Ewen Duncan has an impeccable memory.
Dates, album titles, the eventual career paths of former staff members going back decades – they all spring easily to the mind of Europa Music’s owner.
After 42 years of trading, the 65-year-old seems as energetic and passionate as ever when it comes to the business of selling records from his shop on Friars Street in Stirling’s city centre.
Europa is a music connoisseur’s dream – large, but still packed to the rafters with vinyl, CDs, cassettes, books and other merchandise, like band T-shirts and patches.
Rare LPs dangle enticingly from the ceiling. Stacks upon stacks of plastic crates hold the stock that groaning wooden browsers on every wall can’t contain. Further in, tall shelves are loaded with many hundreds of tapes.
Oh, and that’s not even taking into account the 30,000 7-inch singles upstairs, waiting to be sorted.
It is an unfathomable amount of music, just begging to be rummaged through. But that’s only the beginning.
Survive the first onslaught of temptation as you make your way through the store, and you’ll find yourself in “the back shop” – another big room, neatly filled from back to front and top to bottom with more vinyl records than many people see in a lifetime.
Rising from the ashes and rebuilding
It’s almost unbelievable that this mammoth offering is a second incarnation. But one Sunday in 1995, Ewen woke up to the news that his back shop and everything in it had burned to “a smouldering pile” overnight.
Scotland’s audiophile community rallied, fundraising to help Europa buy new stock.
“One local chap donated his collection to us, including a White Album by The Beatles, which fetched a few pennies,” remembers Ewen.
Before the fire, Ewen wagers Europa probably had the most vinyl of any music shop in Scotland, apart from possibly Backbeat in Edinburgh. Now, restored to its former glory and then some, the stockpile is even bigger.
“About 15 years ago, it definitely became the beast it is,” he says with a smile.
Small but mighty, the shop has deservedly gained heavyweight status in Scotland’s music scene. It has outlasted around 10 other record shops in Stirling, including big chains.
Regulars come from Glasgow and Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee, and even Oban, Aberdeen and Inverness. But they also come from France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, the US and Canada.
A Stirling institution with international clout
While it is undoubtedly a local institution with international clout, Europa Music’s story didn’t start in Stirling.
By his own admission, Ewen, who grew up in Kirkintilloch, “faffed about” for a good few years before he found his calling.
He had always loved music, though, and vividly remembers being blown away at the age of 10 by King Crimson’s 1969 album In the Court of the Crimson King.
Runrig were another firm favourite, and Ewen saw the band play live around 40 times in his younger years.
“I like a good lot of folk rock,” he says.
“But I also like an awful lot of punk, an awful lot of classical, funk, reggae, jazz – you name it. It depends what mood I’m in.”
Perhaps, then, it’s no big surprise that in 1982, Ewen moved from Glasgow to Alloa – despite not being too sure where Alloa actually was – to buy a record shop, with help from his father.
Ewen’s supportive dad even went as far as building furniture for the store’s interior, some of which is still in use today in the Friars Street shop.
Things were off to a good start. Alloa was a “thriving wee town”, says Ewen – until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
The miners’ strike took a toll, and experimental pedestrianisation of the high street deterred shoppers to the extent that Europa’s takings quickly went from around £1,200 per week to £300.
“Eventually, I have to admit, I was massively in debt,” Ewen says.
Over two years or so, he worked between 100 and 120-hour weeks to avoid bankruptcy, selling at record fairs as well as in the shop.
The record shop with nine lives
Ultimately, Europa Music relocated from Alloa to Stirling in 1992 – a “make or break” decision.
First housed in the Arcade on King Street, Europa moved into its Friars Street premises in 1995, where it has been ever since.
Business was good, giving Ewen some breathing room – though he wasn’t to know that the devastating back-shop fire was just around the corner.
While he is relaxed and positive today, obviously optimistic about the future, Ewen Duncan appears to be the owner of a music shop with nine lives.
“We’ve been through quite a few difficult times over many years, to say the least,” he acknowledges.
“But, it’s just grim determination. Just head down and get on with it.
“I’ve managed to get through quite a few recessions, and we’re still here.”
Ewen has been the linchpin of Europa Music for more than 40 years, and struggles with the thought of “letting go”. But, at 65, he doesn’t seem entirely opposed to the idea of retirement.
The question is who would take on the behemoth that Europa has become.
His children aren’t necessarily in a position to pick up the mantle. But Ewen wonders if a particularly passionate employee might one day be up to the task.
“A lot of very talented people come through the shop,” he smiles.
Let the legacy live on
Many of the store’s personnel, past and present, grew up regularly visiting the shop, became music fanatics, and then were eventually offered a job.
Current staff member Hamish McBurney was still in the womb on his first trip to Europa Music. He’s now in a punk band, knowledgeable and funny, and clearly entirely at home standing among Europa’s packed shelves.
He’s also around the age Ewen was when he first became the owner of a record shop, all those years ago in Alloa.
Standing in Europa Music’s mind-blowing back shop, Ewen estimates he could list over 90% of the records there off the top of his head. His expertise is unmatched, and it’s hard to imagine the business without him at the helm.
But just next door, in the front shop, Ewen’s enthusiastic, effortlessly cool young staff are working hard.
Over the decades, the iconic Stirling shop has nurtured several generations of music aficionados, and continues to do so. When the time comes, they’ll be ready to carry on its legacy.
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