The Story Of Record Store Day 2016 – Still The Biggest Day In The Vinyl Calendar

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So Record Store Day has been and gone for another year. You queued, you bought and hopefully you went home and played – not many actually do apparently. As ever, NME was there to watch it all happen – from the electric live performances at Rough Trade East (LUH were excellent) to the lengthy queues snaking back down Berwick Street.

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We spoke to you lot of course. Mainly to find out why a bit of moulded plastic can get you out of bed on a wet and windy Saturday morning. The managers and owners of London’s most iconic stores also gave their take on the whole shebang.

What was most apparent though, was just how much everyone cares about the thing. Phil Adams, assistant manager at Rough Trade East, summed things up nicely, “It’s a celebration of vinyl and records… staff members, bands and DJs that play, the customers, we’re all in it together. And the reason for that is we love music.”

Heartwarming, huh? Well, Record Store Day’s not just to make you all feel great about yourselves, it’s vital to the industry too.

Phil Barton, owner of legendary Soho shop Sister Ray, said, “Over time, Record Store Day has been the driver for the resurgence of independent record stores. Ten years ago, pretty much every one of us was looking over our shoulders thinking ‘how much longer can we survive.”

Woah, way to put a downer on things. Thankfully, he added, “The resurgence of vinyl, and Record Store Day’s part in that, has been very important. It’s brought us to where we are today. We have a healthy independent sector again, and vinyl sales have gone up to 2.2 million. It’s a massive success story.”

Good for you Phil. Luckily, Sister Ray isn’t the only outfit seeing the benefits. Duncan Kerr, manager of Soho’s Reckless Records, was equally chuffed.

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“It’s always important because it keeps the profile up high,” he said. “We get radio stations doing interviews, we get newspapers wanting to do articles, customers coming in who wouldn’t normally… It’s our biggest day of the year by some way.”

Still haven’t got your head round things? Watch the full video above and realise just how brilliant Record Store Day is.

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