TEESSIDE’S last independent record shop has been inundated with visitors since a documentary about it aired on the BBC.

‘Sound It Out’, a documentary about Stockton’s Sound It Out Records, was screened on BBC Four on November 16 and since then owner Tom Butchart says he has been “rushed off his feet” dealing with customers.

“We’ve got people travelling here from places like London and Leeds and ringing up from Ireland and Belgium. There are a lot of people who have never been to Stockton coming just to see the shop.”

Since the documentary, directed by Jeanie Finlay, was released in 2011, the shop has hosted visitors from as far afield as Germany and the USA.

Mr Butchart said: “The documentary has pushed indie record shops back into the public eye. They have been forgotten, they are being lost to Joe Public and this is making people remember. They are coming in and saying ‘God, I forgot about record shops’.”

Statistics say that over the past five years, a record shop has closed every three days in the UK but Sound It Out is going from strength to strength and was named Best Independent Retailer earlier this year at the prestigious Music Week Awards 2012.

Mr Butchart attributes his shop’s incredible success to nothing more than a passion for music.

“We’ll talk to anyone, we are not music snobs. We are all into music and really passionate about it and the shop shows how diverse we are. It’s just about the music. As long as someone walks out of the shop with a record they are happy with, then we are happy.”