You have nominated a talented couple from Poole who designed Prince’s official website and ran his Love4One Another charity for our Trader of the Week.

Stephanie and Christopher Bartley opened Rock It on Poole High Street three years ago, wanting to create a unique shopping experience for music lovers and a hub for official merchandise.

Bournemouth Echo:

And we received a flurry of nominations for Rock It. If you would like to nominate your favourite trader, fill out our super-easy form here

Prince lovers descended on the shop and the couple soon specialised in Prince memorabilia, which has grown into what Stephanie describes as a “mini-museum.”
Rock It soon became a mecca for Prince “fams” (never liking the word fan Prince referred to his audience as “family”) who would travel across the globe to visit the shop.

Bournemouth Echo:

Stephanie said: “We have a long association with Prince, so he was always going to be a big part of what we did, although we didn’t set out to specialise in him.

"We first met Prince in 1988 and went on to work with him until the mid 2000’s. We wrote and designed for his official website and ran his Love4OneAnother charity.

“We started with a section on Prince but it soon became obvious people were wanted a more extensive range, so we developed this side of the business. It was more of a passion project than a business plan.”

Bournemouth Echo:

“We have visitors from all over the country, and before the pandemic from Europe and further afield, and have lots of Prince items on display. So even if you don’t come to buy, you can soak up the music and see our own vintage and rare Prince
collection.

“It’s almost like a mini Prince Museum as well as a shop. Although the outside of the shop is purple we stock a wide range of other groups and artists, so everyone is welcome!”

When the pandemic hit, the High Street shop closed, however with a strong Prince presence online (rockitpoole.com), the couple continued mail order and used lockdown to source more rare and unusual Prince items.

Since opening Rock It has already had visitors from London, Bristol and Birmingham exclusively for Prince.

Bournemouth Echo:

“Because our reputation has grown within the Prince community, we made the decision to make our online presence completely Prince based. This is basically what got us through lockdown.

“We take a great deal of care and time in sourcing, displaying, packing and shipping our Prince items and feel that it’s our duty to live up to his standards - we like to think that Prince would approve!”