South Yorkshire’s largest independent vinyl and CD store is set to welcome lots of music lovers this Saturday to celebrate Record Store Day 2024.
Record Collector is located on Fulwood Road, Sheffield, and stocks over 50,000 vinyl records and 25,000 CDs.
They are one of over 270 independent record shops across the UK that come together annually to celebrate this event and the culture of record stores.
Mark Elliot, 52, from Locksley, has worked at Record Collector since he left school 34 years ago.
He said: “Record Store Day is a big deal. It’s a real community event. We’ll have queues down the road, people ordering takeaways at midnight and drinking bottles of wine in their camping chairs. It’s so much fun.
“We usually have people queuing from around 10 o’clock on Friday night. Although with the awful weather at the moment, I reckon the first person will arrive to queue around half past midnight tonight.”
Record Store Day began in the United States in 2007 when a group of record shop owners came together to celebrate the ‘unique culture of record stores’.
400 exclusive vinyl releases are created for the day and lots of shops host artist performances in celebration.
Mr Elliott added: “We’ve got our preparations down to a fine art now. We’ve got all our stock priced up, we’ve got the vinyl all in order, and we’re more than ready to go!
“This day always has such a brilliant atmosphere. It’s definitely a financial risk because we can’t send stock back if it doesn’t sell. However, the rewards are more than worth it if you’re willing to take that chance.”
“I know that when I walk down the road tomorrow at 8:30am, ready for us to open at 9am, it’ll pretty much be the same faces. We know who’s going to be there, we know what records they’ll be wanting and we’re very excited!”
Spinning Discs and Bear Tree Records are the other two participating retailers in Sheffield.
For more information on this year’s exclusive releases and to find a participating store near you, visit the Record Store Day website.