Record Store Day has come around again with exclusive releases to celebrate the joy of traditional vinyl.
Cheltenham is home to what claims to be Gloucestershire’s top secondhand vinyl shop. Graham Vockins who works for Vinyl Vault, says he only found out about Record Store Day last year. On Saturday, Vinyl Vault in Cambray Place have bundle offers on secondhand and rare vinyls to promote the record industry.
“Vinyl is a nostalgic thing and it’s not an old people thing. I get all types of people buying music from here. People my age still love vinyl because it’s the thing they grew up with.”
Despite the growth of Spotify and Apple Music, he says that “young people love vinyl because it gives them a new way of experiencing music.”
“We get the hipsters, the skater, the goths and they are always mesmerised by how many records we have. You can easily compile all that music (in the store) in a Spotify playlist. That’s the issue – we don’t appreciate the importance of music any more because it’s easily accessible. Back in the day, we had to queue for hours to get our hand on a rare re-issue of a Beatles record.”
There’s always a scare that one day records and vinyl will be a thing of the past, but he says: “So far, things are looking great. In fact, I can’t wait for Record Store Day because I get to geek out with people who love this medium of music.”
Record Store Day is dedicated to promote local, independent record stores, and Graham even advises people who have never listened to a record in their life, “to go out right now and get yourself a shitty cheap player and buy some records. It’s a great feeling to hear a record from top to bottom. You get to experience the story behind the music in the way it was written.”
