Trade opinion: Record Store Day, the inspiration for Local Bike Shop Day: Saturday 13th April 2019 saw another successful Record Store Day (RSD) with thousands of record shops across the globe coming together to celebrate their unique culture and community. It has become one of the biggest annual occasions on the music calendar with exclusive vinyl records created, artist performances and events throughout the world to mark the day. RSD has become the success that it is today because it is both, exclusive to indie record stores and, an entirely inclusive event, inviting everyone to take part…Like RSD, Local Bike Shop Day (LBSD) is an annual event for independent bike shops across the UK to come together and celebrate the passion and knowledge that sets them apart from the larger national chains. The inaugural LBSD in 2018 was a huge success bringing together over 50 bike shops across the UK in celebration. This year is already promising to be bigger and better with over 140 bike shops taking part.
Meet the Record Label Turning Video Game Soundtracks Into Cool Vinyl: It’s not often artists like Weezer and Courtney Love are mentioned in the same breath as Hollow Knight, Darkest Dungeon and Nuclear Throne. For Ghost Ramp, a boutique record label based in Southern California, representing video games soundtracks alongside traditional music is a typical day at the office. Founded in 2008 as the music blog of Nathan Williams, the frontman of San Diego punk/pop group Wavves, Ghost Ramp evolved into a fully-blown independent record label in 2011, when it backed a handful of west coast indie acts such as Antwon, Cloud Nothings and So Stressed. Fast forward to 2015 and Ghost Ramp extended its purview to video games, when Williams and label manager Patrick McDermott – both lifelong gamers – pressed an official limited-edition vinyl run of Austin Jorgensen’s score for the quirky post-apocalyptic side-scrolling role-player LISA.
The music world’s Holy Grail: The 45 rpm 7″ vinyl single Do I Love You (Indeed I Do ) by Frank Wilson on Tamla Motown record label, value £25,000, original pressings, 1979 re-release £30, DJ copies, £60….Frank Wilson (1940-2012) was an American songwriter, singer and record producer for Tamla Motown records who had written and produced many hit records for Motown artists, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Miracles, The Four Tops, Diana Ross/The Supremes and many others. One day, he decided to cut a single of his own for release. The song was first pressed and recorded in 1965. No one is absolutely sure of how many demos were made; 250 is the accepted figure, but some say it could be higher. After playing it for Berry Gordy, head of Motown records who gave the song a lukewarm opinion, Frank had all the demos destroyed, although two, possibly three copies survived, one of which, when auctioned, sold for £25,742 in May 2009.
NZ | Rare Elvis Presley record found in old pile of records and donated to museum: Elvis may have left the building, but somehow, one of his extremely rare, 64-year-old records ended up in a South Island secondhand shop. And the original New Zealand-pressed E-Z Country Programming No. 2 LP from 1955 was discovered by none other than a travelling church organ tuner. Oamaru musicologist Dr Ron Newton, who has a PhD in NZ organ history and a museum of pipe and reed organs, was tempted to throw the valuable piece of vinyl away until he did some research. “Then I looked it up and discovered it was sought after by collectors all around the world, and I thought, this record needs to go to a museum,” Newton said. It is a copy of the first 12″ vinyl LP recording of Elvis’s music ever made and is sought by collectors because of two featured tracks: “Mystery Train” and “I Forgot To Mention To Forget.”
Manchester, UK | Record collector stole friend’s rare vinyls [“Vinyls” is not a word. The plural of vinyl is in fact “vinyl.”] and sold them for £500. Paul Spencer stole up to £500 worth of records from his friend who entrusted him to look after the collection: A man who stole rare vinyl records from a friend he worked with at HMV received a 12 week electronic curfew after pleading guilty at Manchester Magistrates Court today. Paul Spencer, 46, was entrusted by Sean Crossey to store his treasured vinyl collection in his spare room while he emigrated to Canada. Spencer, of Pyramid Court, Salford , had been friends with Mr Crossey for 20 years and was a vinyl collector himself. However, Mr Crossey became suspicious of Spencer after seeing photo of him having a ‘good time’ on social media, the court heard. He then sent a friend to check on the collection and they found that nearly 50 items were missing, the stolen records amounting to between £400 and £500. Some of the vinyl records said to be stolen include albums by The Beatles, The Smiths, Morrissey, Stevie Wonder, The Specials, Run DMC, Radiohead, The Ramones, Otis Redding, the Sex Pistols and James Brown.
Nashville, TN | Police: Man uses fake $100 bill to buy obscure vinyl at Third Man Records: A man accused of using counterfeit money to buy a record of Primeval Greek Village Music has been arrested. Jerry Turner is charged with criminal simulation and theft. According to his arrest affidavit, Turner used a fake $100 bill to buy “Why the Mountains are Black,” an album of Greek village music, from Third Man Records on Wednesday. Metro police were called to the store for a second time, and employees showed them surveillance video of the suspect in the store. Officers say they were told Turner tried to return the record. Metro police identified the suspect in the video as Jerry Turner and arrested him late Friday night. Turner told officers he bought the record and thought the money was real, according to an affidavit. Officers say Turner also led them to the dumpster behind the store to retrieve the record.
