A Bridport record shop taking the vinyl scene by storm is one of only four venues in the world exhibiting and selling a renowned photographer's impressive archive.

Clocktower Music, nestled in St Michael's Estate, is proud to showcase the incredible photographs captured by Adrian Boot over his enviable career, along with venues in Tokyo, Los Angeles and New York.

Adrian Boot has been photographing mainly musicians for around 50 years. In 1973, Adrian shot the Kingston recording session of The Rolling Stones' album, 'Goats Head Soup', the job in Jamaica that was Adrian's launchpad and on his return to the UK in 1974, his career took off.

He was often called to photograph the best-known reggae musicians – Toots and the Maytals, Eddy Grant, even Bob Marley but over the next few years also covered Led Zeppelin, Abba, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Patti Smith, The Sex Pistols and Blondie. By 1978, he was staff photographer for music magazine Melody Maker, covering The Grateful Dead, Grace Jones, The Police and other international artists.

He continued to cover the current stars in the 1980s, including Bruce Springsteen, U2, Paul McCartney and Kate Bush and co-produced the book 'Bob Marely: Soul Rebel, Natural Mystic' and then covered Bob Marley's funeral not long afterwards.

He left Melody Maker in 1983 and it was 1985 that he got probably his highest-profile job when Bob Geldof made him official photographer for Live Aid USA in Philadelphia.

Adrian continued to photograph some of the best-known musicians and moved to Walditch in 2015 where he lives with his wife, Lynne.

He continues to take photographs around the world but staying closer to home and working at last year's Glastonbury Festival.

Find out more about Adrian Boot here

Take a look at the exhibition at Clocktower Music which is open following lockdown.

Most recently, Clocktower welcomed Dorset-born folk singer-songwriter Fenne Lily who signed copies of her new album, 'Breach', which is now available on limited orange vinyl and CD.

It's often been billed that Clocktower Music isn't a shop, it's a destination and it was the enthusiast behind Clocktower who pulled the local vinyl scene together and then spread it far and wide. About 13 years ago, former finance man Roy Gregory opted for a quieter life in Bridport, but taking on a market stall to sell off part of his record collection soon put paid to that. Before long he was buying and selling, bucking the then-prevailing notion that vinyl was, if not dead, at least in hiding.

His next move was a record fair, across several venues and supported by Bridport Town Council, the success of which led to 'Vinyl Saturday', a quarterly record market named the best in Europe by a leading UK music magazine.

The shop, which opened in 2016, draws vinyl fans from far and wide and achieved an amazing third place in the 2019 independent Record Shop of the Year competition – a nationwide contest run by Long Live Vinyl magazine. It came top of all shops in the South and South West of the UK.