Record Store Day? Like, whatever

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So, today was Record Store Day. I bought my first single back in 1986 (The Housemartins’ ‘Caravan Of Love’ in case you’re interested), I dreamt for years of working in a record store (and did indeed work in several, a decade or so ago), and have collected vinyl for many years. Browsing through new or second-hand vinyl is one of my favourite pastimes. I even ran a label for a few years.

So was I up at the crack of dawn to queue for ages to spend huge wads of cash on limited releases for myself and/or to flog on ebay? No. I wasn’t. I didn’t even go in a record shop today. Not even for live bands.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the fact that vinyl’s been experiencing a resurgence, not that I ever stopped buying it. I think record shops should be supported, the format sustained. But the excess of records produced for this one day, that in many cases I suspect people wouldn’t want to buy 364 days of the year, available overpriced, and then punted for ridiculous sums online within hours…forget it.

There are, of course, Record Store Day specials I have bought in the past. Last year I bought Woman’s Hour’s fantastic cover of Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ on 12″ and it was great. I still play the thing a whole year later! But as been posted elsewhere, the aim of supporting the remaining record shops seems to have become an opportunity for the public to be fleeced.

I don’t have a problem with records being re-issued on vinyl. If it’s the format you like, and the original is more money than you have, then why not? The other day I looked online to see how much an original copy of Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut Piper At The Gates Of Dawn would be. Answer: over £100. I’m a public sector worker with a kid to bring up. That isn’t going to happen. But a repressing would suit just fine.

It can also be an opportunity for records to be pressed on vinyl that weren’t originally available on the format. Last year’s releases included Biffy Clyro’s Puzzle and the White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan. I already had all the other White Stripes albums on vinyl – but with a cost of £30 +…again, forget it. Why were these records not made available anyway?

And here’s the thing. There’s not a lot of pressing plants left, so why just press up stuff for one day? I buy vinyl throughout the year. An increasing number of people do. But if bands want to support record shops then there’s no point doing it for just one day. They need to be doing stuff throughout the year. And maybe encouraging people to buy direct from shops rather than from their own websites or massive online retailers.

Above all, I looked at the list this year and there was nothing I really wanted. Yes, I rather like the Primal Scream cover of S Express’ ‘Mantra For A State Of Mind’ below. I get only pressing a limited number – it’s not economic sense to press a huge amount that won’t sell. But for just one day a year? How into your vinyl are you really? And how much do you really care about supporting shops?

Record Store Day 2012

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Tomorrow (Saturday April 21) marks the now annual Record Store Day. In a lot of ways, I think it’s fantastic -I like the fact that bands are putting things out onto vinyl, that vinyl is still being made and bought by people this far into the twenty-first century, and that while some of the big stores have gone, that there are still independents hanging in there, and in quite a few cases, flourishing.

But like a lot of things, I could make a few grumbles:

Firstly, that the real success is whether people are inspired to go and buy records, CDs or whatever in record shops on the 364 days of the year that aren’t Record Store Day. It’s going to be up to stores to encourage people to want to come back, but also up to customers who like the idea of actual, y’know, physical shops (as opposed to online retailers) to go and buy them.

Secondly, whilst it’s wonderful that stuff is being produced physically, if it’s made too expensive it will put people off (though to be honest, if someone wants to pay £150 for a vinyl boxset of Disturbed albums that’s their call). I was excited by the thought of The re-issued Cure albums, but at £25 a go for the first five albums on vinyl (which I already own)…sorry, but the mortgage needs paying, there’s food to be bought and us poor public sector workers aren’t all on massive incomes. Also if it gets flogged on ebay by greedy sods who are trying to make a fast buck – you are no better than ticket touts.

Thirdly, the music business has been its’ own worst enemy for years. The pricing of CDs when they first appeared in the 1980s was ludicrous: they were more than vinyl or cassettes, and at one point double. Ironically it is far more likely that a new release CD in 2012 will cost you less than it did it 1987. The thing was that it lead to people buying abroad if they could get it cheaper, and then online, with the result that the shops were priced out. Certainly, online retailers had their advantages -but the tax loopholes were closed in a classic horse gate bolted kind of move.

These moans aren’t new, and they will be doubtless be made elsewhere. The thing is: I still love record shops. It may be a romantic idea -and one that my thirteen month old soon may grow up to sneer at, but there’s far much more soul (hopefully literally!) in a bricks and mortar record shop than an online one. I tend to go into my local independent record store, Avalanche in Edinburgh, at least twice a week. It has to be said that seeing -and still seeing -releases that I have put out
in the window there gives me far more of a thrill than seeing them on iTunes ever could.

Independent Record stores -like good independent book shops-should have staff who know what they are on about. Sorry, but the ‘other customers who bought this also bought’ feature is not the same as a personal recommendation. Not when your taste stretch from Schubert to Slayer like mine do.

But bring it on. Great that five years down the line there are still record stores with open doors to celebrate, even if for some artists and their big record companies it will be another marketing ploy, without any of the artists needing to die (and invoke the scenario set out in The Smiths’ ‘Paint A Vulgar Picture’). Stuff needs to be happening right the way through the year. People making the effort to go to the shops (I realise easier in a big town or city than a small market town, where the chances are that since Woolworths went bust you can only buy what’s on offer in the supermarket). Record shops staff not being arsey, though the customer may not always be right.

Use them or lose them. My eye is on those Leonard Cohen and PiL 12″s, and the Arctic Monkeys and Belle & Sebastian 7″s…

From some of the special releases available for tomorrow:

PiL ‘Lollipop Opera’ taken from the ‘One Drop EP’:

Arctic Monkeys ‘R U Mine?’

Belle and Sebastian ‘Crash’ (Primitives cover)