THE couple behind a new music shop are promising to provide a friendly alternative to the “unwelcoming and intimidating” atmosphere of record stores.

Vinyl Revolution, co-founded by Simon Parker and Rachel Lowe, opens on July 15 in Duke Street, Brighton, and offers two floors of vinyl records as well as clothing, art and home goods.

The project has been a long-time ambition for Simon, who played in the rock band Villarreal and ran the Brighton music night Cable Club for 12 years before going to work at a record shop in Oxford.

He and Rachel decided to set up their own store a year ago on what she described as a “wine-fuelled evening”.

Rachel, 49, said: “We were thinking, if we had a record shop, what would we do differently?

“We got really excited about the idea and decided to go for it.”

Vinyl Revolution started life as a pop-up shop in Tunbridge Wells, opening in October last year and trading for three months.

Simon said: “That went fantastically well and we immediately started looking for a shop in Brighton.”

The pair, who had never worked together before this venture, acted in response to an online survey they carried out last year which found that 39 per cent of shoppers had felt “intimidated or judged” in a record store.

Simon said too many music shops were “unwelcoming and quite blokey”.

He added: “Record buying and buyers have changed, but record stores haven’t.

“Vinyl Revolution is set to change that and make the record-buying experience enjoyable for today’s music lovers.”

Rachel said that Vinyl Revolution will promote a message of “anti-music snobbery. We don’t want anyone to stand on the threshold and think ‘Oh, I don’t want to go in there’.

“We want to make it an accessible and fun space to be in.”

The shop will sell new chart releases to independent music – all in vinyl record form.

Resident Music in North Laine looms large over the independent record scene in Brighton but Rachel said there was room for both shops in the city.

“One of the great things about Brighton is that it embraces independent retailers, particularly with HMV closing.

“We’re not trying to be another Resident.”

A recent study found that vinyl sales had outstripped downloads as a means of buying music, which further encouraged the pair in their project.

Simon said: “Once you start collecting vinyl you are hooked for life – you will never have enough.”