avalanche records

Archive for April, 2020

Avalanche has never relied too much on Record Store Day financially but this year I’d been very hopeful that with Easter falling the week before the lull we normally get beforehand would be filled by visitors in Edinburgh for the Easter holidays.

This was well timed as while we have been given a great deal by Waverley Mall so we can be there Edinburh Council are not so generous and we had a large rates bill to pay by 5th May.

As things have turned out it hasn’t been a complete disaster with online vinyl sales showing a huge increase but the t-shirts that we do so well with now are not really something we push online. We have for some time now done really well with Butcher Billy t-shirts as well as bags and travel mugs and they have been featured online.

We did bring over some prints from the States but each time we sold them so quickly there was nothing left to list online. Now many of the prints are sold out stateside and in particular the Robert Smith print was sold out before we placed our first order.

The plan had been to enhance what was on offer on Record Store Day with some new BB shirts and maybe some prints. I had got the shock of my life when Billy had walked in the shop earlier in the year after a client had flown him over from Brazil to Scotland to discuss a project. Billy had thought it would be funny to not tell me and just walk in. We had discussed then the possibility of doing prints and cards and he was also keen on canvas especially after seeing the large Gerry Gapinski canvas in the window.

It is therefore with great pleasure I can announce the first twenty Giclee art prints from Butcher Billy each numbered and limited to either 50 or 100. Cure fans will be pleased to see five different prints, with five more to follow, and David Bowie fans will be equally happy with their five prints. There are three Thom Yorke plus Siouxsie, Freddie Mercury, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash and the famous Ian Curtis as Batman.

Grimey’s in Nashville may have Taylor Swift as a benefactor but in entrusting us with his images BB has made a huge difference in getting through the tricky months ahead. It goes without saying that this does only work of course if people buy the prints and soon the cards but we have deliberately priced them to be affordable and if truth be told an investment !

Billy is not the only Avalanche supporter and expect to see more news soon from a range of artists, photographers, illustrators and cartoonists. The first of those projects is already available as a t-shirt from Royston somebody I dealt with a few years ago when we did a very limited “nipper” shirt and did indeed also pop in the shop this year to say hello.

On top of all of this I’ve spent the last few months sourcing a new range of t-shirts with everything from Slint to The Smiths and even a Leonard Cohen “Songs Of Love And Hate” the album Avalanche got its name from via Nick Cave. They will all be available to pre-order at the weekend.

You can find the prints and more from Butcher Billy here

http://vsilly.com/avalanche_shop/index.php?id_category=21&controller=category

and Royston’s t-shirt here

http://vsilly.com/avalanche_shop/index.php?id_product=460&controller=product