THE music will play on at Bolton’s HMV store after administrators announced it was safe from the closure of 66 branches across the UK.

The 10 staff at the Crompton Place shop are secure — but more than 900 other HMV workers face redundancy in other branches.

Manchester city centre’s iconic 90 Market Street store is to shut — although the nearby Arndale Centre store is staying open.

Other smaller shops in Rochdale, Ashton, Wigan and Blackburn are also to close as part of the recovery plans for the music, DVD and games chain. The Trafford Centre site remains open.

Administrators at accountancy firm Deloitte announced the news yesterday. The 66 affected shops employ 930 staff but no fixed date has been set for the closures. All shops which will continue to trade in the meantime. However, it is expected that closures will take place over the next two months. HMV currently operates from 220 UK branches.

It opened a lot of smaller branches in the 2000s but was traditionally based only in large towns and city centres. The closures will return HMV to a smaller chain reflecting its size during its 1980s heydays.

Nick Edwards, a joint administrator at Deloitte, said: “As part of our ongoing review of HMV’s financial position, we have have identified 66 loss-making stores for closure. This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of securing the business’ future as a going concern.

“We continue to receive strong support from staff and are extremely grateful to them for their commitment during an understandably difficult period. All other key stakeholders remain very supportive and I continue to be hopeful of securing a future for the restructured business.”

Other north-west shops to close include Warrington, St Helen’s and Birkenhead. Other big cities are affected as well as Manchester, with closures in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham and London.