TAVISTOCK's first independent new music shop for many years is set to open its doors this Saturday.

The Music Room will be based at Book Stop in Market Street, on the shop's second floor — where until recently, the bookshop ran its coffee shop.

Book Stop proprietors, Simon and Natasha Church, this week expressed their gratitude to the Coffee Shop's staff and customers alike.

They said: 'We would like to thank Sandra, Susie, Sue, Nigel, Behroze, Wendy, Karen and Nicky, and everyone else who has helped out over the years and, most of all, we want to thank the wonderful customers who have shown such commitment in coming up to the second floor.'

Simon and Natasha said they were looking forward to the new venture.

Their excitement is shared by Graham Jones, independent music distributor and author of 'Last Shop Standing', which has become a must-read for anyone interested in local record shops. When Graham started out in the business, there were more than 3,000 record shops. Today just 265 survive, but he says it is not all doom and gloom.

In the last year, 14 new record shops have opened as people are recognising that their towns offer a great opportunity to sell to music fans who buy the physical product.

Graham said: 'I am really impressed with Simon and Natasha's vision. They are converting the whole of the second floor of the book shop into a CD department. They have a superb selection of rock, jazz, blues, folk, country, classical and relaxation CDs.

'I think this is a really exciting development for Tavistock. Not only have they got an excellent independent book shop where you can browse through the books, they will now have a CD outlet to look through too.'