“I got to touch a copy of the Radiohead 12”, Supercollider, but wasn’t early enough to actually buy one.” This sums up in part, my involvement in the international celebration of records and independent record shops, because 16th April was Record Store Day and this was my story…
Over the last few years, Record Store Day has become an important event for music loving fans across the globe. People everywhere, coming together at their local record shops, to celebrate what their store means to them. Year after year the event has got bigger, with more exclusive releases on the day and hundreds of thousands of people heading down to their local vinyl emporium.
Rough Trade reported last year that in that one single day, they took more money than they did the last week before Christmas, that’s how big this day is now. And as this was my first time getting involved in the whole day, I wanted to share my experience from start to finish.
So my day started at 6.30am, as I left the house and made my way towards East London, the home of Rough Trade East. I knew what releases I wanted and hoped I’d be there early enough to get my mitts on them.
I met a friend en route and we headed towards the store and on arrival found ourselves facing what looked to be a hundred people lined up outside. As we approached the back of the queue we realised just how long it actually was. It stretched around the corner and up to the end of the next street. When we took our place we realised there were probably two to three hundred people, not one hundred, in front of us with people joining the queue behind us all the time! I got news via Twitter that someone at the front had been waiting since 4.30 that morning, now that is dedication.
As stories of queuing and release banter are rather mundane, I’ll skip the next 2 1/2 hours to when we finally get into the store. To my amazement, the masses weren’t rambunctious, disorderly or shambolic… they were polite and just seemed happy to be inside this treasure chest of vinyl goodies.
My first spot was a 7” of Miles Kane performing, the Edwyn Collins track, ‘A Girl Like You’ which I picked up straight away. Then, with disc in hand, I glided through the crowds flipping my fingertips across the shelves to see what else I could locate. There were row upon row of exclusive record store day releases. Releases that I had spent weeks prior reading about and they were (mostly) all there!
Next I grabbed a limited edition, live 12” entitled, ‘The Brilliant And The Dark’ by all female choir group Gaggle, followed by the 7″ single release taken from the Dangermouse/ Daniele Luppi collaborative album ‘Rome’. Then I spotted a white label 7” from Arctic Monkeys, ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’, which I picked up with enthusiasm.
At this point I was by the counter and saw the Radiohead release, ‘Supercollider’ – a 12” only announced a week prior to Record Store Day. I asked to see it – just to make sure it was definitely it – only to be told I needed a ticket that had been given out first thing that morning, otherwise I couldn’t have one. Was I gutted, disappointed and kicking myself? Yes I was, but that was to be expected as this release seemed to be the must have release of this year, so it was always going to be difficult to obtain.
I looked around for a while more, picked up records, put them back down, racked my brains, and wrestled with my bank balance and in the end I decided that would be it for me. We joined the queue, got asked to join another queue and all the while we chatted about the things we had, and the things we’d missed out on. One of those for me was the Nirvana re-issue of ‘Hormoaning’. If my information had been correct, Rough Trade had only 8 copies which had sold out quickly! Anyway, happy with my purchases, I passed the vinyl over the counter, handed over the cash and my discs got returned to me in a lovely RT tote bag.
After a break of an hour or so we returned to Rough Trade to catch the live shows. First up was the epic, aforementioned, Gaggle. Dressed in robes and quirky, sharp outfits they kicked off as the speakers erupted with their powerful tour de vocal force. To say their performance was biblical would not be incorrect and reflected well the experience I had whilst watching them.
Now with the first gig of the day over, the shop was rammed once again with people eagerly waiting for Wild Beasts. Again we were treated to another wonderful performance of all new material. Incredible vocal harmonies and understated, subtle guitar heaven. Mid-show I turned round to see waves of people stretching back to the front door, totally captivated with beaming smiles across their faces… mine included.
In the day we’d got news of a free show at The Notting Hill Arts Club – an event being put on by label collective, The Pink Mist – so from East to West we went. What a special event this turned out to be. I watched two absolutely stunning new bands in the shape of Rosa Valle and Hymns. Both in the Post Hardcore/Emo vein but with Rosa Valle having the added screaming emotion and technical guitar work. Reflecting on the performances of the day, I was left with a feeling of elation and also one of unity. It was just great to be part of something so special and to experience it with so many like-minded individuals.
Before heading back across town again – for the free Rough Trade show at 93 Feet East – we stopped off at a park/green area for a well deserved rest, which involved us, amongst other things, having a go on a zip line and searching for a missing resident donkey!
Leaving that behind… we arrived at Brick Lane to see The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, casually sound checking with their rendition of ‘Ring Of Fire’. This Swedish rock ‘n’ roll circus treated us to an exclusive acoustic performance and with all its little imperfections, became one of the highlights of the day for me. Next up was Rowdy Superstar which I found pretty underwhelming… the least said the better I think. Finally, new American Scuzz rock influenced Mazes (who hail from Manchester) were up. Loud and energy driven, their pure pop fuzz made me the most active I’d been all day, as I danced away at the front, taking in what I was watching and reliving the experience of the whole day.
At 11pm it was time to call it a day. It had been a day of queues, banter and good times. I did wonder to myself why I was up at 6.30 that morning. Why was it so important to me to go into a shop – that early – that I’d been in many times before? I could bang on about the current music buying climate and how times are changing, but that is something we all know already. For me it was a personal journey to keep my faith in record shops alive. I didn’t care why everyone else was there; I went because music buying has been a big part of my life for many years. It is an excitement and joy that I simply can’t get enough of, and to celebrate this, even for just one day, I wasn’t planning on missing out.
Pete Cornish-Barlow
