HMV is a bedrock of the British music industry – its loss would affect us all

The retail chain, now in administration for the second time, weaves music culture into the fabric of our cities – something Spotify can never doThis particular music nerd dutifully filled out his HMV application form in April 1997, and on it wrote that his musical hero was the maverick and frequently unlistenable industrial auteur Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell. Amazingly, the manager of the Southampton store appeared not to view this as a reason to hurl the document into the nearest w