Tag Archives: record store day

Today’s a day for real record shopping

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If you do nothing else today, do try and get to pass some money across a counter to a real living human being and received some recorded music in return. I know it’s really easy to do the old one-click on the laptop, or even on the phone, but let’s just resist this time and experience the much more satisfying alternative.

It’s annual Record Store Day, and by golly it’s grown in the last few years. There is now a really good website – find it here – with an international search so no matter where you are in the world, you can find if there is an independent record shop near you.

As I live near Birmingham, in the UK, here are the two shops you will find on the Record Store Day search:

There is The Diskery, which is so old school it doesn’t have a website, and then there is my personal favourite, Polar Bear.

Polar Bear is in York Road in Kings Heath, and Steve and Nathan provide a warm welcome, interesting things on the store hi-fi, loads of tempting CDs and vinyl in the racks, and loads more if you ask for advice and recommendations. There is a good jazz section, but there is lots more, with a special leaning to alt-rock and nuevo folk. The second-hand classical section also throws up a few surprises.

It’s the kind of shop where complete strangers enthuse to you about what they’ve just been listening to, and, once you’ve made your purchases – and you will make them – why not pop along to Cherry Reds, a lovely little cafe and bar for an organic beer and a snack.

Support the independent record shops

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You don’t need me to tell you that browsing around a good little record shop is one of life’s treasured experiences. And you also don’t need me to tell you that such experiences are in the “risk of extinction” category.

Now we can do something about it, but it does mean resisting the temptation to do the old one-click at a certain website named after a feisty bunch of women, or a river, and, instead, getting off our arses and down to the high street – yes, it won’t be just any high street, but who’s fault is that?

Saturday 18 April 2009 has been designated Record Store Day – it’s an annual thing and started in 2007, it is masterminded by over 700 record stores in the US and also has countless shops in other countries taking part.

Yes, there are all sorts of extra goodies – exclusive releases, perhaps even a Tom Waits, available only on the day and from some of the participating shops – in order to tempt you, but that is really not the point. There is already enough to tempt you – real people behind the counter, who know an awful lot about music, a lot of which you might not know about. 

And then there are all the actual discs, both digital and vinyl, in the racks that you can pick up and hold and take to the counter and ask to hear a bit of…

If you are anyway within driving distance of, or on a train line to, or at a bustop for Birmingham in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, my suggestion is that you head for a suburb called Kings Heath, a road called York Road and a shop called The Polar Bear (yep, co-incidently they are also fighting for survival in this crazy world). There you will find Steve and Nathan. They will help you to exchange money for music in the nicest possible way. And you will be doing your bit for the little men in the industry and for your local community as well.

Find out more about Record Store Day here, and about The Polar Bear here.