Between a democracy and a benign dictatorship

Inside Rochester's record shop, plus highlights from Medway's latest council meeting, a review of Olé Rochester, our weekly events guide, and more.

and

Apr 19, 2024

What kind of person sets up a record shop these days? Bucking the trend of declining high streets, Alistair Taylor launched Analogue Music in Rochester last year. Ahead of Record Store Day tomorrow, our music correspondent Stephen Morris has been down to find out how it’s going. Further down, we have the highlights from last night’s Medway Council meeting, a review of Olé Rochester, our weekly events guide, and lots more.

Editor’s note: Thanks to everyone who attended our Kent Police and Crime Commissioner debate earlier on Wednesday night. It was an illuminating night, and we’re grateful for all three candidates coming along to answer questions from our readers. The event was recorded so we’re aiming to put that out for those who couldn’t make it along in the near future.

We want to be able to do more of these kinds of events as we approach the General Election, but like everything we do, it’s all dependent on our paid supporters ensuring we have the resources to do so. We’re a little off our target for April at the moment, so if you’ve been on the fence about becoming a paid supporter, we’d love for you to take the leap. To sweeten the deal, for this weekend only, you can get 20% off a full year of Local Authority, whether paying monthly or annually. Our paid supporters receive multiple extra editions every week, access to the full archive of our work, and invites to our social events, all while helping to make our new form of local journalism sustainable.

Get 20% off for a year

Between democracy and benign dictatorship

by Stephen Morris

One of the magnetic, alluring things about Rochester High Street is how very unlike most other high streets it is. The homogenisation of town centres has long been a bugbear of many who yearn for the days of a more independent, individual – quirky even – form of retail.

It’s a concern that has been trumped only by the absence on main thoroughfares when large chains have disappeared: Woolworths, BHS, Debenhams, Virgin Megastore and Wilkinsons, to name but a few.

Whatever the economic benefits or otherwise of having little in the way of identikit fashion and phone shops on the high street, Rochester has, generally, been saved from the indignity of rows of Ozymandian outlets being boarded up and looking very sorry for themselves.

A relatively recent addition to the lineup of unusual suspects on Rochester High Street is Analogue Music, which Alistair Taylor and his partner Hannah Knowlton started in 2023. As Record Store Day is this Saturday, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the shop.

Let’s start at the very beginning…

“I was selling records online for a while and had a stall at the Rochester Vintage and Artisan Market back in 2021,” says Alistair.

“It was going pretty well, and I found that I enjoyed working on the stall more than sitting in a dark room surrounded by records and just communicating with people via email. The shop at 70a High Street came up for rent, and I thought we should give it a go. I’m glad we did!”

The shop is an enticing, inviting space. It projects vibes more akin to those of a buzzing coffee shop than the intimidating mustiness of the gloomy cavern that is likely to spring to mind when you think of the words ‘record shop’.

The walls boast plenty of white space, and records are stored in handmade crates, with Alistair often acting as an in-store DJ at the back of the shop, carefully tending to the vinyl he is about to put on the turntable.

There’s an intentionality here. A reverence even. Alistair and Hannah's attitude toward the shop's layout matches Alistair’s devotion to the items on offer. “I believe the creation of music is the closest humanity gets to articulating the divine,” he says. “The black discs we call records resonate with us due to their proximity to that. They become totems, magical objects. CDs don’t do that. I don’t know why, maybe it’s something to do with the digital process as opposed to analogue.”

Analogue Music’s stock covers a wide variety of genres. “The shop is a continually evolving mass of styles,” says Alistair.

“We cater for a variety of musical communities and for those who have none. The records we carry are dictated by the people that shop there and by ourselves. It teeters somewhere between a democracy and a benign dictatorship.
When we opened the shop, we decided to feature local artists as prominently as we can. The reasoning behind it was that the only way the shop would work was if it reflected the people that shop there.
There does seem to be a strong do it yourself ethos locally. Making something happen, creating your own culture through music or art transforms everyday drudgery into something joyful. Why wouldn’t we want to support that!”

On a personal level, Alistair’s musical taste is as broad as you might imagine. “I go through stages,” he says. “I’ll find a few records that move me in a particular genre and dig within that and around it.”

“I’ll then go back to it in a few months or even years later and listen to it with clear ears. I’m going back to my post-punk dub stuff at the moment and enjoying that.”

Over the coming weeks, Alistair and Hannah will be busy, not just selling records but putting on music-related events. It starts this Saturday (20 April) with Record Store Day, an event for which shop regulars have been recruited to DJ for the afternoon.

On the following Saturday, Analogue Music will be hosting an event to mark the beginning of Zara Carpenter’s ‘This Woman’s Work’ exhibition. “It will feature Zara’s portraits of musicians, singers and songwriters from Medway,” says Alistair. “We’ve handed the evening over to Zara to curate, and she’s bringing in some friends to perform.”

A month later, on 24 May, The Big Cheese Company will be the very special guests of the record shop. “They’ll be doing an ambient/electronic night,” Alistair explains. “It’ll be the second one of these we’ve done.”

“I had a moment during the last one where I was sitting in a spaceship bound for the outer reaches, so I’ve got high expectations for the next one. I know Jack (from The Big Cheese Company) is out there pulling together the lineup at the moment.”

Such events, together with recent in-store performances from Formwork, In Arcadia, and Little Storping in the Swuff, show that Analogue Music is more than a record shop.

It is, at the very least, a community and, quite possibly, a whole way of life.

You can find out more about Analogue Music by following @analoguemusicrochester on Instagram.

The soundtrack to the writing of this article came in the form Xylophonics + Robot X by Woo, a pair of brothers from South London. Alistair explains it’s the latest album he’s bought for himself. “It’s described as retro futuristic electronica,” he says. What he doesn’t say is it’s a gorgeously whimsical collection of tunes that meld electronica and more organic instrumentation into a magical gallimaufry of audible delight.

In brief

✍️ Medway Council has got into a full-on spat with government roads minister Guy Opperman after writing to him claiming it would cost £50m to repair Medway’s roads. Opperman responded incredulously, saying the numbers didn’t add up. Medway Council has replied, accusing the minister of posing more questions than answers.

⚽ Chatham Town Football Club have won the Velocity Cup. They won 2-1 in the final against Hashtag United, which is apparently a real football team.

🍝 Zizzi will open at Chatham Dockside on 27 May. The Italian eatery's launch will come two weeks after the opening of Wagamama next door.

😕 Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey went on BBC Radio Kent this week and was stumped by the tricky question of who his candidate was for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner. After claiming his mind had gone “a bit fuzzy”, the presenter eventually put him out of his misery by revealing that Medway-based Graham Colley was his man. “That does sound familiar”, muttered the ill-prepared leader.

What we learned from Medway Council

Last night saw the latest full Medway Council meeting, as we approach the end of the first year of Medway under a Labour administration. As is now custom, we covered the events live on our Chat section for paid supporters, but we’ve got the highlights down below from what was a surprisingly colourful meeting.

The experimental format for meetings is still in place. This means more time is given for public questions, which are now answered even if the questioner cannot attend. In exchange, some time has been chopped from the Leader’s Report and Overview & Scrutiny, which usually run under time anyway. The order of proceedings has been shuffled to put more important issues towards the beginning of the night rather than having councillors crankily shouting at each other at midnight instead.
Answering a question about the potential redevelopment of Chatham Docks when Labour campaigned to save it in the past, Cllr Curry (Lab) reiterated the need to get a Local Plan passed and said that difficult decisions would need to be made.
On the issue of the moment, Cllr Curry explained how potholes were forming faster than the council could repair them. He pointed out that main roads are doing better than unclassified ones, and the government has cut funding, so it isn’t possible to stay on top of them. He also blamed more cars driving on the roads alongside the decline in available funds.
A slightly odd question to culture portfolio holder Cllr Mahil (Lab) led to a quite a response. A member of the public asked why he hadn’t attended any Ramadan events as part of his role. Cllr Mahil responds that his brother was dying from terminal cancer at the time and that Cllr Maple (Lab) took on many of his duties. He also highlights that he shouldn't need to justify himself and blames former Labour activist Matthew Broadley for the question as part of a grudge, and ends by calling him a prick. Punchy.
The first motion of the night was from the Conservatives on... potholes! The motion says that potholes have got a lot worse since May 2023, coincidentally when Labour took control of the council. It complains that £300,000 has been removed from the pothole budget, praises the Conservatives for sending Medway £12.5m of previous HS2 funding, and asks the money to be reinstated. Cllr Paterson (Lab) responded first, calling it 'revisionist history' out of George Orwell’s 1984 and 'a fantasy' that things were infinitely better before Labour took over. Cllr Curry (Lab) proposed an amendment, which instead said that the roads have got a lot worse since May 2010. After this, Cllr Brake (Con) interjects to point out he had no idea what Cllr Paterson was talking about, leading to a surreal moment where 1984 has to be explained in the chamber. Cllr Lawrence (Con) suggested the deterioration could be part of a 'secret plan' because Cllr Maple doesn't own a car, and Cllr Curry dislikes them. Eventually, Labour won the day with their amendment, making it official that potholes have worsened since 2010.
The second motion was from Cllr Turpin (Ind) on the Local Plan. It complained about Local Plan work being done secretly, and suggests there is little meeting of the group supposedly developing the plan. It proposes to publish regular meeting dates of the working group, publish minutes from the meetings, add a member of the Independent Group to the group and asks that the Local Plan is put together in a 'fair and sustainable' manner, not just focus on the Hoo Peninsula in a predetermined manner. Cllr Curry (Lab) responded that the 'sentiment' behind the motion is 'wonderful'. He said getting the plan in place is challenging and criticises the Conservatives and independents for celebrating the loss of £170m in infrastructure funding, and suggesting they are doing anything underhanded is 'crazy'. Cllr Murray (Lab) said the Independent Group could have a place on the group if they retract their letter to Michael Gove celebrating the funding being lost, which felt like a slightly questionable position to take. Cllr Lawrence (Con) responded by saying that Cllr Murray is often rude and unpleasant and asks if what she offered was blackmail. As a ‘point of personal explanation’, Cllr Murray said it's just everything he does, everything he says, and everything he stands for that she dislikes. Crikey. The motion did not pass.
During councillor questions, Cllr Hackwell (Con) suggested a School Street scheme in his ward is causing issues on adjacent streets to where the scheme is in place. Cllr Osborne (Lab) responds, slightly cheekily, that he'd be happy to expand the scheme to those adjacent streets on Cllr Hackwell's behalf.
Cllr Wildey (Con) asks a bewildering question about whether Labour borrowed £50m to buy housing to house the homeless. Cllr Khan (Lab) responds that he was in the meeting where it was decided.
Absurdly, of the 27 councillor questions submitted for the meeting, with only 20 minutes allowed to handle them, a mere nine were answered.
A small expansion of the Sun Pier to Star Hill Conservation Zone was agreed upon, taking in Manor Road, part of Chatham High Street, and a handful of surrounding areas.
Some procedural jostling at the end when deciding the committee places for the coming year. Medway doesn’t allow independent councillors to sit on committees, meaning seats will be sitting empty this year as the number of councillors for political parties has declined and the number of independents has increased. Cllr Turpin suggested this could be changed, while Cllr Maple said it could not. We’re not sure who is right, but it does feel quite silly.

If you’re so inclined, you can watch the full meeting here:

Out to lunch: Olé Rochester

In which Steven Keevil assesses the lunch options available in our towns. This week, he’s been down to Olé Rochester…

Olé Rochester is a new Spanish restaurant on Rochester High Street. The venue is spaciously laid out with a high ceiling and goes back further than you might first expect. If you arrive for lunch, you might ponder, as we did, if the venue is actually open despite the wide-open doors. With no staff in sight, you wonder if you should sit down or leave. Once you sit down, be careful, as the legs of the tables seem deliberately placed to kneecap this writer.

We ordered from the tapas menu. For two, we ordered olives, crispy potato cubes, crispy belly of pork in sweet chilli sauce, chicken and chorizo skewers, cheese (for some reason), ‘delightful’ cod croquettes, and mushrooms in a cream white wine sauce. This highlights the risk of being hungry and seeing a list of tasty-sounding food and forgetting that tapas is starter-sized portions at main meal prices.

The cod croquettes were indeed delightful, the crispy pork was very crispy and came with surprise sweet potato fries, and it is hard to go wrong with fried mushrooms in sauce. If we had finished there, we might be explaining what a great meal it was, and you should go there. Sadly, we did not.

The chicken on the skewers was tough, the potatoes were not cubed and served with an uninspiring sauce, and we made the mistake of ordering the uninspiring churros for dessert. Whilst I wanted to write a positive review, I can’t encourage you to visit Olé when I have no desire to return.

Events this week

🎸 Poco Loco in Chatham has live music tonight (Fri 19 Apr) from Electric Rats, Killing Silver, and Cream Soda. The poster describes the lineup as ‘hi-voltage garage punk rock n roll’ if that sounds like your sort of thing. Tickets £5.

🥕 Rochester Farmers’ Market is this Sunday (21 Apr) in Rochester’s Blue Boar Lane car park. A large selection of traders will be selling fresh food and drink between 9am and 1pm. Free.

🎞️ Cineworld will continue its action season next week with a screening of Mad Max: Fury Road on Monday (22 Apr). The cinematic equivalent of being relentlessly punched in the face for two straight hours, but in a good way. Tickets £5.

📷 Nucleus Arts in Chatham has a new exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of Chatham Dockyard’s closure. Dockyard 40: Transform exhibits photographic portraits of the employees, volunteers and businesses that have transformed the Dockyard from its closure as a functioning Naval base in 1984 to its current use. Free.

More Authority

Our paid supporters receive extra editions of Local Authority every week. On Wednesday, supporters received a full analysis of Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner elections. No, wait, come back. It’s a fascinating deep dive into one of our most understood and least engaged elections.

By the numbers elections

April 17, 2024

Read full story

Our Sunday interviews are now exclusive to our paid supporters. This weekend, we’ve got an interview with Conservative councillor and group whip Barry Kemp. He discusses the internal relationships within the Conservative Group, the mystery of Gillingham’s mayoral chain, why people in Hoo wanted him dead, and lots more.