So, it’s World Record Store Day on Saturday. It’s a celebration of independently owned record shops across the world and in the UK alone; over 100 shops are involved in Saturday’s festivities.

It was founded in 2007 by American Chris Brown as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA and in 2008 Metallica kicked off the first WRD in San Francisco. This quickly grew to become an international event and now takes place every third Saturday in April.

Locally, we have a number of independent stores. Although a lot less than days gone by, as result of the ‘mega corps’ moving in and muscling all over the trade with their substantial buying power – and that’s without mentioning the supermarkets. But, it’s not all doom and gloom as we still have some magnificent independents in our area, namely Moonlight Records in Wrexham and the Mold Record Shop in Mold – and that’s who we’ll be celebrating on Saturday.

The Socialist promo team have organised a free acoustic gig at Moonlight Records from 2pm until 5pm. There will be acoustic performances from Heal the Last Stand, The Roseville Band, Mother of Six, No Room for Heroes, Danny Gruff and friends, The Scene, Orient Machine and a DJ set from Birfmarq. Following that, in the L’etage courtyard there’s a BBQ and DJ’s from 5pm to 8pm and then at 8:30pm, the Frenzi nightclub (above L’etage) is holding an after show
gig.

The venue will be showing off their spanking new stage which has just been installed, including an impressively large new PA. For £3 you’ll be entertained by a number of bands including Gintis, Dave Elwyn Band, Victorian Hardware and a headline set from We Are
Animal, who have been busy this year playing all over the globe and with Gallops at the SXSW Festival in the US last month.

In Mold, probably one of the smallest independent record shops in the UK, the Mold Record Shop will be celebrating the day with exclusive releases available in the shop (see www.recordstoreday.co.uk for more details). There will also be the Vod Music Record and CD Fair in the Daniel Owen Community Centre from 10am to 4pm, with 23 tables of vinyl, CDs and memorabilia.

Be sure to get involved on Saturday and help celebrate our independent record shops.

Links

The Socialist World Record Store Day event on Facebook

World Record Store Day website