By Amelia Blakey

Record Store Day Is fast becoming one of the biggest events in any music fans calendar. It attracts a variety of customers, from kids buying their first record, to big kids extending their collections.

It is a day that celebrates the importance of independent record stores up and down the country.

Each year sees a plethora of bands and artists exclusively release new material on vinyl and special reissues not available anywhere else.  

This year, the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day, saw bands like Suede releasing a reissue of their incredible debut album, Public Image Ltd putting out a live album of their legendary gig at Brixton Academy in 1986, and Richard Hawley, officially releasing in single format the songs he wrote for Maxine Peake’s new film Funny Cow.

Record store day is a unique opportunity for independent record shops, as it gets people going into the stores as opposed to ordering online, at a time when owning an independent shop is becoming increasingly harder it offers them a life line and helps to support them for the rest of the year. A big supporter is Radio 6 Music who hold events in conjunction with the day. This helps to promote the multitude of records and raise awareness of listener’s local record stores.

It has become so much more than a sales opportunity and has become a celebratory event for music fans to meet and watch bands at many of the instore gigs that happen around the day.

I believes it really just how much Great Britain has fallen back in love with vinyl

If you’re still hoping to pick up a record from this year’s releases, most record stores have the remaining stock available both online and instore.

The newest addition to Brighton’s music shop scene, Vinyl Revolution took part for the first time alongside RSD veterans Resident, as well as the successful record label Bella Union’s Brighton shop.

Record Store is such a great event to become involved with, it’s held every year on a Saturday in April, and it is a brilliant opportunity to meet other music lovers in your local area. Whether you start queuing the day before, or wander in later on and delve through what’s left, it’s a unique and effective way to support your local record shop, as well as being so much fun.