What the hell is that noise? that repetitive chiming sound.....is that an alarm? Why the hell is its going off at 6am on a Saturday morning? It took me a few seconds to register as my brain engaged, it was Record Store Day (Drop 2) and I had to be in Newton About in 45 minutes to take some pictures of the queue, the stock and the happy smiley faces of the record buying public that make this event worth covering, I’d best get up!
I arrived at Phoenix Sound i Newton About just before 6:45am, the queue was already looking very healthy and as I made my way to the front door, I chatted to the person at the front of the queue, “So, what time did you get here this morning?” I asked, “1:30am” he replied, my jaw hit the floor, I mean there’s keen and there’s KEEN!
I managed to photograph the stock before orders started to get picked and although the spoils weren’t as enticing as they were in drop 1 (my opinion), there were still some gems to be had including the Foo Fighters ‘DEE GEES’ album consisting of 5 covers of BEE GEES classics (including 'More Than a Woman', a CHAPTERHOUSE 4LP set of the Rownderbowt compilation on coloured vinyl and a 12" from Jamiroquai titled 'Everybody's Going to the Moon' - in other words, there was something for everyone!
As 7am arrived, Will took his place at the door and welcomed the customers, taking their orders and passing the slips to the pickers who frantically ran around, pulling out the requested records and packing them for later collection. 95% of the time, it's quite easy to work out what is what but sometimes, you get stuck and cannot see the wood through the trees, this happened to me a couple of times, but with the helpful team on call at all times, we worked together to get the job done.
By 8:30, the queue had gone, a few people popped in to see if we still had anything on their lists and to the surprise of one chap, they had everything on his list, how made up was he?
As the early customers started to congregate outside the shop, they were welcomed back in one by one to ring up their purchases and exchange them for credit cards and hard earned cash. I managed to get a few of them to pose with their spoils and nearly all told me that they had managed to get what they had come for. It's nice to see the same faces year on year and with the following that Phoenix Sound now has, I imagine that they'll be returning year after year to take part in this wonderful event which celebrates independent record stores up and down the country and indeed, the whole world over, long may the reign of the wax disc continue!
You can now go online at phoenixsound.co.uk where items from both this year’s RSD drop 1 and drop 2 are available to purchase, most of the drop 1 items have already been discounted so why not head over and bag yourself a bargain?
