WITH queues expected from the early hours of tomorrow morning for Record Store Day, HUGH FINZEL rounds up the events happening across the city

Vinyl Revolution

Duke Street, open from 8am to 6pm

The whole of Duke Street is getting behind Vinyl Revolution to help them celebrate their first Record Store Day, for which they are stocking roughly half of RSD’s exclusive releases. Bagelman are offering a free breakfast bagel and hot drink for the first thirty customers in the queue and there are coups for RSD customers throughout the street, with discounts at clothing shops, free ice cream at Be Chocolat, and food and drink deals at nearby Nando’s and No 32. The good people of Sugar Sin are even dressing as Sweetwood Mac – basically just Fleetwood Mac in drag – to honour the occasion.

The communal spirit of Duke Street – which will be decked out in the Sex Pistols-inspired colours of Vinyl Revolution – means that the live performances will be taking place on the street outside the store tomorrow. Before the bands begin, BBC Sussex’s Danny Pike will be recording his 9-12pm radio show from the shop’s window and recording it in on vinyl to boot. It will be his first analogue recording for 25 years.

Vinyl Revolution are keen to promote new bands and have run a competition to decide the opening act of the day from a pool of local acts. Their customers have voted for punk-rock trio Dirt Royal to lead a stacked live schedule that includes another local band, White Room, Scottish alt-rock band Filthy Tongues, the ominous urban blues of Mudlow, and London post-punk act Desperate Journalist. The clearly popular store owners, Simon Parker and Rachel Lowe, have managed to get almost the whole of Duke Street on board and Vinyl Revolution’s first Record Store Day promises to be a street party in the sun.

Live schedule: Dirt Royal (12.45pm), White Room (1.30pm), Filthy Tongues (2.15pm), Mudlow (3pm) and Desperate Journalist (4pm).

Resident Music

Kensington Gardens, open from 7am to 8pm

Resident is one of the biggest success stories of any record store in the country, and music lovers often queue for hours outside its doors on RSD. That in mind, be sure to get to Kensington Gardens early if you want to scoop up new releases. Indeed, the queue is something of an event itself, with the best-prepared customers coming loaded with enough provisions for a festival – or survival. As with Duke Street, the business of Kensington Garden have got involved and embraced the day, with White Rabbit offering happy hour deals all day.

Resident are stocking almost all of the over 500 releases this year. The doors open at 7am but the RSD rules prevent any pre-8am purchases. All live music will be at the front of the shop so that those in the queue can also enjoy the performance, and the start of business will be marked by a set from Haley, formerly Haley Bonar. After a DJ set from Tru Thoughts founder, Rob Luis, the live performances continue with Daniel Wakeford celebrating the first vinyl pressing of his debut album, The Songs Of Gigs with an afternoon set, before Rhi performs tracks from her ethereal self-produced debut Reverie, which is getting a repackaged released for RSD.

Every person in the queue will be given a raffle ticket, with a plethora of prizes including exclusive records and gig tickets. After the draw has taken place The Physics House Band will be plugging in for the final live performance of the afternoon. It’s the first time that Resident have had a full electric band to cap off the biggest day in the record store calender.

Live schedule: Haley (8am), Rob Luis DJ set (2pm), Daniel Wakeford (3.30pm), Rhi (5.30pm), raffle draw (6.45pm) and The Physics House Band (7.15pm).

Bella Union Vinyl Shop

Ship Street Gardens, open from 10am to 5pm

Opening at 10am so that owner and former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde can pick up some records himself, Bella Union are sticking to their principles again this year and only stocking the RSD releases from acts signed to their own label. Dirty Three’s album Whatever You Love, You Are, is getting its first re-press since the 2000 release, Tiny Ruins’ 2011 debut, Some Were Meant For Sea is being released on vinyl for the first time, as is When Your Blackening Shows… by Our Broken Garden, on white vinyl. Laura Veirs also has a special 7” release.

The limited number of records available is not preventing Bella Union from getting into the RSD spirit. Stephen Mallinder of Creep Show, Wrangler, and Cabaret Voltaire will be working behind the counter at various points in the day and there will be in-store performances starting at midday from two local Bella Union acts indie-pop four piece Penelope Isles and Brighton based singer-songwriter Dog In The Snow. The store has teased that there may be other special guests, so it is certainly worth heading down to the base of the label that represents acts like Father John Misty, John Grant, and Ezra Furman to find out what’s happening on the day.

Live schedule: Dog In The Snow (12pm), Penelope Isles (2pm).

Rarekind Records

Trafalgar Street, open from 11am to 6pm

There are no live performances in store but there’ll be a number of RSD releases chosen by this hip-hop, funk, soul and reggae specialist.

Cult Hero

North Street

Cult Hero will not be partaking in Record Store Day this year as they will soon be relocating from North Street to a new location at 16 Brighton Place. They will be reopening in June.

The hottest RSD releases

Pink Floyd – Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

This new mono remaster of Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut is set to be one of this year’s most sought after releases.

Courtney Barnett – City Looks Pretty/Sunday Roast

The Australian singer-songwriter is releasing a new song – City Looks Pretty – alongside her album track Sunday Roast, which can be heard on 12” for the first time.

David Bowie – Welcome To The Blackout 

This triple LP of Bowie’s London performance for the Isolar II – 1978 World Tour is looking like one of the biggest releases for this year’s RSD.

Bruce Springsteen – Greatest Hits

The best of The Boss is getting its long-awaited repress as an opaque red double LP, having been unavailable for years since its 1995 release.

The Cure – Mixed Up

Robert Smith has remastered The Cure’s 1990 remix album, which is being released on a double vinyl picture disk.

Mac Demarco – Old Dog Demos

As with previous albums, the Canadian slacker songwriter is releasing a collection of b-sides, demos, and outtakes from his most recent record.

Record Store Day rules

No records can be sold before 8am.

No records can be reserved. They must be sold on a “first come first served” basis in-store (not online or by telephone).

Customers can only buy one copy of each record.

RSD are not allowed to sell any records online or by mail-order for a period of seven days after Record Store Day.

Hugh Finzel