For International Record Store Day I am proudly presenting our trip to Anthony D’Amato in Valletta, Malta, the world’s oldest record shop. This is where a decent travel guides comes in handy and we were able to surprise my better half with a totally non-kitschy adventure.
Now, for all vinyl lovers out there, do not expect to find rows and rows of dusty gold. The selection is more focused on top 40 music and best of compilations. They also have a huge selection of classical music on, urgh, CD.
While Spiller Records in Cardiff, UK, is selling vinyl since 1894, Anthony D’Amato is winning by only a few years.
Each, I am sure, are important, and it is amazing, that those black little magic things are still loved all over the world.
So, next time on the underground some hipster tries to play, whose canvas bag is cooler, I have no reason to shy away. That is, if I was to take public transport any time soon…
So greetings from the world’s oldest record shop. You will find Anthony D’Amato at 98 Triq San Gwann in Valletta, close to the National Museum of Archaeology or St. John’s Co-Cathedral.
How do you listen to music these days?
Happy online travelling. Stay safe, stay happy.
Sunrise at the abandoned resort
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I listen to CDs, Spotify, YTube, but mostly I make my music and songs myself – Loved this post! Left all my vinyls, together with my first marriage, with my ex who probably threw them away some years later (the main thing being that I didn’t have them). Happily for over 22yrs with No 2 husband, also known as Hero Husband or HH…. also musician, singer, conductor etc….. Will that do?
Nice. I am listening to Youtube a lot as well but the TV is connected to the speakers. It’s all about the sound 😉 Hubby #2 sounds like a good trade!
Cool shop! My CD player/radio just bit the dust. 🙁 So I listen to music on the computer. Not an ideal situation.
Oh no, that picked a great time for giving up. Maybe make some music with Henri?
LOL He’s a bit tone-deaf. 😀
Happy record store day! Would love to visit that shop. I still have all my old vinyl + cassettes, and the audio equipment to play it. Also enjoy CDs, and Youtube is absolutely wonderful for finding gems. Lastly, a local radio station specialising in non-commercial music.
YouTube is great for discovering! I really regret not hanging on to my tapes. There are a few mix tapes left, I should put some on today 😉
Ha, yes. I still have a few mix tapes too!
I went to Malta / Valletta quite a few times back in the 70’s when I was in the Navy but I did not know about the record shop.
Malta holds a very special place in my heart. It would’ve been so different in the 70s!
We never stopped listening to vinyl and recently upgraded the turntable, I love that this store has such a long history!
Hey, sorry, you were hiding in my spam. We are in real need of a new turn table. Sigh …
I truly love this! May I repost?
Thanks, but of course! Go ahead
Interesting. Like most of my ignorant friends, I had no idea there was a commericial marketplace for records in the 1880s. If only they had stuck with records and let that damned telephone die on the vine!
Sometimes, I miss my tapes. In the brave new world, might be worth holding on to our records … Do you need a new set of friends?
As I was in mid-city New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, I lost about 2/3 of my few hundred old LP’s from the 1960s and 70s. Afterward I picked up a “Rubber Soul” at a used record shop. I forget what they guy said, but it was $100 or so. I passed, but we got to talking, and I gave him the details on my lost copy (an original from the mid-60s), and he said, “Oh, yours was worth twice as much” 🙁 (Regarding new friends, yes, my friends are ignorant, but that’s what makes us a good fit!)
Wow, what a terrible loss. We only have a few records that are actually worth something but it is the emotional attachement … I’ve been to New Orleans shortly after Katrina. It’s hard to imagine how devestating that was without seeing it. As for the friends, in Germany they say, show me your friends and I tell you who you are 😉
You’ll be happy to know I have lots of friends along the western edge of Germany (Aachen to Stuttgart to Freiburg), having lived in Aachen for 2 years. Then again, maybe you won’t be happy, after the way I besmirched my friends in my previous comment 🙂
He he, it’s all about between the lines 😉
I once owned a green album, it was a kind of light green glass vinyl of course. Picked it up at a library ‘book’ sale. I think it was the opera (or part of the opera) Pompea, which with lovely baroque music. Played that summer in my dumpy, desert dry college town apartment and recal by playing an opera album I felt instantly so exclusive, academic, high brow and eccentric as a 20 yr. old. 🙂
Oh, that sounds very sophisticated! Nice to see you! Where have you been? Stay safe
Interesting. Those shops should be subsidized by the Ministry of Culture…
(I still have my treasured 60’s LP’s including the original Sgt Pepper’s and the (numbered) double white…
Stay safe…
Nice, hang on to those! The Ministry of Culture could fund blogs, too 😉
The public libraries are a great source for old LPs and 45s. You only need to ask.
Damn, I miss the library …
I bet you do. The older the library, the more resourceful it is. Damn that virus which is closing everything, everywhere. I didn’t realize until recently that beauty parlors were shutdown. And, I keep imagining what kind of Hell we could be in if there is a summer heatwave and the Coronavirus. This is beyond house arrest! 😳
Yeah, I worry about summer, too. Plus kids in elemantry school kinda need to move n stuff … We’ll see where this is all going but it won’t be going away any time soon. Stay safe!
Actually it is very unreal for so many people to not work and for students of all ages to be barred from libraries even though the internet is quite resourceful. Some students are not privileged to have the internet and are dependent upon the public library. Take care of yourself. ❤️
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Thank you, you too!
❤️❤️❤️Big Hearts and Big Hugs to you!!? Happy Tuesday!
Interesting !