I don't know why I had never attended before, they always put a lot of effort in at Resident when I lived in Brighton and Rough Trade attracts some big names to perform, I guess the queuing has put me off and the lack of £££'s to my name, not that I have any at the moment, but enough to spare on a few tunes. I am in the fortunate position of being sent music to write about but if I did have money I would definitely invest more in to my record collection, vinyl being the format of choice, they are just so pretty, CDs are ugly, mp3s invisible, thank god the cassette didn't have a lasting affect... This week I have already bought Wolf which celebrated it's first year birthday with a limited vinyl release of just 500 copies. I make sure I have my album of the year on vinyl and the Tyler, the Creator LP was my favorite of 2013 so it was a must buy, the fact that it was just £18.99, included mp3 and CD formats and double pink vinyl 12" was a bonus.
So, that is my philosophy to buying music.
Last night, Friday night, I wasn't celebrating Good Friday in a way Jesus would have approved of, getting smashed up, going home with a stranger, no, I was trawling through Twitter/Facebook/the internet/etc during ad breaks on Corrie and saw that the Everly Pregnant Brothers were performing outside Sheffield's only proper record shop, Record Collector to coincide with Record Store Day. I was drawn in. It was at 10am. I reconsidered. I knew there'd be a lot of queuing involved and Record Collector is a bit of a mission, in fact, I had only visited Record Collector for the first time last week despite knowing of its existence for years.
Alarm was set, 7:15am, two hours later I reached the top of Glossop Road and the end of a long line of music nuts. It is a strange concept, queuing for three hours, in the cold (yes, I was shivering!) to purchase a few songs that are already available to hear freely for a lot more money than usual, just because they have been made in small quantities. If you can get your head around that concept then you are 'in'. My budget isn't extensive so I picked a handful of records that interested me and hoped they wouldn't sell out...
An hour into queuing and the live music began with the always entertaining Everly Pregnant Brothers. I last caught these ukulele Sheffielder's in very different circumstances, a sold out Christmas show at the O2 Academy, this time they were plying their comical trade on the pavement, entertaining those waiting patiently and a crowd who gathered on the other-side of the road whilst people drove past looking baffled. If there was a cure for dealing with standing still, in the cold then these champs did the trick!
Time passed, there had been no tweets saying the records I was interested in were sold out, then the shop was in sight, then I was in! Out of the cold, surrounded by discs filled with music. Heaven! I could feel my fingers again, told the friendly staff I was after Pennyroyal Tea by Nirvana, from In Utero, it was originally set for release in 1994 but cancelled following Kurt's death. I was expecting this to have been snapped away straightaway but no, there was one for me anyway, a sigh of relief. I could only stretch my budget to two records, my other was Conor Oberst. I don't know what song it is, where it comes from or anything, but it's Conor! I would have loved to buy more, I felt I deserved it after waiting so long, I think it makes you believe you deserve to splash more cash but I am pretty chuffed with my two purchases, worth getting up for, worth getting the buses to town, waiting three hours in the cold and definitely worth £21.
Whoever came up with Record Store Day deserves a medal. It is win-win for everybody. The customer gets their hands on something special but most importantly the support these shops gain are vital for their survival, can you imagine a time when there are no record stores? Depressing ain't it!
It wasn't just Record Collector which benefitted, the surrounding shops were busier than usual and the pub next door, The York treated those with a purchase to a free soft drink, it felt like you were part of something special as bar staff and punters enquired about what was in your bag and traded tales. Apparently seventeen people had been queuing since midnight (nuts!), another had spent £300! I don't know how much Record Collector take in your average week but that sale alone must have been damn good for them.
Support your local record stores,
Record Collector
Record Store Day