ANOTHER FINE DAY IN THE WORLD OF VINYL

The annual Bristol Hi-Fi Show had finished, and it was time once again to focus on another day that is firmly etched in the diary here at Audio T Swansea, which is of course Record Store Day…

For those new to our blogs, or who may not have heard of Record Store Day - it’s a day celebrating the independent record shops with lots of limited edition vinyl releases of previously unheard recordings as well as re-releases of golden oldies, 12 inches, 7 inches and the odd cassette believe it or not!

This year there seemed to be quite a buzz about RSD in the run up, there was a lot of talk about it on both local and National Radio stations. As it happened Radio 6’s Huw Stephens was broadcasting live from Tangled Parrot - a small Indie Record & Coffee shop is Swansea (we were very grateful for the shoutout live on air for loaning them a Rega turntable for the afternoon).

As usual we collaborated with Derricks Music on Oxford Street (Swansea) for the day, and were once again grateful for the opportunity to take down a Rega system and play our own records. In a change to previous years I decided to take down some of the bigger guns as it were for this year, instead of the Rega Planar 1 and Brio I decided to take down the Rega Planar 8 with Fono MC phono stage and the ELEX MK4 amplifier and Acoustic Energy AE500 speakers on IsoAcoustics Aperta Isolation Stands. My main reason for this is that I use the AE500 at home on the IsoAcoustics platforms with my Planar 10, and having spoken to so many customers about how good small cabinet speakers can be on these platforms- we couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to actually have them playing for the day. Friday afternoon and off to set it all up…

The one dilemma I face every year is what records to take with me for the day. As you may be aware from previous RSD blogs, Christos the boss is firmly planted in “the Prog” as I call it as well as “old men in denim”, in stark contrast to my “bloody women and guitars” as he calls it! Do I take some very well known albums or do I take slots of my weird stuff???

So… With the record bag finally packed, it was an early start and the usual trek across the town from the car park to Derricks, with the fine mix of people you can always expect on a Saturday morning in a City centre. Some rushing to work, some tucking into a famous Greggs breakfast and some that could join a circus with their ability to stay vertical seemingly still two sheets to the wind shall we say.

The same question crosses my mind again as I approach Derricks: I wonder how long the queue will be? And… No surprise to see it heading way down the road and around the corner.

As Christos, Sian and Jon are just getting the final touches ready to the shop, I have got the system warming up then nip outside to help Big Phil hand out the amazing cookies supplied by The Crazy Baker to the dedicated shoppers patiently waiting for the doors to open.

9am strikes and we hear “let em in!”. Our first customer tells us that they were first in line at 11pm the previous evening with the next in the queue arriving just after 1am! How lucky we were to have a fine night and day once again. Amazingly we have always had a sunny day for RSD.

One of my favourite things is to watch the customers come to the counter with their wish list and try to guess what they are going to ask for, and as usual I get it completely wrong. One fine example of this is when a customer asked for Super Furry Animals, so I was then expecting some sort of rock album, how wrong could I be… Scott Walker! we burst out laughing - that is seriously eclectic!

Once the customers had their chosen LPs I had the chance to have a chat with them about the system playing an answer any questions they may have about their system. And as usual we have lots of lovely giveaways to hand out in the form of the limited edition RSD slip mat (only had 10 per store), the fabulous miniature Rega Naia keyrings, Rega bags and a couple of our big Audio T record bags.

One little addition I took to Derricks almost stole the show though - the Degritter Ultrasonic Cleaner. As one customer who was transfixed watching it do it’s bubbly cleaning job said “This is better than the telly!”

It was probably around 11am before the queue had died down and people were spending longer in the shop looking at all of the RSD records that hadn’t already been snapped up, which meant they had longer to chat with me about hi-fi and music.

I was having a great time playing some of my favourites albums, and so many people were commenting on how amazing the system sounded considering it was perched on top of a display cabinet. Partly this was down to the Rega being able to perform on almost any surface but also the IsoAcoustic stands under the speakers, it was amazing the difference when the speakers were taken off and just sat on the cabinet - “Yep - this is why I use them myself at home- it’s not smoke and mirrors!”.

And…. no sooner had it started but it was now late afternoon and time to pack up. What a fabulous day! I have to say a big thank you to everyone that took the time to stop and chat with me and also a massive thank you to Christos, Sian and Jon at Derricks Music for making it such a fun packed day.

The only thing left for me to do was to go home and play my RSD purchases.

Christos - Please Note: No women with guitars!!!