Indies music

I really love doing the close at The Bookshop when Sparky (the supervisor who taught me about heroin) is doing it. The 'close' is working the late shift until 9pm, when we shut up the shop.

Normally at about 7pm, when the afternoon has made its way into the evening, he'll change the music from the official playlist to something eclectic. Before you know it, we subtly become an independant bookshop. Although him and the other music guys have very original tastes, they're open to suggestions. We've played stuff from Asha Bhosle to Bjork to The Simpsons Sing The Blues, and the customers invariably dig it.

Today we had Yann Tiersen on (the guy who did the Amelie soundtrack), and it went down well. A guy came up to the info desk and asked what the 'twinkly twinkly' music was. He liked it. No, he didn't want the album, he just wanted to know what it was. A discernable change occurs when non-playlist music comes on. Everything loosens up.

The other day, after we'd played Arcade Fire and The Fratellis to death, someone had had enough and stopped Chasing Cars midway through. For a few moments there was silence, until something good came on. I can't remember what it was, but it was nice.