Needle on a Record

I enjoy Record Store Day as much for the atmosphere as anything else. Certainly compared to last year there wasn’t as much that piqued my interest, but I had a few things I wanted, principle amongst them being Suede performing Dog Man Star at the Albert Hall on lovely lovely vinyl, and John Grant live with the London Philharmonic. So it was an opportunity to meet up with my mate Steve Ford who I don’t get to meet up with enough.

A few years ago Steve mentioned that he went to Diverse Records in Newport as the queue isn’t that bad, and Record Store Day is the one time that Spillers don’t need my custom. So I turned out at an ungodly hour for a Saturday, met up with Steve and his mate Mike and drove to Newport. We talked about our wants – Steve and Mike wanted the ‘Frank’ soundtrack album -  we promised to look out for them for each other. We got to Diverse around 8 and the queue wasn’t too bad, there were around fifteen people ahead of us and so we had nothing to do what the British do best, queue. Well we did more than that, along with the rest of the people we yapped about what we wanted to get (again) checked lists, talked about previous RSDs and upcoming gigs. The anticipation is the best part of the day.  Steve and I took turns and getting coffee, Steve being slightly mistrustful when told that the shop would be open at 9:30 instead of 9 legged it back in time.

Diverse Records had a very civilised approach to RSD, they staggered people in the store, so there would be around twelve people in the store at any one time. We all got a little twitchy as you could see people loading up with records.

“It’s all over boys, we might as well go home.” Steve said as we were on the cusp of going in and he was only half joking.

We got in and I flailed around and couldn’t remember what I wanted. When I finally got to the racks I couldn’t find anything I wanted and my heart sank. I did find stuff I didn’t know was out including The White Stripes and a McClusky album, so took those. Then with some digging I found the Suede album, and someone handed me the John Grant album, result! Then the rest fell into place, some Wedding Present releases and a Slow Club covers album. I ummed and erred too long over a Who coloured seven inch and couldn’t find a Courtney Barnett single, or a Gaz Coombes 10 inch, but I had a good haul. I did go a bit pale when I took the records to the till and they counted up my purchases. It turned from a debit card   purchase to a credit card one. Steve and Mike both got the Frank soundtrack, so we were all pretty happy.

Later that day I found myself in town so I popped into Spillers to see how things had gone and managed to pick up the Gaz Coombes, so a successful but expensive day!