Vinyl sniffing, crate digging, call it what you will, it may be a wee bit geeky, but I had my first taste at 16, and thanks to the recent opening of a fantastic store in Farringdon, I've fallen in love with proper record shopping all over again.

As a teen most of my Saturday afternoons were spent this way, trawling Sheffield's many record shops with a leather-clad boy who played bass in the most ‘90s indie band you could imagine.

He used to work every Tuesday afternoon in one of Sheffield's coolest (!) second-hand record stores, in exchange for a fiver and a record of his choice. The shop - in keeping with the fact that independent record shops are a magnet for the truly bonkers - was run by a man who thought he was a pirate. No, really....

Later, during my time at University in Leeds, the record shopping dwindled a bit. This was partly because I only ever found one record shop I really loved (sadly devoid of pirates, cowboys, or any other madness, really…) and largely because I just couldn't afford it.

After graduating and moving to London, my first job was slap bang in the middle of Camden town, where you couldn't move for crates of Bowie albums in near-mint condition and seven inches by the next lot of Camden-dwelling Strokes-loving converse-wearing boys with guitars. It was ace, and I caught the record-shopping bug yet again.

But, like many others,I soon fell into 'the Amazon/eBay trap': Life speeds up, there doesn't seem to be the time for proper record shopping, and let's face it; getting musical 'presents' through the post really is quite exciting. By the time they arrive you've forgotten about the paying for them bit, and it seems like free music. Add to this the fact that you can buy them via your office PC at lunchtime (or even during work hours if you're proper naughty…) and it's easy to see why 30 per cent of people now buy all their music online.

For a while, though, it was only the more popular releases that could be found online, making a trip to a real-life store still a necessity for a lot of people. But as internet shopping continues to grow, virtually every record shop worth its salt now has an online store, meaning you really can get everything via the internet – not just mainstream stuff.

This inevitable switch to online shopping means even iconic London stores like Reckless Records and Mister CD have had to shut-up shop. But, as with many modern 'improvements', after some time the novelty starts to wear off and people remember why they liked the original in the first place. Granted, there are some people for whom record shopping is purely about buying a (new) release and taking it home as quickly as possible, but for those who like to browse, sniff, and enjoy record shops in themselves – there is good news.

Last year saw Rough Trade move into its immense new premises off Brick Lane, complete with meeting area, café, performance area, and rack upon rack of quality music.

And now Puregroove, an independent, poky little place in Archway beloved by bonkers Gallic songsmith Sebastien Tellier (and me), is following suit and could quite easily become one of the hippest joints in London town.

A few weeks ago I tried to call them to check they had something in stock, but there was no answer. A few days later I tried again and the line was dead. I was starting to panic, thinking it had gone the way of so many others before it, but no – although the north London venue that I knew and loved had indeed closed down, this was only because a shiny, new and improved version had opened in Smithfield.

Capitalising on all that an internet store can never be, Puregroove is hosting more, free in-store gigs than ever, is now putting on club nights around East London, hosting its own pub quiz and is genuinely creating a focus point for a musical community. As well as a bloody good shop to browse and buy music in, of course.

For those purists who loved the old N19 location and fear this move to trendy-wendy Farringdon is going to produce a watered-down, more commercial or pretentious version of Puregroove, it really hasn't. Honest. And for those who never made it as far up the northern line as Archway, this really is the place to make you ditch the online stuff and start vinyl sniffing all over again.

To get an idea of what Puregroove is all about, and to check out its superb list of upcoming in-store gigs, see http://www.puregroove.co.uk/  

By Gemma Hughes/MOLI