The Indie Record Shop Turning a Small Cheshire Town into a Live Music Hotspot
- Beth Hemingway
- Feb 11
- 3 min read
Images are courtesy of Dani and Steve from Applestump Records.
It’s not often you draw mainstream, established music artists in your quiet market town in Cheshire. I often describe Nantwich as a place to find lots of coffee shops, charity shops and a great market hall to those who wish to visit. It’s a very quaint and very pretty town. However for music, it’s never really been big for upcoming artists until my local record shop set their sights on changing the live music scene in the region.
Back in October 2024, when Applestump Records advertised they were hosting Welsh rap icons Goldie Lookin Chain at Nantwich Civic Hall I made sure to get tickets right away. The event sold out quickly, with Nantwich being only an hour away from places such as Chester, Shrewsbury and Wrexham it meant many music fans around the North West area could visit. Seeing the civic hall buzz with fans dressed in their tracksuits and big gold chain necklaces in celebration of the band, there wasn’t a person sat down in sight. It was a great moment which showed that a small market town such as Nantwich can still bring out a big crowd for live music.With it being a shift in the music scene for the area I asked a few gig-goers what it means to have live music in the town.First of all I asked music fan Sarah who told me:
“We sort of associate Nantwich with sort of old people’s music and that sort of thing but actually coming here and seeing a band that is relevant and just brilliant [it’s] really really good”.
Helen, a big GLC fan judging by her outfit of a full blue tracksuit, shared:
“It’s just amazing, we don’t get the opportunity to have nights out like this locally so it’s really really good”.
There are further live music events in the pipeline too. Dani and Steve, the owners of Applestump Records, have hosted more live music events in their very own record shop which can hold around 30 people and is located in the centre of Nantwich. Last year Bill Ryder-Jones performed an intimate in-store gig to celebrate his new album ‘lechyd Da’ and many other artists such as Bobby Lee, Abbie Ozard, James McGrath, Adam Ross and M G Boulter have since played in-store gigs too.
Dani from Applestump mentioned what great feedback they had from the artists during these intimate gigs, she said:
“Quite a few of the [artists] have commented what a warm welcome they have had from the audience. Especially in the shop when it is such an intimate gig and they’ve really enjoyed the interaction they’ve had with [them]”.
So I asked Dani why she’s putting Nantwich on the music map:
“We have always loved music and live music in particular. Hence why we started the shop so we are music lovers first and foremost. So an extension of the record shop is to start putting on events for two reasons really. It will help us promote new releases and [records] coming out. It has an extra benefit to the shop, and also we want to bring the artists and music that we love to a small town. A small town that isn’t necessarily on the touring circuit.”
I also had to ask what events we can expect in the local area for 2025 - She divulged:
“We are in a good position in the shop that we should start to book in-store signing for new releases so hopefully we will get some of those, either lesser-known or upcoming artists.”
To music fans around the area Nantwich is a great place to put on the map. It has direct services to Shrewsbury and Manchester and isn’t far from the Welsh border. Hopefully bringing more artists into the area will allow more music fan’s to be able to enjoy live music and it will bring new visitors into the small town.
With events coming up with John Power, The Lottery Winners, Miki Berenyi and Shaun Ryder, with more acts expected to be announced I think it’s a very exciting time for music fans who live out of the city to go and see live music without having to travel miles for the pleasure.
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