When did High Street shops start playing such great music?

The family and I went to Hitchin for the first time yesterday.  It's a lovely market town about 30 minutes from Hertford and we'll definitely be returning in the future.  Hertford is pretty rubbish for men's clothes shops (we have a very expensive one, the name of which escapes me now, and a Matalan) so it was quite refreshing going somewhere with a White Stuff, a Fat Face and a Next. 

It was lunchtime when we got there and the threat of rain made us duck into the first cafe we came across which was was a Greggs.  While I fed DD2, my wife queued up with DD1 to get our food and then something extraordinary happened - "Anarchy in the UK" came over on the loud speaker.  It was the start of a very interesting weekend's worth of cool High Street shop music.

After I'd picked up a ukulele tuner from a music shop (strange, but I don't actually remember them playing any music in there!), we headed to Next where the first song on the loud speaker was "Undertow" by Warpaint.  The album is one of my favourites of the year so far and after hearing it I was already looking forward to what would be playing in the next shop we went in (yep, I am that sad!)

Fat Face delivered as well when Two Door Cinema Club's "Cigarettes in the Theatre" started playing.  A great song that always reminds me of the Hertford Theatre.  Even though you can't smoke in there, you can take beers in - even those purchased from outside, which is nice.  When we got home, my wife took DD1 off to a birthday party so I had some bonding time with poorly DD2.  I put on "Tourist History", another great album, and I think she liked it - and it probably made her feel a lot better.  You can tell these things even if they are only 10 months old!

The rest of the shops must have had broken sound systems that day as I don't recall hearing anything else of note which is disappointing after such a fantastic start.  However, a trip into Hertford today proved it wasn't a one off. 

I popped into Card Factory (if you don't know it, it's THE place for bargain birthday cards) and straight away "You are a Tourist" by Death Cab for Cutie came on.  My faith was restored and I eagerly await our next High Street shopping trip...