many years it has been part of the fabric of the music scene in Bristol.

It all started from the back room of Revolver Records back in the late 1970's. Revolver was, for me, a crucial shop. It turned into a place of Saturday morning pilgrimage, as I would venture into town, my head buzzing with the names of obscure bands that I had heard on the John Peel show during the course of the previous week. Where else could you go to get those singles by Spizz Oil, O level, Those naughty lumps, This Heat and hundreds of other bands of dubious musical pedigree. Well Virgin may well have sold them in those days (unlike now), but it just could not compare with the magic of slipping into that small doorway and the journey up the stairs and along the small corridor festooned with scrappy bits of paper, from people who were "into Slits, Wire, Gang of Four - seek Bass player - enthusiasm more important than ability". You then emerged into a small room, which was a cornucopia of delights for the enquiring musical mind. I sure that this was the first place that I heard the like of Captain Beefheart , Big Youth, Tom Waites and many more. The staff were different as well. They actual knew about and loved music. Over the years we enjoyed great if opinionated service from Mike Chadwick, Steph Thornton, Grant Marshall (yes, Grant from Massive Attack), Sean Mayo, and Bob Jones.

Then the shop started to distribute records as well as just selling them, soon it became an important cog in the whole post punk music scene. Although Orynthia and I never worked for Revolver (Which changed it's name to Vital at some point), countless numbers of friends did and although many of them moved onto other things, the "Vital" social crew are still a great bunch of people to be with.

In the 1990's the shop was sold and was never really quite the same, it limped on for may years before closing a few years ago. Vital hit a peek on the back of the Oasis explosion before dark clouds started to appear a while back.

Bristol just will not be quite the same. Then again, no place ever is.