UK | Fans flock to stores for first Record Store Day of 2021: Fans all over the UK have been queuing outside stores since the early hours. Fans all over the UK have been flocking to record stores for the first Record Store Day event of 2021. The annual celebration of independent record stores across the UK kicked off today (June 12), with a follow up event on July 17 planned. Many fans have been queuing since the early hours hoping to get their hands of some of this year’s special purchases – you can see some of the fans with their purchases below.
Bury, UK | Record Store Day: Vinyl music enthusiasts flock to Wax and Beans to get their hands on exclusive and limited records. Vinyl music enthusiasts made tracks to Bury’s independent record store in the early hours hoping to get their hands on exclusive and limited titles. Today is Record Store Day and this morning people, socially distanced, queued outside Wax and Beans in Bury town centre, some since 10pm to be first in line when the shop opened this morning. The day, with another set to be held next month, is a celebration of the country’s 200 independent record shops. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day. Music lovers from far and wide travelled to the Bury store, including Harrogate, North Yorkshire and Sheffield to buy exclusive vinyl records which are supplied to independent stores. The queue stretched from the shop on The Haymarket all the way down to Silver Street.
Terre Haute, IN | Record Store Day celebrated as a new vinyl shop opens in Terre Haute: Saturday, June 12th marks national record store day. To celebrate the day, a grand opening happened in 12 Points area in downtown Terre Haute! Record Store Day Arts and Music fest took place as the grand opening of the Local Vinyl. The event took place from 12pm and lasted until 5pm. Vinyl enthusiasts gathered and were able to enjoy a new record place locally. Eleanor Jones, the store’s owner, hopes that by opening this new shop in the Wabash Valley, people like herself and others who share her appreication of vinyl records, won’t have to travel outside. “I used to have to drive outside of the state if I wanted to get a record, but by doing this I can welcome others to come and enjoy, while also buying local.” says Jones. You can find the Local Vinyl in 12 Points.
Johnstown, PA | Record Store Day draws music fans to George’s Song Shop: For 90 years, George’s Song Shop has been catering to fans of all musical tastes. Music fans converged on the shop early Saturday for the opening of Record Store Day – with the line of shoppers stretching to the sidewalk. Gwen Stahl, 17, of Clymer, purchased a Twenty One Pilots record. “I’m excited,” she said. Including the main sales area, the shop at 128 Market St. has five floors filled with records, owner John George said. “If we don’t have it, nobody does,” he said. His father, Eugene George, opened the store in 1932 when the Great Depression was at its peak and Bing Crosby ruled the charts. George’s Song Shop has withstood the COVID-19 pandemic. “Business has been pretty good this year, all things considered,” he said. “People have been stuck in doors, so what do you do? Listen to music.”
Erie, PA | Local record store celebrates National Record Store Day: It’s the Black Friday event for record stores. Today people lined up outside a local record store waiting to find a one of a kind records on National Record Store Day. What makes today special is limited edition and special titles that span to all genres are released to the public. Because of COVID-19, National Record Store Day is split up into two days and called Record Store Day Drops. The owner of Graham’s Record Store said he didn’t know what to expect this year, but was thrilled to see so many people show up. “Nice to see people that are that enthusiastic about this thing of vinyl, and it feels good to be one of the people that can actually provide the limited edition stuff that I put out on the day is not available through major corporate retailers, only available for independent shops,” said Michael Graham, Owner of Graham’s Records.
Grand Junction, CO | Triple Play Records has been spinning downtown for 33 years: The Grand Valley has relied on Triple Play Records, 530 Main St., as its source for grabbing new and old albums to spin for 33 years. In that time, vinyl records waned in popularity to CDs, which consumers then abandoned for digital streaming. But something clicked for the people, particularly Millennials and now Gen Z, and vinyl has seen a resurgence in popularity. The three men giving the valley their fix on music are owner Rock Cesario, who also has a column in The Daily Sentinel, Matt Cesario, Rock’s son and Triple Play’s general manager, and Ryan Brookshire, Matt’s best friend and Triple Play’s Western Hemisphere Inventory Supply Manager. Triple Play doesn’t restrict itself to music, though. It also happens to be a bedrock for the local disc golf scene. Selling discs makes for nearly a third of Triple Play’s total business, Rock Cesario said, and it recently helped put on the 2021 Grand Valley Classic, a disc golf tournament at Chipeta Golf Course and the Watson Island disc golf course.
Casalmaggiore, IT | Record Store Day, the vinyl festival in Casalmaggiore: Music in piazza Turati thanks to the “Record Store Day 2021”, organized by the Vinylistic cultural association, as part of a series of events organized to celebrate the 14th edition of the world festival of independent record shops and the vinyl. Starring in the square behind the town hall were several DJs, starting with Mauro Ampollini e Besnik Tanasi, at work since the morning, Walkmen DJ, Angelo Bass e Kiss. The event took place in collaboration with ZeroDb Service. Mixer, two cymbals and a quality amplification system offered the soundtrack of the day first to the visitors of the weekly market and to the customers of the Piasa Vecia sausage shop, and then continued in the afternoon with music until the evening. For the first of the two weekends dedicated to vinyl, the Vinylistic association – born in Parma in 2010 – together with the many independent record shops in the area and the many accommodation facilities scattered between the provinces of Cremona, Parma, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia have organized several 100% vinyl DJ sets together with the many associated artists who want to celebrate this culture.
Tallinn, EE | Gallery: Tallinn record stores celebrate Record Store Day: The international Record Store Day is celebrated on June 12 this year. Saturday also saw the presentation of Röövel ÖÖbik’s vinyl LP “Ringrada.” Several Tallinn record stores joined in the celebrations. The international Record Store Day has been celebrated since 2007 and usually sees artists release new or remastered material that hit the shelves on the day. Estonian record stores that participate in the campaign include Terminal, Biit Me, World Clinic, Rockroad and Viljandi Plaadimees.
Surrey, UK | Banquet Records / Jon Tolley interview for Record Store Day: Banquet Records, one of Kingston’s most popular and unique High Street assets, has an almost uncanny ability to be a catalyst for one of the UK’s liveliest music scenes. It helps Kingston borough punch well above its weight when it comes to performance arts, staging world-famous artists from Gary Barlow (later this year) to Stormzy (January last year) being cases in point. The Surrey Comet caught up with the man at the heart of it all, Banquet Records owner and Kingston councillor Jon Tolley, to discuss how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the business and wider arts scene in Kingston. “As a high street retailer we can’t fault the financial help the government’s given us. I would rather have less help and there be less reason for help to be required. Perhaps if the pandemic was handled in a different way maybe we wouldn’t have had to shut for six months and wouldn’t have needed all that support to get us through those six months. I can’t help but have my councillor hat on when it comes to things like this.”
London, UK | 10 of the best independent record shops in London: The past 14 months have been brutal for all retailers, but independent record shops have had it tougher than most. Not only were shops closed for much of the past year but, since reopening, the lack of tourists and offices workers has kept footfall worryingly low. Are their customers now resigned to shopping online? Has Discogs – the huge US record resale website – siphoned off those who used to love digging through crates of LPs and boxes of 45s? London favourites Rough Trade and Honest Jon’s found their online orders booming, but many other shops were left stranded. Neither Camden Town’s All Ages – London’s last punk rock record shop – nor longstanding Black music vendor Maestro Records in Peckham has an online presence. With no clubs open, dance music shops like Soho’s Phonica and Brixton’s Container Records have found a void of sorts to fill. All the aforementioned shops are still toughing it out. For now. Others weren’t so lucky. If Music (Soho), Matters Of Vinyl Importance (Shoreditch) and Low Company (Hackney Wick) have all closed in the past year.
