I’ll probably give record store day a miss this year. My dislike of queuing and sheer lack of independent record shops where I am this weekend makes it very hard for me to take part. Plus there’s not much I really want from the list (a Kate Bush 12″ and Wedding Present ep sung in German were the only things that interested me) and I go to record stores all the time anyway. I don’t need to be told by BBC 6Music to go. So I shouldn’t feel guilty.
I’ve been a bit cynical about RSD in the past, seeing it as a just a day when record collectors and eBay touts all turn up at once and crowd the place out. As an average punter it would put me off, frankly. And surely that’s not what RSD is about?
I did like this, though. And thanks to Every Record Tells a Story for pointing it out.
Record at Random 
Good record shops are intoxicating whatever the day, but celebrating them once a year is A Very Good Thing in my book. The fact that it generates a tonne of publicity is probably worth it.
I took the 10 year old to Jumbo in Leeds the other week, and his reaction was a brilliant example of why places like that are important.
He mooched around the racks for a while, thumbing through CD cases and record sleeves, completely lost in it all, studying the back of an old Stones record, trying to work out which tracks he already had on his iPod. They put something he recognised on and his face lit up.
He sidled up to me later and whispered “Dad, I love it here…can we come again?”.
You’re right about the legacy thing. I’d hate the thought of not being able to share that experience with my own kids (whether they like it or not!)
Something that brought it all into sharp focus however was the lack of representation in certain areas. In Nottingham, where I stayed during RSD weekend, there was only one participating store. One! In a twenty mile radius of Nottingham city centre. The same could be said for Leicester too. Use it or lose it. But not just on Record Store Day.