Music to my ears

Great to see that the Observer's Tom Lamont has paid a trip to Spillers in Cardiff to report from the front line in the valiant battle against VAT-dodging online music retailers.

Small of size but big of heart, the shop remains a hub of the city's music scene - the sort of place where the staff really know their musical onions and are more than happy to engage in conversation and offer recommendations, where customers include students and retired RAF officers, where Euros Childs will swing by to drop off additional copies of his new album on request.

It's good to know Ashli and Grace are making a really good fist of it since the move, especially given the threat of closure that hung over the shop barely two years ago. The Hayes may have been remodelled on identikit city centres up and down the country, but Spillers seems to have not just survived but to actually be thriving in its new location.