Record Press

Record Store Day was created to raise awareness of the few remaining independent record shops in the UK. It offers an abundance of exclusive releases which are only available in participating stores on the day itself, together with PAs, after-parties and many other special events. Around 180 of the UK’s 280 independent record stores will participate in Record Store Day this Saturday 16th April. Record Store Day is fundamentally a celebration of the dying breed of indie stores, which will be exclusively selling a range of  250 limited edition releases from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Queen, Lady Gaga, Tinie Tempah, The Smiths, Foals and Metronomy.

Record Store Day was established in 2007 when over 700 independent stores in the USA united to celebrate their unique culture and place in society. The event was quickly adopted in the UK and 2011 will see the third celebration of the UK’s independent sector. This is the one day of the year that all of the independently owned record stores collaborate with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are manufactured exclusively for the day and a multitude of artists across the world make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, meet & greets with artists, DJ’s, in store quizzes and many other events.

Interestingly 2011′s Record Store Day “exclusive releases” show vinyl formats dominating the proceedings. Vinyl accounted for just 0.1% of singles sales and 0.2% of albums sales in 2010, according to the Official Charts Company. But of the 232 exclusive releases, 220 of them are on vinyl and just 10 on CD. The final two are actually on cassette!!

UK Record Store Day organiser Spencer Hickman said, “Keen music fans often say they prefer the sound quality of vinyl over CD. The huge dominance of vinyl among Record Store Day releases show people are unwise to write off vinyl just yet. The vinyl releases come in a huge variety of different forms”.

He continues: “There’s coloured vinyl, with colours ranging from red and black swirls, to orange, clear, green, orange, electric blue, and spattered as well as the standard black. There are picture discs, one-sided singles, etched vinyl, a 10″ single with interlocking grooves and vinyl albums which include download codes to enable fans to load a version on to their MP3 players. For a supposedly long dead format, there is an incredible amount of innovation in vinyl”.

Spencer Hickman adds: “The whole point of Record Store Day is to show that indie record shops offer music fans something you can’t get online or in a supermarket. This amazing line-up makes that point very strongly. More stores, more release, more events – Record Store Day seems to have caught the imagination of retailers, artists and fans alike. We are expecting Saturday April 16 to be the biggest Record Store Day yet”.

To celebrate this year’s Record Store Day on 16 April 2011, Sony Commercial Music Group will release a limited number of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” on 7” vinyl and CD format. The vinyl release will feature the alternate version of “Fire” from the West Coast Seattle Boy box set as well as “Touch You”. The CD Single will feature these two tracks plus “Cat Talking To Me”.

Another eyecatching “exclusive release” will be a special 7″ vinyl single of Ozzy Osbourne’s Diary of a Madman’s “Flying High Again” (with a live version of “I Don’t Know” as the B-side”). Other exclusives will be -

• An official live “bootleg” of The Vaccines
• A 10″ vinyl reissue of The Smiths classic “Queen is Dead”
• Metronomy’s hotly-anticipated first single from their new album on 7″ vinyl
• A 12″ picture disc of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”
• A special collectors’ doublepack of 78s of The Beach Boys’  “Good Vibrations”/”Heroes & Villains”
• A Franz Ferdinand Covers EP featuring covers by Debbie Harry and LCD Sound System

The official film of Record Store Day is: SOUND IT OUT by Jeanie Finlay (75 mins) link – http://www.recordstoreday.co.uk/. Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days, and SOUND IT OUT is a documentary portrait of the very last surviving vinyl record shop in Teesside, North East England. A cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, SOUND IT OUT documents a place that is thriving against the odds and the local community that keeps it alive.

Last Friday, 6 April 2011 IndieRecordShop.Org, the lobbying organisation devoted to highlighting the contribution of independent stores to music, announced the names of Britain’s best indie record stores, as voted for by the public:

•        England’s choice is “Resident”, based in Brighton’s vibrant North Laine area;
•        The best Scottish indie is named as “Love Music” in Dundas Street, Glasgow;
•        Carmarthen’s “Tangled Parrot” took the crown as Best Welsh Indie;
•        “Head”, based in Belfast’s Victoria Square Shopping Centre, is Northern Ireland’s choice.

With the demise of “Left Legged Pineapple” in Loughborough, my choice of favourite indie record shop is “Rob’s Record Mart” in Hurt’s Yard, Nottingham. I first became acquainted with the proprietor, Rob Smith, the “Notts Vinyl Sheriff” in 1982, and after nearly 30 years of regular patronage and custom, he still doen’t know my name!! But that’s not important……what is, is the fact that without him I would not have a record collection to play on my two jukeboxes!! If you are lucky enough to have an independent record store in your area, I would urge you to support it, and help it survive in the digital age. It’s all too easy for vinyl record fans to buy on online, rather than traipse into their local town or city to forage through mountains of vinyl at the local record shop!! Besides there’s no substitute for the real experience – these establishments have  a life and aura all of their own, not least because of the pungent and peculiar plastic aroma emanating from the vinyl record!! And there is nothing to beat the thrill of discovering that elusive vinyl record……….somehow it’s not quite the same googling it and finding it on eBay!!

You can capture and preserve the era of when there was an independent record shop on every high street, and re-live the memories and the good times, by ordering your favourite vinyl record or CD, framed and mounted, by clicking on…….. http://www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/ …….. and this way your favourite song can be immortalised on your living room wall in 2011!! ALL OUR VINYL RECORDS / CDS ARE SECOND HAND AND PURCHASED AT RECORD SHOPS NOT ONLINE!!

Alternatively this would make a unique present or original gift for a special celebration  ie a 40th, 50th or 60th Birthday, a Silver, Ruby or Golden Wedding Anniversary, Father’s or Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day!! THE PERFECT PERSONALISED PRESENT!!

For more info on Record Store Day, click on….. http://www.recordstoreday.co.uk/