With this year’s Record Store Day set to take place on Saturday (18 April), Woman’s Hour keyboard player Josh Hunnisett volunteered to write a guest column for Q on the benefits of the day, and why here band are joining in with an 12-inch single featuring live favourite, their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, plus Sea Of Silence and The Shipping Forecast. Plus we have the premiere of the latter, suitably Radio 4-inspired, song premiered below too.
My first visit to an independent record store resulted in the purchase of Patrick Wolf’s Lycanthropy. I remember sifting through the indie section in Manchester’s Piccadilly Records, not daring to wander into the “Electronic” side of the room. My 15 year old self believing this to be the reserve of the older & more experienced music shop goers.
Nowadays I frequent my local shop weekly to see if there are any vinyls on my “must-haves’ list in stock. The record store has become a comfortable environment and a place i like to spend time. To me, the thought of someone not having the opportunity to wander the aisles of their record store is frightening and it was one that came so close to reality.
With only 250,000 LPs being sold in 2006, the physical music industry seemed to be on it’s knees. Gone were the days of running down to your local music shop with your hard earned money in hand to grab the latest single. With a new pixelated and illegally accessible fiend threatening to crush the 12-inch the arrival of Record Store Day in 2007 felt like a beacon of light in the smog of illegal downloads and digital formats.
Fast forward to 2015 and records are flying of the shelves faster than anytime since 1996. New vinyl-only stores are opening and independent record fairs are an almost monthly occurrence up and down the country. Record Store Day has been crucial in creating an awareness and support for the record shops and bringing excitement to releases of limited edition vinyls.
RSD has it’s critics but as an artist it has allowed us to release something that would otherwise have never seen the light of day. Just like my 15 year-old self, I hope someone will seek out our 12-inch this Record Store Day and cherish the experience for years to come. As for me, I will be first in line for Oneohtrix Point Never’s release, Commissions II.
Josh Hunnisett@womanshourband
For more on Record Store Day head to Recordstoreday.co.uk, while Woman’s Hour can be found at Womanshourband.co.uk.
