Record Store Day Returns This Weekend

Chris Lockie
By Chris Lockie Last edited 119 months ago
Record Store Day Returns This Weekend

Record Store Day

Record Store Day has been credited with helping to nudge along the vinyl revival in recent years, and 2014's outing this Saturday (19 April) will be the seventh instalment of this fine celebration of the independent music sector.

More than 240 stores across the UK have signed up for this year's Record Store Day. As ever, London will be strongly represented and a search of the participating stores reveals 25 across the capital, from the usual Berwick Street suspects to the likes of Vinyl Pimp in Hackney, Soul Brother Records in Putney and Casbah Records in Greenwich.

The stores involved will sell a big selection of exclusive releases and reissues, specially conceived for the annual event. This enormous list of releases has now topped 600, including enormous artists and bands such as Kings of Leon, Neil Young and Aerosmith alongside the more quirky and cult releases. Our favourite is a limited purple vinyl 7” of Rough Kids, the 1974 debut single by Kilburn and the High Roads, the first band fronted by much-missed London hero Ian Dury.

Stores take Record Store Day very seriously. For example, All Ages Records in Camden, 'London’s only exclusively punk record shop', has contacted a load of small independent UK punk labels who it deals with directly and asked them to create something exclusively for the event. As a result it'll have 18 exclusive releases, individually numbered, with handmade packaging and artwork, with safety pins optional.

Many stores will put on live music this Saturday — there's a huge list of events, with London highlights including Native Birds at Les Aldrich Music in Muswell Hill, and predictably impressive line-ups at both Rough Trade stores.

Here's an excellent 15-minute film about last year's event, including the thoughts of people involved and happy punters explaining what the event, and buying music, means to them:

Get yourself along to your local independent music store and show your love, lest we all find ourselves buying music from supermarkets in years to come.

Record Store Day takes place across London and the UK on Saturday 19 April — full details here.

Image by psyxjaw via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Last Updated 15 April 2014