Glasgow, UK | Glasgow show explains how Record Store Day is being celebrated this year: Record stores worldwide are getting prepared for the new normal at this year’s Record Store Day and Glasgow’s shops are no different. After the initial date of April 18 was postponed twice, this year will see three different ‘drop’ dates with select vinyl releasing on Saturday August 29, September 26 and October 24. There’s no doubting the importance of the event to small, independent stores and stores across Glasgow are taking all the steps to ensure that, despite Covid-19 regulations, this year’s event is still a success. Love Music will celebrate their 25th anniversary next year and were involved in the first Record Store Day (RSD) back in 2008. Sandy Mclean, the store’s owner, is looking forward to another great event. “I’m very, very, very excited, very busy, nervous, anxious, optimistic,” Sandy said. “A big part of Record Store Day has been the first-come first-serve aspect of it, where people can’t just sit on their arse and have it delivered to their home.
Islington, UK | Find out where to celebrate Record Store Day 2020 in Hackney and Islington: Record shops around Hackney and Islington are gearing up for their annual celebration of vinyl despite the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2008, on a date in April, music-lovers have flocked to record shops on Record Store Day in order to come together, buy exclusive releases and attend special events. This year, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Record Store Day is being held across three months – August 29, September 26 and October 24. So which shops in Hackney and Islington are taking part? Check out the Gazette’s list below. Flashback Records, on Essex Road in Islington, is a long-time seller of vinyl and records – it has been “recycling music since 1997.” It has three stores across London, in Islington, Crouch End and Bethnal Green. The Essex Road branch spans two floors, with CDs, DVDs, and new vinyl as well as a large selection of second-hand products. Staff are knowledgeable about different types of music styles and are always on-hand to help. It will be open from 8am on Record Store Day, with social-distancing measures in place such as masks and sanitation.
DownBeat Dozen: A Shopper’s Guide To RSD 2020: This year, Record Store Day will be presented as three shopping events on Aug. 29, Sept. 26 and Oct. 24, which organizers have called “drops.” On each date, there will releases that fall into three categories; vinyl titles exclusive to RSD; ultra-rare pressings available in a limited geographic region; and RSD First titles, which initially are sold only at indie retailers and then widely available at a later date. Below is a guide to a dozen titles that will be available on the three dates. In addition to the artists cited below, shoppers will also be scooping up titles by the Allman Brothers Band, Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker, Suzanne Ciani, Brittany Howard, Gary Clark Jr., Dr. John, Bill Evans, Fleetwood Mac, Ellie Goulding, the Grateful Dead and the Tom Tom Club. Below are titles, sorted by release date.
Milwaukee, WI | A Record Store Day unlike any other is coming. Here’s what Milwaukee shops have planned. Every April for the past decade, Record Store Day has meant huge business for local shops, with vinyl lovers lining up outside the doors of the Exclusive Company in Milwaukee as early as 4 a.m. to get their hands on rare new releases. That didn’t happen this April, when the country was in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis. But Record Store Day is still a go. Or rather, days. With shops, including in Milwaukee, reducing capacity to mitigate the spread of the virus, organizers have split up the bounty of Record Store Day-exclusive releases into three separate dates: Aug. 29, Sept. 26 and Oct. 24. Combined with Black Friday — which will also feature exclusive releases — local shopkeepers are hoping to make up for months of slow sales. “It’s going to be a big help,” said Brian Kirk, manager of the Exclusive Company location in Milwaukee. “We were closed down for at least six weeks. … We did a lot of sales (online), but it was a fraction of our normal sales. … Like many stores, (revenue is) down considerably.”
Dunedin, NZ | Expansion seen as a sound business move: The co-owners of Dunedin music shop Relics have done two “unusual” things: first setting it up in 2013 and now extending the business to sell home sound systems. Co-owner Irene Hundleby said a few people initially thought them “mad” to establish the shop, but the response to their second move was more supportive. “This time around there’s a lot more encouragement and excitement,” she says. There has also been some scepticism about the decision and the timing, her husband and co-owner Dave James says. Nevertheless, they are responding to a growing demand from customers for quality sound systems, and their offerings include one made in Dunedin. Mr James – a musician, like his wife – has been in the record business since the mid-1980s, initially in Auckland, and has plenty of experience to draw on in making a judgement call. …The musical couple are retaining their existing music premises, where they are selling slightly more vinyl records than compact discs, but there is still a good demand for both, and for DVDs.
The Avalanches Share X-Ray Vinyl Copies of New Single, ‘Reflecting Light:’ Limited to just 12 copies, this unique single has been pressed onto x-rays of The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi. The Avalanches have once again proven themselves as masters of the music world, unleashing a limited edition promotional pressing of their new single, “Reflecting Light”. Released as a single just last month alongside “Wherever You Go”, The Avalanches’ “Reflecting Light” is just one of a handful of tracks shared by the Australian music icons this year. Following on from tunes such as “We Will Always Love You” and “Running Red Lights”, these new compositions are all set to appear on the as-yet-untitled third album from the group. Already in the midst of a major return, the pair have done something rather unique for their first physical release since 2016’s Wildflower, pressing “Reflecting Light” onto an extremely limited run of x-ray vinyl records. Limited to just 12 copies, the single-sided 7″ record has been pressed by Melbourne’s Small Run onto x-rays of band members Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, and serves a tribute to the “Bone Music” of the Soviet era.
Revolver Teams With Gwar for Exclusive Limited-Edition Vinyl of ‘Scumdogs of the Universe.’ It’s been 30 Earth years since intergalactic shock-rock troupe Gwar released their second album and what many consider to be their definitive mission statement, Scumdogs of the Universe, featuring such classic cuts as “Maggots” and “Sick of You.” To celebrate this momentous milestone, the band is reissuing the record in a remixed and remastered 30th anniversary edition, available across an array of collectible formats including a Revolver-exclusive white vinyl 2LP variant. It’s limited to just 350 copies…
Iron Maiden to reissue self-titled debut album to mark its 40th anniversary: It will arrive on National Album Day 2020. Iron Maiden are set to release a reissue of their seminal debut album to mark its 40th anniversary. The band’s self-titled first record will be pressed onto a limited edition picture vinyl through Parlophone on October 10, which is also National Album Day 2020. Originally released in April 1980, the LP – featuring original vocalist Paul Di’Anno – contains the classic songs ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, ‘Running Free’ and ‘Iron Maiden’. It reached Number Four in the UK albums chart upon its release. An official description reads: “‘Iron Maiden’ was the album that saw the East London band start the journey that has led them over the course of four decades, sixteen studio albums, over 90 million album sales and more than 2000 concerts around the globe, to become the most acclaimed metal band on the planet.”
Elton John Hints At Help For L.A.’s Troubadour, Scene Of His US Debut: In a BBC 6 Music interview, he also spoke about the Record Store Day reissue of his self-titled 1970 album. …Of the Record Store Day reissue of Elton John, he revealed: “I don’t listen to any of my records anymore. I just don’t do it. I’m not one of these artists that sits there compiling stuff from all the vaults and stuff like that – and live recordings. Now I know it’s coming out I have relistened to it. It’s great, it sounds amazing. But I’m more interested in what’s coming next than what went by.” Elton revealed that he has now rebuilt the vinyl collection that he once sold. “I’ve probably got more vinyl now than I did when I originally sold it,” he said. “So, vinyl is incredibly important to me and I like nothing better than to sit down and play a record, read the sleeve notes and then flip it over. “It’s part of how I grew up, so it has a lot of great memories for me. I remember lying on the floor with Bernie listening to Sgt. Pepper and stuff like that and all the great albums in the late 60s and 70s and yeah, it’s a ritual for me. So it’s always exciting when vinyl comes around every week. I buy my vinyl from Rough Trade in Ladbroke Grove [west London] and they send me the lists every week and I mark off the ones I want and I get them from there.
