Record Store Day: Q & A With Record Collector, Sheffield.

Have you seen a resurgence in the sales of vinyl in recent years?

Vinyl has been steadily selling for quite some time, but the shop has seen a growing resurgence in demand for new vinyl releases and reissues. Record Store Day has been bigger and bigger each year. Vinyl sales this year have increased very well so far, which is a good sign people are getting back into it... from students to people who had turntables 15 to 20 years ago, sold their turntables and entire collections, and are just getting back into the feel and sound of vinyl again.

How do you see the future of vinyl and independent record shops?

I think the future should be good. Over the past few months we've seen things like the possible demise of stores like HMV, and I think people are really getting behind smaller shops as a result of news like that. People just need to remember we're here and have some great stock. I think many people haven't been up here to the shop for a long time and think we don't do much new vinyl, if we did it'd be highly priced and things like that... if they come up here I think they'd be very surprised: we now have a huge selection of new titles across all genres and we're very competitively priced. We've just launched the website too, which will slowly build with more stock added, and hopefully people will be into that. The future of vinyl and independent shops in the UK should be good. There's some great shops still left in the UK, many of the best are located not too far away from ourselves, so there's plenty of people left out there running excellent shops (even if it is a lot less than ten to twenty years ago).

How do you view your relationship with local venues and record labels?

We're open to stocking any local releases on sale or return basis, and we'll try our best to sell your releases. Venue wise, we sell tickets for venues like the Harley and Greystones and are happy to display posters for all venues and promoters in the shop, space dependent of course.

What does RSD mean to you?

Record Store Day is a positive experience for everyone up here. It gets really exciting when stuff starts to show up the days before, and we're  trying to get everything ready. Last year was crazy as we went all out and stocked as much as we could get our hands on. We'll be approaching it in the same way this year. It's just a fun day, something for people to get excited about, and people really have a good time, even standing in line waiting to get in the door. There's that excitement of hopefully getting those releases you really want, and figuring out what your back ups are.

Do you see any long term effect from RSD in terms of sales?

It certainly boosts the profile of all the shops that take part, and as I mentioned before, last year was crazy. Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger, so hopefully this year it'll be even busier, with lots of new faces, who'll hopefully keep coming back so we can keep stocking great music on vinyl and CD.

Which releases are you most excited about?

The list hasn't appeared yet, we're not entirely sure what is due to come out yet... At the moment I've heard more rumours from customers that seeing anything myself. According to some of the regulars there will be releases from David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and Goat all of which sound interesting, and will no doubt be extremely popular. Beyond that I've not heard that much... hopefully some smaller labels will do some interesting stuff.

What’s been your favourite release since RSD began?

My favourites from last year were the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Doctor Who and Out Of This World LPs, The Heads 'Radio One' LP, and the Nurse With Wound & Graham Bowers 'Rupture' LP was nice. Then there were great releases like the David Bowie 'Starman' 7"... There' so much every year, it's hard to choose, or remember as there's been so many over the years!