RECORD STORE DAY

This weekend, in contrast to almost every other Saturday, I will be up bright and early. I had thought about running away for the weekend because I am really worried about the result of the Derby, but what stopped me is that Saturday is one of the most special days of the year.

Record Store Day actually started in America in 2007 (America is good at starting things, isn’t it?), but soon became a global phenomenon and one of the biggest new music events of recent times. In the UK, over 300 shops are involved, and it really is a day to celebrate the staff who work in these shops, the artists, the record labels, and, of course, annoying customers like my good self.

Artists and labels have got on board with Record Store Day in a big way, and every year brings a raft of exclusive Record Store Day-only releases. So, if there are particular releases that you are after, then you need to do what I am going to do: get yourself out of your pit bright and early and get yourself down to your chosen shop with all the other like-minded people who have got nothing better to do than get excited by a numbered red vinyl copy of an album by some obscure British folk singer from 20 years ago.

The 13th Floor Elevators Record Store Day reprise of the 1968 We Are Not Live album is definitely in my shortlist. I am not completely sure my life is going to be better with the record nestling on a shelf in my home, but I can’t be sure it won’t, so I feel like I should buy it just to confirm it one way or the other. If I want to complete my Charlatans picture disc set of singles, then I’ll need to buy it, won’t I? The answer, of course, is yes, even though I know I already have the track in numerous other formats.

I’m definitely going to try and buy a copy of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood Radio One Sessions album. I was lucky enough to see the early Frankies, and, from memory, these versions of tracks that we all went on to know and love are very different from the polished Trevor Horn-produced ones, but are still great. It’s an intriguing insight into a band that were the biggest in the world for a few years, and I am embarrassed to admit I don’t actually have these tracks in any format at all. Not quite sure how that happened, to be honest.

I have always been mad about vinyl, although, to be fair, when I was growing up as a music-mad teenager, there weren’t really many options. Albums on cassettes became a thing, but they were fiddly and unpredictable, and there was a weird five-track cartridge that people who had cars and money bought. I had neither, so thankfully that wasn’t an option.

I bought my first records from Ali Baba Records and Woolworths – both on Walton Vale and both long gone. Then, when punk kicked off, I was around 15, and me and my mates bought records from shops in town, including Penny Lane Records, Backtrax (which sold second-hand records), and Virgin Records in St John’s Precinct (which I think was the first ever Virgin store, and where I vividly remember buying the first Bunnymen album and the Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers 12-inch single Chinese Rocks/Born To Lose on the Track label, which I still own), and, of course, the legendary Probe on Button Street.

Probe was a whole kettle of completely different, weird fish. For a shy teenager from Bootle, it was wonderful and scary, and the balance between the two depended on who served you. To be honest, none of the staff were particularly pleasant to toe-rags like us, but there was a scale of scorn and disdain with which they dealt with customers, and you just hoped they were having a good day when they were serving you. I still love almost all the records I bought there, many of them on obscure little indie labels. I could bore you with stories of records I bought by The Scars, The Fall, Big in Japan, Mekons, Gang of Four, Fire Engines, and many more, but maybe that should be over a drink when you have a couple of hours spare.

I can, however, still vividly remember hearing Iggy Pop’s The Passenger in there while me and my mates were just hanging out in the shop, trying to look like we belonged there, and we were all mesmerised by that magical record. I bought The Fall and Joy Division debut albums there, and I’ll happily acknowledge that Probe, and the weird people within, played a vital part in my music education.

Liverpool is lucky in that we are blessed with a load of amazing independent record shops, and if you go to www.recordstoreday.co.uk, you can see all the local shops that are taking part and all the exclusive releases that you can spend your money on and enrich your life with. Many of them have live music on the day as well, and if you visit the Jacaranda, there is a limited edition (100 numbered copies) of the Dave McCabe single When You Are Young, which was recorded on their vintage 1948 Voice-O Graph machine. To make it even more special, it is one of three Jacaranda lathe cuts where audio is cut straight to vinyl in real time, a process that creates something rare, immediate, and unrepeatable.

So, whatever you are doing this Saturday, try and get yourself to one of the brilliant record shops and treat yourself to an exclusive Record Store Day vinyl – just don’t buy the stuff that I’m after.

By Kev McManus