Some Great Reward: A music haven in Glasgow’s Southside

Tucked away on Pollokshaws Road in the heart of Glasgow’s Southside is a quaint record shop and café called Some Great Reward. Turning off the bustling Strathbungo main road into the creative retail hub The Cooperage sees the car horns and road works drowned out by the hustle and bustle of a creative courtyard, with Some Great Reward as its centrepiece.

Taking a seminal Depeche Mode LP for its namesake, the café and record store is both a space to flick through great new releases updated weekly and sit down with a flat white to talk all things music. From the day it first opened its doors in March 2018, Some Great Reward has remained a cultural and communal touchstone in the city, and a key jigsaw piece in the Record Store Day family. 

First conceived in 2008 and running ever since, Record Store Day is a day caked in red ink on a shop’s yearly calendar, as over 750 independent businesses sell limited edition vinyls and invite swathes of music collectors and casual fans alike together over a shared love of music, all while celebrating the culture of the independently-owned record store.

For Some Great Reward, their love affair with Record Store Day began a year into their history in April 2019, and they haven’t looked back. Founded by Olly McFadden seven years ago, the shop has shared spaces, bounced between homes, and seen countless incredible records pass over the counter. 

With a background in hospitality and fuelled by an unbridled passion for music, Faye Woodcock began working at Some Great Reward at its original site in a unit on Victoria Road, five minutes away from their current location. “I was doing two or three different bits and pieces; there was an advert looking for someone competent in coffee and that’s how I started, just being a dab hand.” 

As time passed, Faye began taking the reins more and more and now runs Some Great Reward as its manager. “I’m now the only full time employee so to speak,” Faye says, “I’ve always had a passion for music and a love of the physical format, and things like Record Store Day have allowed me to get to know our patrons really well.

“I get a real hit from guessing what people are likely to come in for. You just have to pay attention and understand that music affects everybody in vastly different but also remarkably similar ways.”

“You just have to pay attention and understand that music affects everybody in vastly different but also remarkably similar ways.”

Initially, Some Great Reward was less record-focused during its time at the Victoria Road unit. “We had more of a café focus with some records on the side,” Faye recalls, “But it started to focus more on new releases and records when the pandemic hit.” The haze of bad memories ushered on by the pandemic altered Some Great Reward’s trajectory as a local internet radio community station was in its infancy and needed a home. “Radio Buena Vida was just starting up and asked if they could broadcast from our shop, so there was a little window of time when they were broadcasting from our shop and starting up their own little business as well” Faye told us. Their partnership continued until two and a half years ago when Some Great Reward moved to their new location at 674 Pollokshaws Road while Radio Buena Vida moved into their own premises on Victoria Road, where they still reside.

Some Great Reward stands strong as one of Glasgow’s best record shops, owing to its importance and accessibility to the local community. “The small collaboration we did with Radio Buena Vida really opened my eyes to the potential for being a space where people can get to know others with similar passions and similar backgrounds.” 

“The small collaboration we did with Radio Buena Vida really opened my eyes to the potential for being a space where people can get to know others with similar passions and similar backgrounds.”

“Having a coffee machine for me is really important. The cost of new vinyl is sky high and I know a lot of people can't afford to come and support the shop in the way of buying a record every week, but a lot of people do just come round to grab a flat white and have a chat for half an hour and get us caught up on things that they're doing in the local community.” 

Regular customers include people involved in Glasgow’s vibrant cultural scene, with many being a part of venues, start-ups, DJ nights, and live acts taking place across the city, and Some Great Reward acts as a beacon for anyone and everyone in the community with a creative mind. “The shop's always just covered in posters of other things that are happening in the area. It's an indispensable thing for a lot of people to just come and have a chat with me or others hanging around to pass on the information about what's happening in the area.”

Faye’s eclectic music taste and focus on community fuels Some Great Reward as a shop specialising in new vinyl. “Given that we don’t have anything second-hand, what we’re able to curate has been fed into by customers over the last seven years or so. Whilst you’ll never really find a lot of top ten charting artists on our new release wall, I pay quite a lot of attention to what people have been asking me for over the years, which has fed into what we stock.” 

“There’s a lot of African reissues and jazz reissues that are getting picked up quite a lot by different people in the area, and I’ve got a metal section curated through both my own taste and by listening to what people are talking about when they come in. We also do a special ‘buy ten, get one free’ loyalty card on sole price LPs, so for every tenth purchase, you get a free record.”

From her experience playing DJ slots herself, Faye has a finger on the pulse of the local area, helping her to juggle new releases with reissues while finding a way to support rising Scottish talent. “I guess it’s just paying attention to what people are looking for, and having a good ear for music as well. There’s no real way I could listen to everything in the shop every day, but I think I can confidently say I know something about everything. The immediate area is quite a bustling hub for music events, ranging from lo-fi indie to DJ nights. There’s a lot of house and techno happening and an incredible jazz scene on our doorstep.”

"The immediate area is quite a bustling hub for music events, ranging from lo-fi indie to DJ nights. There’s a lot of house and techno happening and an incredible jazz scene on our doorstep.”

“We’ve got this communal courtyard where we’re able to put gigs on, so we’ve done a couple of different album launches for bands who might not be at the scale, but it allows them to play their music on the day of release alongside selling their physical vinyl or their CD.”

Along with album launches, Some Great Reward has a glowing history of wonderful live performances, from label showcases to DJ sets and more. “In the past, we put on an independent label showcase with Gold Mold Records, highlighting a bunch of different artists like Sulka and Finney. We had album launches for a band called Azamiah, which was released on Rebecca’s Records. And then last summer we invited the Blue Lab Beats boys into the courtyard when they were launching their album Blue Eclipse.”

Building up to Record Store Day, often the busiest day in a record store’s year, is both exciting and daunting. “It’s a lot of work,” Faye admits, “we work around the clock to try and get everything online and make sure that our customers can see what’s going on, then our orders need to be in pretty early. I’m finally at the point where I feel like it’s all coming together.” 

On the releases Some Great Reward has in store for Record Store Day, Faye surmised that “It looks like we’re going to be having 280 records, and they’re all quite ranging. We've got the sort of bread-and-butter bits and pieces that you really can't get away without having, and have received loads of requests.” 

“There are some other releases that I think are just going to sit quite well in the shop in terms of what we tend to stock anyway, so the Air and Safari demos are going to be quite good. There's a release by Joe Smooth, which I'm quite excited about personally, and then also the My Ruin record for the metalheads that were in the 90s.”

Record Store Day was a godsend for Some Great Reward, as it offered them an opportunity to raise their profile and introduce themselves to a swathe of new music lovers. “After we first took part in Record Store Day, I think that was a turning point for us in being able to get the loyalty of a lot of new customers. It reality put us on the map and has resulted in quite a few of our weekly or monthly regulars - people for whom Record Store Day is every Friday - coming in every week to pick up new releases.” 

“After we first took part in Record Store Day, I think that was a turning point for us in being able to get the loyalty of a lot of new customers.”

For any music fan finding themselves in Glasgow, Some Great Reward is a must-see spot, whether it’s to catch the hottest new releases every Friday or to use as your newest coffee place. Make sure to beat the queues and get down to Some Great Reward this Record Store Day and see what they have in store. 

As Faye said, “Sometimes the list doesn’t work for everybody, but there’s always something for somebody. I think if you take a chance to really dig deep, you can find something that’s going to be good for you.”

No matter your taste, Some Great Reward welcomes you with open arms. 

Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.

Header image credit: Some Great Reward