The Abjects were meant to be on at 3pm. But for whatever reason, they didn’t turn up on time and it was well after 4 when they finally turned up.

The great / bad thing about bands playing in a record shop is that (other than Rough Trade East), it’s a record shop. They’re not really setup for a band to play in, so the sound can be poor. But it does mean that you feel like you’re inside the performance. In Flashback’s case, there really is no place for a band, but somehow they managed to fit in.

The Abjects are a great little band. They’ve got a simple garage rock sound but it’s done well. I think most of the gathered crowd didn’t know the band, but they seemed to enjoy their performance.

After the Abjects finished, it was far too late to get to the next gig on my list, Prom at Flashback’s sister store in Islington. But I decided to head down anyway to see if Fake Laugh were playing and was surprised to find that they were still playing. I say they, but this was a solo performance. I actually prefer their solo performances. The lead singer’s actually got a really distinctive voice which I think stands out better when playing solo.

I had been interested in getting hold of the Robert Plant live EP. Neither Flashback store had a copy. So I decided I might as well walk down to Rough Trade. It turned out they had copies but they were £24 – too expensive for an EP. Luckily it also turned out that there last band, the Riddles, were still playing. They seemed an odd choice for Record Store Day. The Riddles aren’t the normal indie fodder that you’d expect to see on a mixed bill. They’re firmly \m/ rock!

I like bands that don’t take themselves too seriously and just enjoy playing live music. I’d say the Riddles fall into this category. The lead singer looks like he’s escaped from the set of Spinal Tap. In fact he even joked about playing ‘Stonehenge’. They are an unapologetic unreformed ‘Black Sabbath influenced’ rock band. They themselves describe their sound as ‘space rock’. They’re look the kind of band that could turn any three minute rock song into a 20 minute long psych experience. By the time they’d finished, they’d managed to climb the riggings, played over their allotted time so that Rough Trade switched on the lights but they’d also managed to entertain quite a diverse crowd. I’m not sure I’d listen to any of their recordings. But they’re definitely a fun band to watch.

It’s also the first time I’ve seen crowd surfing at a Rough Trade gig.

What better way to test the booth than for Jack to make his own recording.

I buy most of my music through iTunes / Amazon or from band websites. Probably 90% of the music I buy is digital. So the amount of money I spend in record shops is tiny compared to my overall spend and even then, it’s likely that the money will be spent in a chain store such as HMV. Of course, HMV and Virgin killed off most local record stores, so in my town, there’s only a HMV.

I’ve never been to a Record Store Day event so I thought I’d give it a try. First I was going to head into London to visit Rough Trade East. But with people queuing from early in the morning to get their hands on the best releases, I decided to check the Record Store Day website for  record stores in Hertfordshire or Cambridge. To my surprise (I’ve lived in Hertfordshire for 17 years) there’s an independent record shop just up the road in Letchworth (this shouldn’t have been a surprise. Letchworth is stuck in a 1950s time warp).

I’m sad, but not sad enough to start queuing at 3am to get my hands on my record of choice. Record Store Day rules only allow customers to buy one ‘RSD’ release before midday. So I got up as normal and headed up to Letchworth for about midday to pick up whatever I could and to see what events they had in-store.

It wasn’t too much of a surprise to find much of the stuff I was interested in had already been sold by the time I got there. But there were still some interesting releases to pick up and I managed to pick up some a few 7″, a 12″ of the Ukrainians covering the Smiths, along with (non RSD releases from) the Savages EP and a Sonic Youth live LP. So it wasn’t a waste.

To further encourage people to head down to their local record store, each shop is encouraged to put on live music throughout the day and Dave’s was no different with a guy playing acoustic music. I have to admit, the music was immediately forgettable. But it was pleasant enough.

Soon after he finished, I left with my new purchases. Reflecting on how the scheme seems to have worked if it connected me with a local record shop and causing me to plough some money into a local shop. So I guess you can say Record Store Day was a success.