Pump it up: Dawsons gets supersized

What is the sound of a music store moving across the city? With Dawsons, we imagine it’ll be the sound of a thousand guitars, a nice percussive backbeat and some spine tingling synth washes. Maybe even a trumpet voluntary. It’s a wild stab, but we bet it sounds better than a hardware store stalking across the street. Far too much industrial death metal for our tastes.

Whatever, we’ll soon find out, as the mighty music superstore is orchestrating some manoeuvres (possibly in the dark) next weekend, as it moves from Ranelegh Street to its ultra-impressive new home on Williamson Street.

Dawsons and Liverpool go way back. The store, originally founded just down the road in Warrington, is one of the longest serving music retailers in the UK. Now it’s the name behind a network of 12 stores and a leading online retail business.

In Liverpool, the Dawsons team has been helping us to make music for over 15 years. Never short of a friendly plectrum, or sympathetic ear when we have a bash at the opening chords of ‘Imagine’ on a tasty Yamaha, they’ve been the Saturday afternoon jamming spot of choice for those intent on getting just one more effects pedal. You know how it is.

Now, after a lengthy period of searching for the perfect location, Dawsons has found a new home, more than double the size of its current store.

All of which means the store can provide an even greater choice of guitars, pianos, recording equipment, and all of the instruments and gear that the current store already stocks, with hugely expanded DJ equipment and music technology department.

And you can expect plenty of areas designed specifically to help customers experience their products and make the most informed decisions about their new wah-wah. Or MAudio MIDI Keyboard. Or Les Paul reissue.

Dawsons’ Managing Director, Mark Taylor, is officially excited: ‘The musicians of this city have been very good to us and we want to give them a music store to be really proud of. This is the music store that Liverpool has always deserved, but never had.’

Will the new store make better musicians of us? We really couldn’t say. Will it make Saturday afternoons a lot more exciting (and Tuesday mornings, come to that)? Oh yes.

We’re practicing House of the Rising Sun in preparation. And we’ll be reporting back next week, when the new store flings open its doors. Watch this space…