04-18-2023 02:59 PM - edited 04-18-2023 03:11 PM
Hi Everyone!
This coming Saturday is Record Store Day 2023. This is the one day of the year when over 260 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day and many more shops and cities host artist performances and events to mark the occasion. Thousands more shops celebrate the day around the globe in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar.
Personally I love my gigs so this time of year is bigger than Christmas for me! In the last week I have hit up King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow (the place Oasis were discovered) watching one of my new favourite bands, Dictator. They are a really fun indie-electro-pop band that leans on the path built by Gorillaz, Alt-J and London Grammar. They had some really cool spots throughout the gig, in the picture below you see the lead singer in the crowd performing one of their slower songs, it really was something special.
This year at SMARTY we are celebrating RSD by ‘fessing up to those embarrassing first albums and gigs you went to, along with giving recommendations of artists you think people have slept on!
So let us know this:
Plus don’t forget your local shop this Saturday, I’ll be hitting up Assai Records new store in Glasgow aiming to pick up one or two special RSD products, you can check out your closest participating store here
04-18-2023 04:06 PM
04-18-2023 04:07 PM
First record: New Order - 'World in Motion'
First gig: Suede at the Victoria Hall, Hanley
Best gig: The Stone Roses, Madison Square Garden
Recommended artist: The Stone Roses, the best band there's ever been and ever will be.
04-18-2023 05:39 PM
First Record: Instead of going for the didn’t know better, very young childhood singles of ‘Around the World’ by East 17 or ‘Baby come back’ by Pato Banton, my first consciously bought record was ‘Everything Must Go’ by Manic Street Preachers. Cover to cover such a good album.
First gig: Rhythm of the Saints tour with Paul Simon. Dad a huge fan of Simon and Garfunkel so took the whole family. Can’t remember much of it except he played ‘You can call me Al’ and then jammed for what seemed like 4 days.
Best gig: Smashing Pumpkins at Wembley Arena. One of my all time favourite bands and a bucket list item ticked off. I cried, I sang.
Recommended artist: All time favourite band EELS. Had a couple of minor hits in the mid 90’s but had a steady and growing cult following 15 albums later. Ever changing between soft folk rock and hard rock with some good humour behind some serious topic songs. Favourite album to really get to grips with them is ‘Electro shock blues’, a quirky concept album about losing loved ones. Happy times!
04-19-2023 08:52 AM
A bit of nostalgia here for me!
First record was a cassette tape! KLF the whiteroom
First gig - Black grape at the forum in Livingston (now an M&S outlet shop)
Best gig - seeing both Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk at Gatecrasher summer sound system
Recommended artist - tricky one this, I do love dance music and I'd probably say it's between Solarstone and Markus Schulz in terms of production.
04-19-2023 09:09 AM - edited 04-19-2023 11:28 AM
Nice post @George! 😎 I can't say I've ever played a physical vinal record.. before my time lol. My first music player was a Walkman.
04-19-2023 11:21 AM
04-19-2023 11:56 AM
Ok I've let this breathe a little, now its my turn!
04-19-2023 03:47 PM - edited 04-19-2023 03:48 PM
Did Faithless play Insomnia at T in the Park? That is a song that will never age and I'm immensely jealous if they did!