WE are already conscious of the impact online retail is having on our high streets.

The ease and convenience of buying online has prompted many to shop from the comfort of their own homes - prompting plenty of questions as to what will be the shape of our towns and cities in future?

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Shops are either closing or just about surviving - we have already lost some well-known brands from our high streets with the future of many well-known names, among them Boots, and some stores within the Arcadia Group, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Topshop and Topman, hanging in the balance.

Even department stores such as House of Fraser and Debenhams have been feeling the pinch.

So, how refreshing it is, to learn of a business that is actually launching - based within bricks and mortar - rather than run on a website in a virtual world.

It’s somewhat ironic the birth of Five Rise Records, four years ago, was online.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Vinyl fans check out the stock at Five Rise Records, BingleyVinyl fans check out the stock at Five Rise Records, Bingley

Music fan Aidy Dibb had long harboured a dream to open his own shop but it was his wife, Trudy’s suggestion to try it online.

Four years later, and again at Trudy’s suggestion due to the space Aidy’s record collections were taking up in storage at their Haworth home, Aidy has now opened Five Rise Records in Bingley.

He explains the venture is a collaboration with his pal John Paul Craven.

John Paul, fondly referred to as ‘JP’ runs music fairs throughout the North of England and is somewhat of a second-hand expert when it comes to valuing stock and collections.

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For those of us who remember the vinyl years album covers were more than a protective shield to the grooves inside - they were a work of art telling a story.

You could pretty much pick out the sounds of the instruments being played by the musicians.

In later years cassettes and CDs came along, marking this important passage of music through time - they were something we purchased to coordinate with the equipment on which we could play them, the tape decks and players in our homes and our cars enabling us to listen to music on the move.

While we have embraced the convenience and ease of downloading our favourite chart tunes, there are many who simply can’t let go of the past - who have proudly hung on to their album collections and the memories that accompany them.

Now they are the ones who are too cool for school as the resurgence in vinyl is turning young people’s attentions to a more tangible type of music, compared with the downloadable tracks, and with album covers that tell a story.

Aidy can still remember the first album which triggered his own interest....

“The first record I was in love with was because my mum was into her music - I must have been about five and she had Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds.

“I used to sit with the headphones just listening to that record and because it was a big gate fold like a book with two LPs in each side and it came with a big booklet of the story you could follow the story. That was the first record that fascinated me and I started listening to mum’s music.”

Aidy’s love of music developed when the assistant manager of the Baildon restaurant, Dibby’s, his father ran would give him records.

He dabbled with being a singer in a band. “I was in a band and I got kicked out for being rubbish,” recalls Aidy, who was 15 or 16 at the time.

His favourite genre is Indie/Alternative - the type of music he sells through Five Rise Records.

“We are going to be selling most genres of music but Five Rise Records specialises in new music and new releases and it’s all brand new vinyl whereas JP is a second-hand expert - people can bring their own collections in and he can give them an idea of how much they are worth,” explains Aidy.

He says the popularity of vinyl has grown over the past eight or nine years.

“I think it’s probably because we often find now a lot of the young generation are buying records - 15,16 and 17-year-old kids are getting into it and I think it’s the whole event, opening it (an album) looking at all the artwork, it becomes a bit of an event and having that physical thing in your hand.”

Aidy hopes Five Rise Records will become a real community hub too. “You often find people who are into music and who remember records, even if they don’t have a penny on them they will go in to browse and have a look.

“You can come in and browse, you know what you are looking for, you can pick a record up, have a look at it and it can be a sense of community, a bit of a social space,” he explains.

Among those attending the recent shop launch were musician and author, Bob Stanley, from the Indie pop/dance group Saint Etienne.

Says Aidy: “We had a really good response and a lot of people are all saying the same thing - how great it is to have a record shop on their doorstep.”

Interestingly the Telegraph & Argus recently reported Bradford ranks as the most optimistic city in Yorkshire when it comes to the future of the high street.

Research commissioned by Visa to mark the launch of this year’s Great British High Street Awards also found four in five (80 per cent) of small high street businesses surveyed in Yorkshire are optimistic about the future of their high street - up from 53 per cent one year ago and 62 per cent said their local high street is improving.