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For music lovers, Record Store Day is like Christmas. It happens just once a year, you’ll spend too much money on things you don’t need and probably have an argument with someone. Between us in the Wonderland office, we’ve nearly had fist fights with a skinny teenage boys over limited edition red disc releases of Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy and been picked up outside Rough Trade East by The Heartbreaks to join them on a double decker bus for a mini tour.

Get down early and you’ll have your pick of everything and most likely an adventure but if, like us, you’re not allowed to bunk off responsibilities to buy a piece of plastic, don’t fret. Vinyl nerds will hide their treasures down the back of anything, and chances are, if you visit most stores within the following week you’ll find something, somewhere, left over. Here’s our seven best picks of what’s on offer this year, we’re hoping something from this list will be left by 6 o’clock.

The Classic

Sing along, you know all the words. Revive one of Bowie’s best for RSD15. With Ziggy Stardust’s own face on the disc, what more reason would you need to buy a copy? We might frame ours if we can find one.

The Song From a Film

Air – “Playground Love WMG”, released on Rhino will be a special edition orange seven inch with the b-side “High School Lover” both tracks taken from the original score for Sophia Coppola’s lo-fi dream flick, The Virgin Suicides. Only listen to this lying on your bedroom floor writing love letters in glitter gel pens.

The Newbies

Brummie head-bangers God Damn have been riffing up a storm for a few years now but were finally signed to One Little Indian last year. Up against Baby Godzilla, the “sex for dinner, death for breakfast” band from Nottingham, they’ve released a GD v BG grey 7 inch for RSD. Battle of the bands for them, battle against your neighbours for you.

The Live Edition

Didn’t manage to get your mitts on a Jesus & Mary Chain release last year? No worries, they’re back. With this live recording of their 30th Anniversary show at Glasgow’s Barrowland, you can pretend you’re there every day. There will be a limited run of 340 red discs amongst the 1500 releases. Get hunting.

The Novelty

Of course you need an A-ha “Take On Me” picture disc in your life, stop being silly and take it to the tills, now. Was this not the most futuristic music video you’d ever seen at the time? Now it’s the ultimate throwback.

The Guitars

Shoegaze stormers Slowdive are releasing their 1992 compilation album “Blue Day” on blue disc. Full of moody, long tracks, there are only seven songs on there but you still get over forty minutes of pedals and distortion to dream to.

The Remix

Jungle and Shura, two huge break out names for 2014 have teamed up to bring you a remix. You might have heard this funked up disco rendition of “Indecision” before, but now is the first time you can buy it on vinyl. There’s only 500 copies out there, so be quick.

Words: Lily Walker

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So what’s Last Shop Standing all about?

At its core, it’s the first definitive film that tries to show the history of UK independent record shops and chart their rise in the 60s and 70s, their fall in the late 80s and 00s and their recent rebirth. It’s full of humour and pathos and reveals some very telling stories about what went wrong and what could go right. Ultimately, it’s a celebration of this rich vein of music heritage and a cry for us not to lose it.

How did you approach directing Last Shop Standing?

Very much from a narrative point of view, both historical as well as teasing out the interesting stories. It’s all very natural, shot on location with a small crew so we could move fast.

What’s your own personal experience with record shops?

I grew up with them, visited them every weekend from my early teens in the 70s. They were instrumental in my musical education.

Do you still buy music from record shops or are you an MP3 kind of guy?

I love buying from record shops: through the shoot we reckon as a small crew we spent over £400 to £500 on recorsd! I do download legally but much prefer to have the physical record on quality vinyl.

Do you think there’s anyone to blame for the decline of the independent record shop?

You need to watch the film to get the lowdown on that, but yes there are many reasons and no single factor.

Why do you think record shops are still important in this day and age – and how do you think they can survive?

They will survive for sure. People still love physical records, love shops who really know their music and can advise, places that are just so cool to visit and hang out in. If you look at Record Store Day there a lots of young people discovering record shops right now.

What was your own personal favourite out of all the record shops you filmed?

I can’t pinpoint any one shop, they were all so good in their own ways. The highlight really was the people who make them what they are. People who are passionate about music, innovative in how they’re trying to survive and thrive.

Any record shop person you met during the course of filming this that you particularly liked / admired?

As said before, all the shop owners and workers. But during the making of the film we lost two great record shops: C.E. Hudsons in Chesterfield which was the oldest family-run record shop in the world and Rounder Records in Brighton where Norman Cook used to work – very sad.

Was there anything surprising you learnt while filming this documentary?

Yes, lots! Again, you really need to watch it get the full story but there were some really interesting facts about how the music industry was going about its business at certain points. How vinyl disappeared is not what you think…

Last Shop Standing premieres this weekend at Bestival and will have a limited UK release from 10 September onwards. Check the Last Shop Standing website for more information on screenings. You can also pre-order the DVD from your local record shop. lastshopstanding.com

Words: Zing Tsjeng

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Can you explain how the project works? Who’s involved?

We got artists to design sleeves for unreleased tracks by CSS, Florence and the Machine, Noah and the Whale, Ben Howard, Bombay Bicycle Club and DJ Shadow, as well as The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” as part for its 20th anniversary. Our guideline was to steer away from using the artist’s name or track title. Around half the pieces are by artists who entered a global competition through a website called Talenthouse [5000 people applied]. The rest are by designers like David Shrigley, Michael Spencer Jones who has done Oasis and Verve covers, Central Station who did Happy Mondays’, Toby Mott [De La Soul] and Richard Evans [The Who]. Robert Smith and Florence Welch have done sleeves too – not necessarily their own though.The deadline for sleeves was the end of March. It was like Christmas. I was running out of storage space in the office. My desk draws had sleeves coming out everywhere. I’m glad they all got here unscathed.

What makes record sleeves so special?

They are works of art, and are a physical extension of the music. People can engage with more than one of their senses when listening to music on vinyl.

Why the anonymity of the designers?

It brings the focus on to the interpretation of the artwork. People like testing their detective skills and seeing if they can work out which single is which and who designed it. It adds an extra dimension to an exhibition like this.

Is there a big range of designs? Is it easy to guess which is which?

Two thirds are digital prints, but we invited people to push the perception of what a seven inch sleeve really is. We have a wooden guitar sleeve, people have made them out of felt, there’s one with butterflies carved out of the sleeve. There are themes. Obviously “Friday I’m in Love” has themes of love and the heart but there’s lots of other hearts on Bombay Bicycle Club and Ben Howard sleeves. It will be interesting when people come to pick them up whether they get what they’re expecting to.

How are visitors reacting to them so far?

I think all the unusual ones are very popular, but everyone seems to be having a good look at the flying fox. I’ve heard lots of wrong guesses of which is which, there’s really big buzz among Cure fans around which one is by Robert Smith. There was a lady in the gallery earlier and she was pointing around guessing at some. She wanted me to play a game of ‘warmer or colder’.

Do you think there are going to be some angry customers on Record Store Day who guessed wrong?

There may be a couple, but I hope not. I reckon people will be happy with the piece of art they’ve bought. If they get the record they desire inside then brilliant – they have a one-off 7” sleeve that could be by one of their favourite bands.

The Secret 7” exhibition runs until April 22 with the records on sale from 10am Saturday morning. Minimum donation is £40 with all proceeds going to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, London, E2 7JB

Words: Kate Lloyd

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Tell us about The Playlist.

We approached quite a few record stores in different places around the world, often in places where we’ve already got boutiques, and asked if they’d want to be part of this one off project where we allow them to sell through farfetch.com. We now have six stores who have each created a little edit of their favourite, rare and exclusive pieces, which we’re selling through the site for the next three months.

You’ve chosen record stores from all over the world – are you hoping for a something of a cultural exchange?

Yeah, I think that’s part of it really. Obviously these record stores, it’s the same as the fashion boutiques that we work with, are used to dealing with local customers and day-to-day local people that have always come to their shop. So now we’re offering them a much more international audience. We sell fashion to around 105 countries – we have customers in all those places. So this offers them that international exposure that they probably don’t get in their locality.

Can you tell us about some of the exclusive products that will be offered?

Admittedly it’s quite an old one, but there’s an 18-track vinyl sampler that Bruce Springsteen recorded back in the 80s. It’s used, but Amoeba were able to get their hands on it. There’s a real variety, some real up and coming stuff. Some have been recorded in store – Ellie Goulding recorded something in Amoeba, and they’ve created a record from that. So there’s really exclusive stuff. There’s a lot of vinyl on offer too. For example, there’s a record by John Swing, who’s a house DJ from the 80s – it’s a white label and Black Market have only just been able to get their hands on it again. A lot of the record stores that we spoke to are saying that vinyl’s suddenly becoming really popular again. Which I guess is similar to the way that people buy vintage fashion.

Why did you want to get involved with Record Store Day?

We decided to approach independent record stores as they have that same kind of spirit of entrepreneurship and independence that you find in fashion. They’re also struggling a bit these days in the way that independent fashion boutiques are. So it’s us showing our support for the little guys.

What can you tell us about the video that’s launching alongside The Playlist?

We wanted to bring the whole thing to life really. So we thought it might be nice to make some films and work with up and coming artists. We really hit it off with a band called S.C.U.M. They loved this place where they had recorded their first album – a recording studio out in an old farm and mill in Hampshire, called Earth Terminal studios. So we took them out there. They hand picked items of clothing from our site for the video and chose some really interesting things – some from up and coming designers who you wouldn’t instantly think of. It all felt really natural.

Words: Tom Shepherd

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