Saturday promises to be one of the biggest days of the year for music buffs in Stroud when the first of two Record Store Days takes place.
Trading Post, in Kendrick Street, and Sound Records at the top of High Street will be opening at 8am and anticipate queues of customers, exacerbated by current Covid restrictions.
“We’ll be stocking literally hundreds of exclusive vinyl releases just for the day – they are all limited editions and once they’ve gone, they’ve gone,” explained owner Simon Vincent, who has participated in every Record Store Day since its inception in 2008.
“In normal circumstances I’d open the doors then rush behind the counter because this place is full straight away.
“This year I’m restricting it to six people being allowed in at once, and it will be a ‘one in, one out’ system after that – we did that last year and it worked really well. There’s always a really nice atmosphere.”
Eager collectors arrive early to get their hands on the rare records: “People start queuing from the early hours of the morning, somewhere between midnight and 3am – one year we had people starting queuing at 9pm on Friday!”
Simon believes Record Store Day has sparked renewed interest in records: “it re-engaged people with vinyl and the collectability of vinyl – there’s a lot of support from national radio and TV which all heightens the awareness of vinyl. It grows and grows every year.”
Up the road, at Sound Records, owners Sean Roe and Tom Berry are looking forward to their third Record Store Day.
“We’ve got more stock this time than we’ve ever had before,” said Tom.
“We’ve generally gone for the more esoteric releases – Frank Foster is a big one, which is a jazz release, and the Steely Dan reissues, though they are a bit mainstream for us, but they are great records,” explained Sean.
“There’s also stuff like Primal Scream, Joni Mitchell and Super Furry Animals which will be popular.”
The ‘lost’ Elton John album, Regimental Sgt Zippo, from 1967 is another exclusive Record Store Day release. “It’s the first stuff he ever recorded and billed as ‘the debut album that never was’,” added Tom.
They expect queues to form around 7am, with goodie bags for the first ten customers.
“Four people at a time will be allowed into the shop, and initially have ten minutes to pick their records, just so we can get through the queue,” said Tom, “once the queue has gone people can just come in as normal.”
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners in America as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding independently owned record stores. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica. For more information visit: Home – Record Store Day
