Saturday 19th April marks the 2019 Record Store Day (RSD), and with vinyls making more and more of a comeback, this year’s events are set to be the most popular in years. Supported by BBC Sounds, RSD is a celebration of independent record stores all over the country. Special vinyl releases and live music should be expected from your local record store (wherever that may be), along with a great atmosphere and a celebration of good music.

Each year the event is represented by a different ambassador; this year self professed record lovers ‘The Mighty Boosh’ have been named the first comedians to ever take on the role. Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, in an interview with RSD UK expressed their feeling towards the globally celebrated event “I love the smell of record shops – you can’t download that”. In the heartwarming interview, we are reminded of what music used to mean to fans before platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music: “I remember having enough money to buy the Nirvana Album, but not enough money to get the bus – so I walked to Croydon to get it, but I was walking on air”.

RSD host a range of events, the most popular being ‘The Unsigned Competition’, whereby undiscovered artists enter some of their work with a chance of their music being pressed on 500 vinyls and distributed across independent record shops. This year, the judges of this competition were: Jamie Oborne (Head of Dirty Hit Records), Phil Taggart (BBC Radio DJ), Chris Marksberry (Managing Director of Sounds Performance), and Natasha Funds (Co-owner of Resident Music). 

The winners of the competition were a Glaswegian punk-rock 4 piece ‘Heavy Rapids’ who formed in 2017. The band have had a series of single’s, the most recent being ‘Going Down’ which was released in February of this year. This success comes at at a perfect time for the boys, who coincidently have an EP coming out very soon. The band responded to being named the winners in a follow up interview with RSD: “We feel so privileged to have this opportunity and are excited to have our music pressed onto the old faithful of music forms”. Heavy Rapids currently has a small following of 800 followers on Twitter and 1,100 on Instagram – hopefully this win will mean a rise in the music scene! 

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.

Delighted to announce we have won the @RSDUK competition. Our debut EP ‘Cash In Hand’ will be pressed on 500 copies of vinyl.

We hope you are as excited as we are! Dream come true. Xxx@SoundPerformUK @ProperMusicGrp pic.twitter.com/ZCz8hsJfz2

— HEAVY RAPIDS (@HEAVY_RAPIDS) April 10, 2019

The UK is bursting with energy today as RSD is in full swing! Find out which artists are performing close to you: 

LONDON: 

Rough Trade West – Fontaines D.C, Peter Doherty and KT Tunstall

Rough Trade East – Our Girl, Nadine Shah (DJ Set) 

Lion Coffee + Records London – Honey Lung, James Ford (DJ Set)

Phonica Records – Junction 2 Festival 

SOUTH EAST ENGLAND: 

Banquet Records – Tom Speight, John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett

Truck Store – Count Skylarkin (DJ Set) 

Resident – Our Girl 

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND: 

Rough Trade Bristol – Rozi Plain, Band of Skulls and Steve Lamacq (DJ Set) 

Badlands Records – Live music all day 

EAST OF ENGLAND: 

Soundclash Records – Sleaford Mods

Intense Records – Sepia and Danny Bounce 

WEST MIDLANDS: 

Revolution Records – Matt Sayers and Tied Acoustic 

EAST MIDLANDS: 

Spunout Records – Live Music All Day 

Rough Trade Nottingham – DMA’s, TVAM and Creatures 

NORTH WEST ENGLAND: 

Piccadilly Records – The Orielles (DJ Set), Tim Burgess (DJ Set) and A Man Called Adam

81 Renshaw – The John Lennon Time Capsule will be on public display for the first time ever!