Tuesday 23 April 2013

Record Store Day 2013

This year was my first Record Store Day, so I made sure to be able to visit a store!


I had been planning to go to Raves From The Grave in my hometown, but as I was going out in Bristol the night before I had to choose between the stores in Bristol. I opted for Rise since I hadn't even realised there was a record store there and I was curious!

It was very VERY painful getting up at 6.30am as I think we got in past 4am and I had only managed to get an hour's sleep (I've never had so little sleep before). I was still drunk when I got up, and was really hungover (vomit and all). So leaving Hati's on an empty stomach at 7am to lug my ass up Park Street wasn't the most pleasant thing to do!

I got to the store at around 7.30am, and my ticket was 172. So around 150 people got there ahead of me...I probably should have just gone straight to the store at 4.30! But there were over a hundred more after me, so at least there's that. The wait was painful. Thankfully I'd had the foresight to pick up a drink on the way, and managed to grab myself a stool. I was in enough pain sitting for the 2+ hours I waited, there is no way I could have stood! I ended up seeing one of my lecturers (and hiding from him), plus I'm pretty sure I saw one of my teachers from school which was a bit odd.



This one's from the Rise Bristol Facebook page, you can see me looking like death in the top left-hand corner right at the back!


After the wait (in which I ate a handful of Skittles for breakfast and skimmed a copy of NME) it was finally my turn to go upstairs to the store. I was so worried that the stuff I wanted would be gone. I panicked a little as I hate crowds, and people were not letting me through so I could see the stuff (being short lends no advantages, trust me!).

The first item on my list I saw was Duran Duran, which I'd decided to buy for my dad as a 'congrats on your new job' gift. He later texted asking me to buy it...waaay ahead of you, dad haha. Although apparently there was a Pink Floyd one he wanted too which I hadn't looked for, but I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed it as it was sooo pink!

Shuffling along the row I got my hands on the Frank Turner vinyl. No sign of the Rush or Funeral For A Friend LPs (much to my wallet's joy), but I was starting to worry...where was the Biffy Clyro one? I asked a member of staff and he said they must have all gone...NOOOOOOOO!

I circled the stand one last time in despair, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw a splatter disc! Someone must have picked it up and changed their mind and put it back, so I got the last copy in the whole store. I've never felt so lucky! That was the only one I really wanted as it makes my Biffy Clyro 7" vinyl collection complete (well, minus the American RSD one).

At that point I couldn't be bothered to look any longer for the other bits I wanted, so I just paid for everything and got the hell out of there to breathe some sweet sweet fresh air. Retreated down the hill towards the train station swinging my bag merrily and looking (and feeling) more haggard than ever, being irritated by some dude en route who sneered 'you queued all that time just for a single?'. I didn't realise personal value was proportional to size, but there you go.

My mini-haul!


Slept the second I got home...and spent most of the day after sleeping as well. But hey ho! I told myself I probably wouldn't put myself through all that again, but hopefully next year I can rest up beforehand and have some company to avoid the boredom of waiting (middle-aged men don't make small talk with young women so I was forever alone the whole time. To be honest it made me pretty annoyed that the only other women were there with men - can we have more ladies getting into music, please?).

Also hopefully next year I won't be hungover to hell so I can catch some live music! Was pretty gutted about missing out on stuff this year, but it can't be helped.

Did anyone else support a local store?


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