Saturday saw the return of Record Store Day, a time for DJs, music fanatics and those interested in colourful slabs of plastic to come together and appreciate the humble record shop.
As you can probably imagine, I believe we should support our record shops every single day, and not just blindly ignore them for the rest of the year whilst we continue to download music illegally. Because of this, Record Store Day does make me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, there will be some people who discover that buying music from a record shop is infinitely better and more rewarding, but what about the people who will inevitably think that record stores are (god forbid) a novelty? To me, it’s kind of like saying that you don’t need to go and see your Mum if you give her a card and a bunch of flowers on Mother’s Day.
However, I’m not completely against Record Store Day. I have always thought that first and foremost it is a fantastic idea, and I think I always will do. Seeing people walk out of the shop with an LP or CD that they’re excited about is something that gives me an enormous amount of pleasure, because buying music is a truly romantic affair. It’s deeply personal, and says so many things about someone’s personality. For instance, a teenager who can’t have been more than 16 came in and bought a copy of a very limited Japanese pressing of a live Kraftwerk album and I couldn’t help but get excited for him. We spoke for some time about how buying vinyl is very special, and the fact that I have a very limited Japanese pressing of a Led Zeppelin show (Filmore West, 1969) waiting in the stock room for me.
Ultimately, I believe that Record Store Day is very special, and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.
Do me a favour though, and pop into your local record shop every now and then. We’re still here, and every single day of the year we still have incredible music to show you.
What We Played Today 
I used to love rummaging through the singles in Woolies back in the day… still have them.