Up until 2016, Corey Lavender was on a different career path. Then he had something of an epiphany… on an actual path.

It was while walking the Camino De Santiago across Spain that the accountant who had never intended to be an accountant and didn’t really want to be an accountant realised he could change course.

His new destination? Funky Town (S40).

He decided to open a record shop and name it after a cult 70s film he likes. It’s also the name of a Primal Scream album he likes. And a New Order song he likes.

In February of 2017, Vanishing Point Records opened in a small unit in Falcon Yard, Chesterfield. Two years later, the store moved about 40 yards to a bigger unit in Theatre Yard. And a few years after that, the shop expanded into the neighbouring unit, becoming the multi-room vinyl haven it is today.

Along the way, gigs were staged using the ‘top room’ (a mezzanine area) as a performance space. These included such notables as Mark Morriss from The Bluetones, Josh O’Keefe, Katie Spencer and an exclusive, ultra-rare full band show from The Las legend Lee Mavers, which made the national newspapers.

The stockroom of the store was re-purposed in 2023, to become a studio for what was then Radio Free Matlock (full story elsewhere on this page). Radio Free Matlock was eventually rebranded as VPR Audio Club and brought fully under the Vanishing Point Records umbrella. It creates a unique vibe in the store with live shows playing out across all the rooms as well as on the online livestream.

Now, the store has had a reshuffle to create more social space without compromising the plentiful vinyl stocks, which bring in customers from Chesterfield’s surrounding cities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby, as well as some from much further afield. Tokyo, for instance. Meanwhile, VPR Audio Club is bringing in loads of great guest DJs, adding to its superb line-up of resident DJs and radio hosts, and the future for both the shop and the radio station looks brighter than ever.

You should come and have a look…