Some people get out of bed early to queue up for exclusive releases. Others stays under the duvet in defiance – moaning that the major labels have ‘taken over’.
Whichever camp you fall into, there’s no denying that Record Store Day brings vital business to independent record stores around the world.
It quite literally keeps some of them afloat.
And for that, just like the stores themselves, we at the Independent Echo love it to bits.
As the store manager of David’s Music in Letchworth, UK, Andy Oaten saw RSD 2015 – which took place on Saturday, April 18 – first-hand.
He comments: “The first person in our queue was there the night before, arriving just as we were locking up at 7pm. The second person arrived just as we were putting the finishing touches on everything for the morning and preparing to go home at around 8pm.
“We’re told that the queue grew steadily stronger all night and when we arrived back at around 6.45am, it was around 120-strong and growing by the minute.
“Then at around 7am, as is now tradition, we all went out with lists of releases/prices etc and the all important teas/coffees and biscuits which were all gratefully received…
“The shop remained busy all day, with people picking up not just RSD releases but records/CDs etc off the shelf as well. Awesome.”
It was a similar story at independent stores across the UK and Europe, as you can see in our neat little gallery below…
