Record Store Day

Saturday 19 April was 'Record Store Day' here in the UK, a celebration of all things vinyl. Did we ever think vinyl would be trendy again when we threw out our old records as we embraced the CD technology? More than 200 record shops are participating in this annual celebration of independent music stores. Rare and limited edition discs will be released exclusively through these shops by artists including Pet Shop Boys, Nirvana, David Bowie.

The day was full of quirky events, welcoming music lovers into a lively local community one cannot find on-line. The blurb says "bands will plug in their amps by the cash registers while managers dispense bacon sandwiches, alongside invaluable musical wisdom. There's a 12-hour tribute to the late Frankie Knuckles (RIP label) in Liverpool and Paul Weller plays live at Rough Trade in London.

I can't believe now I threw out my vinyl albums during a house move some 5 years ago, when we got into a fit of getting rid of stuff. I may not have played them anymore, but those vinyl records had been with me since my teenage years - those Beatles albums, Stones, those early Streisands, Joan Armatradings, those Joni Mitchell gatefold albums, and all the rest - 
those early compliations like CBS's THE ROCK MACHINE TURNS YOU ON, those Tamla Motown collections, the Atlantic Aretha's, those French Vogue Francoise Hardy EPs, those early Elton and Rod Stewarts, and Clapton and Jeff Beck, Talking Heads, Supertramp, Neil Young and so on ..... and all those late 60s, early 70s groups I liked, those Doors albums and The Band, Pink Floyd, soundtracks .....  (I did a piece on this a while back, music label - When Albums Ruled The World, inspired by a BBC programme). HMV may be gone, but vinyl is still around. How we loved the touch and feel of vinyl then .... dropping the needle on the record and waiting for the sound to kick in ....my actual vinyl records may be gone, but the sounds are still with me on CD and iPod.

On another front, the giant Matisse exhibition at Tate Modern has opened and will be a hot ticket, even at £20. Best wait a while till the crowds go down so one can pause to enjoy these astonishing pictures. 

And good to see a new cinema is opening, part of the enterprising Curzon chain (where I saw THE SERVANT last year, at their Curzon Mayfair), this is Curzon Victoria - near Victoria Station, so very convenient. Victoriais a mess at the moment, with all the new construction works going on, but nice that a new cinema will be included in the mix.