Many of you will not be familiar with Russ Solomon, indeed I am only familiar with him because of the excellent Colin Hanks documentary about Tower Records. If you are unfamiliar with him then you should know that he created an empire, one that has sadly mostly died off. He started selling records from the back of a Drug Store and from there Tower Records continued to grow. A true pioneer Russ believed in promoting staff within instead of bringing people from the outside, also no ties. Sadly he did foresee the rise of digital downloads but then again, who did? Still to this day Russ is probably one of the most influential men in music, even if he was not an actual musician. He helped bring the record store to the masses and for that he has my thanks and respect.

If any of you are missing Tower Records I can tell you that they are still alive and well in Japan and there is also a branch in Dublin…