Record Store Day 2015

April 20, 2015 by Ray Morgan

Record Store Day 2015

Saturday morning. 8am. The sun bounced off the pavement of Leigh Broadway, reflected up in the sunglasses of a queue of patient people. It should have been a time of sleepy quiet: only the odd dog walker, perhaps, or a crisp packet blown from the Grand all the way up to Fives. Instead, music ranging from Salt'n'Pepa to The Fall swam from a vintage Dansette record player and out into the street. Balloons displayed jauntily outside the independent record shop signified that this was Record Store Day - the day when music lovers are encouraged to go to their local independent record shop and buy vinyl.

There's always a great buzz around these days - people queue outside Fives to buy limited edition RSD releases from as early as 7am, bleary-eyed and clutching takeaway tea. This year, the entertainment was organised by the Middle Age Spread DJs. MAS is a local club night "for grown up people unafraid to dance". Usually held at The Ship pub in Old Leigh, the club night consists of great tunes spun by music-loving DJs where pretensions and judgements are left at the door: it's all about the music, not what you're wearing, who you came with, or how many years you've been on the planet.

So the Middle Age Spread DJs, along with guest spots including local DJ Diana Collier, heralder of the majestic radio show Library of Aethers on Ship Full of Bombs, Fi Dulake of the Railway Hotel, Jo Overfield of Sundown Arts and Paul Siggins of cult local podcast Polyvinyl Craftsmen. All DJs played 45s on the small-but-perfectly-formed Dansette, and it was a total hoot. At 1pm, local band Glass Brides squeezed themselves into the left hand side of the shop to play their own (excellent) songs and covers, which had everybody singing Chaka Khan along with them. The shop is notoriously tiny (as all good record stores are: see Carmel and South for our other local heroes) so people spilled out onto the Broadway, LPs tucked under their arms, nodding along to the music and dare I say it, even dancing. At this point the regular Saturday shoppers were out in force, so people stopped and asked what was going on? Who were all these people? It felt like a party.

Now, of course: a record shop is for life, not just for 18th April. We should be buying records in Fives and South ALL year round (which my bank account can attest to). But to bring people together with their love of music and buying records, that's really special. I'm looking forward to next year's Dansette disco already.

My top 5 reasons I support RSD:

1. The social element: pretty much everyone I know was in Leigh Broadway at some point on Saturday
2. The tills ringing at Fives gave me a great sense of supporting a local independent business
3. It gives you a free pass to buy vinyl you might not otherwise treat yourself to (sorry bank account again)
4. Dancing in a shop at 11am - it's underrated. Why don't we do it more?
5. Vinyl is better than CDs. Everybody knows it. It just IS.