Record Store Day is fast approaching, and this year it's ten years old! Here at Relevant, we intend to run things the same way we have done the last couple of years - if you've been with us on Record Store Day before, we look forward to welcoming you back. If not, this is how it works…
Record Store Day is truly a day when all record collectors are created equal; there’s no reserving, no pre-ordering, no products “going to the highest bidder” and definitely no pushing or shoving: the only thing you can do is get your wish list sent to us as soon as possible (see below / email Andy) and show up as early as you can on Saturday 22nd April (and we do mean early, last year customers started queuing at 2am to get their hands on the records they wanted!)
Records stores across the country are banned from making any sales before 8am. In most cases this would mean hours and hours of queuing up outside in the freezing cold, squatting uncomfortably on the pavement, and maybe spilling a thermos of coffee on your lap to keep warm (if you’re lucky!)
However, we open the doors to our café at 6am, and invite everyone in for a bacon roll, all the tea and coffee you can drink, and a warm & comfy place to sit and count down the last couple of hours before those limited edition records go on sale! Last year we even had a table of regulars polish off an entire case of Prosecco before the record emporium opened… we’re happy to cater to those who really like to celebrate the day in style!
Of course you’re welcome to start queuing outside the shop earlier than that: truly dedicated vinyl junkies have been known to arrive with a sleeping bag at closing time the Friday night before, just to reserve their place in line!
Record Store Day may have begun in America, but over here we love a good old fashioned British queue. So as you come through the door at 6am, you’ll receive a numbered ticket that will reserve your place in the queue, leaving you to get comfy in the café for a couple of hours. When the record emporium doors open at 8am, we’ll serve you in that order (proper Deli-counter style), just to ensure a true “first come, first served” procedure.
It's also worth mentioning that we're only allowed to sell one copy of any given title to any customer at a time (but you can buy as many different titles as you like). Although it's somewhat inevitable, this rule is in place to stop the selfish and greedy amongst us from buying up lots of "in demand" titles and selling them for double the price online. All you flippers can flip-off!
Once the vinyl emporium opens, the fun doesn’t stop there – we’ve got live music upstairs all through the day, starting from midday and running right until when we close at 6pm (full details can be found here), with all the usual food and booze available throughout. And of course we’ll be blasting out choice cuts from the Record Store Day product list all day in the basement, where we also have ample seating, as well as Cambridge’s best selection of new and pre-owned vinyl!
Wishlists
Since there are hundreds of products being released on the day, we’re always keen to hear from customers old and new regarding what they hope to get hold of when the big day arrives. That’s why we’re asking YOU to send us your wish lists – the better an idea we can get of what customers want, the more accurately we can place our orders and keep everyone happy.
So have a browse through the list, and email andy@relevantrecordcafe.co.uk with your requests – we’ll do our best the get as many of whatever you’re after as we can!
Provisional Stock List (coming soon!)
Once we've sent all the orders off and we know what we're expecting, we'll publish a provisional list of all the titles we anticipate to stock - this is totally subject to alterations depending on what stock we're allocated, what titles get cancelled and what we can get hold of at the last minute... but it's a good indicator of what you can expect us to have on the day.
Around the same time, we'll update our online website with all the products too - obviously you can't buy / pre order them, but it's still fun to have a "virtual browse" of everything that'll be showing up soon!
Final Stock List
Sometime mid/late afternoon on Friday 21st April (the night before Record Store Day itself) we'll publish a completely accurate list of everything we have in stock, and (crucially) how much of everything we have too. This should leave all customers well informed enough to decide when they want to start queuing outside / if they want to spend the night on the streets or not!
All updates will be posted on our website here – stay tuned for more info, coming soon!