Sound Advice opens at Banana Block
DJ and producer Marion Hawkes opened Sound Advice at Banana Block, bringing a new independent record shop and music destination to Portview.
Just days after Banana Block opened to the public, a new independent record shop became part of the growing mix at Portview.
Sound Advice, founded by Belfast DJ and producer Marion Hawkes, opened at Banana Block in October 2021 with a focus on electronic music, club culture, soul, jazz, indie, reissues and left-field sounds.
The shop attracted attention from specialist music media and added another public-facing reason to visit the site. Its arrival also reflected the type of activity Banana Block was designed to support: independent enterprise, culture and community occupying a previously vacant part of the former mill.
For Portview, businesses such as Sound Advice demonstrate how regeneration can work at a human scale. Bringing an old industrial space back into use is not only about capital works; it is also about the independent people and businesses that animate those spaces once they reopen.
Sound Advice became part of a wider cluster of food, retail, music and creative activity that helped establish Banana Block as a destination within East Belfast.
Contemporary coverage / source: DJ Mag – New record store, Sound Advice, opens in Belfast
