INDEPENDENT music shops are hard to come by these days, in the age of online shopping, so I decided to visit one of the last of its kind.

As an avid music fan and supporter of independent businesses, I decided to visit Music Mania, in Clacton's High Street, which is one of the last independent music and record shops in Clacton and the whole of Essex.

The store greets you with a yellow front and an eye-catching sign above.

Inside, the venue boasts a nicely decorated interior, with all sorts of music memorabilia and posters on shelves and the walls, as well as t-shirts hanging from the ceiling.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Welcoming - The front of Music ManiaWelcoming - The front of Music Mania (Image: Newsquest)

In the centre of the shop are hundreds of new and preloved CDs and records, which are all neatly displayed in alphabetical rows specified by genre.

There are so many music and pop-culture-themed items available throughout the store in all sorts of forms.

As well as the CDs and records, there are also pin badges, band patches, posters, mugs, stickers, guitar picks and plenty of other interesting items available to buy.

For collectors, the store stocks thousands of 7" singles at 50p each or five for £2.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Music - Some of the records and CDs on displayMusic - Some of the records and CDs on display (Image: Newsquest)

The view behind the counter was incredibly impressive as there were hundreds of fully stocked shelves full of records, CDs and cassettes which seemed to go on for miles into the backroom.

There were a few people in the shop when I arrived who chatted to the owners about what Led Zeppelin records they had in stock.

On a rack near the counter were £10 T-shirts, which featured band merchandise, film merch and other well-designed garments.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Unique - Stickers and croc charms on saleUnique - Stickers and croc charms on sale (Image: Newsquest)

I was amazed at how affordable everything was and I bought a Megadeth T-shirt for £10 and some stickers for my car.

I had an incredible time during my visit to Music Mania as there were so many cool and unique items to look at, I am so happy to see that such an interesting and independent music shop still exists today.

For more information about the shop go to Music Mania's profile on Facebook.