Original Rockers

The first time I truly couldn't take the needle of a book. The smell of vinyl virtually emanates from the page.

This is not so much a eulogy for record shops as an examination of the romantic, slightly tragic disposition of the people to whom they meant so much.

Original Rockers is a remarkable memory fugue, a work of rapture and reverie, a bittersweet and often moving tribute to a hallowed place.

Part time capsule, part history lesson, part musical treasure map, Original Rockers goes beyond recalling King's several years working at Bristol's Revolver Records during the 1990s. Offering insights into the idiosyncratic, often comically dysfunctional world behind the counter, King unashamedly romanticises those pre-internet days when musical knowledge was hard won rather than a mouse-click away.

Celebrates the independent record shop as not only a cultural hub but also a dream state, a tiny republic within a city. It's an inspiring reverie, a beautiful book about an almost extinct world.

There are a dozen different books packed into Original Rockers - a comic portrait of Revolver, a Bristol scene history and an analysis of British experimental music, for starters, but such abundance allows the book to imitate a flick through the record racks