ASHLEY OSBORNE
#5 CODA MUSIC
Anyone who ever visited Edinburgh likely got a glimpse of Coda Music as it sat at 12 Bank Street, right on the main road as it swung around to approach the castle at the top of The Mound. Coda Music was a specialist folk shop – selling all kinds of British and Irish folk music, plus jazz, blues, Cajun, New Orleans (I once found a CD by a Mardi Gras Indian troupe I’d never seen outside of the Big Easy!) and all manner of world music. Established in 1990, Coda rode the CD boom then, when sales shrank and vinyl returned, they ensured they stocked as much vinyl as possible. The shop was founded by Dougie Anderson and Rose Norton, who met working for Virgin’s Scottish shops: Dougie started out working in Bruce’s Records (a small Scottish chain) then shifted to Virgin, while Rose started in a Portsmouthrecord shop then shifted to Scotland to work for Virgin. Together, they set up three mainstream Coda Records shops and, separately, the folk shop. The mainstream shops were crushed by supermarkets discounting chart CDs, but the folk shop thrived. Billed as “Scotland’s premier folk & Celtic music shop”, Coda catered to Edinburgh’s thriving folk scene, while the university also provided plenty of custom. Last year, the owners decided that they wanted to retire and travel. Thus, in mid-January 2019, Coda Music shut for the final time.