Record Store Day 22Apr2013
In our time, we’ve released products on many different formats at Network: VHS (yes, really!), DVD, Blu-Ray and audio CD. But never a 7” vinyl single. Until now.
This year, for the first time, Network is participating in Record Store Day, which takes place on Saturday 20th April. This, for the uninitiated, is a celebration of independent record retailers, inaugurated in the USA in 2007, which has now become a global phenomenon. Artists from all styles and genres take part, with special limited edition releases from the smallest indie bands right up to international superstars. Even Paul McCartney’s given it the thumbs-up.
Titles are exclusive to participating stores and available only on Record Store Day itself. Vinyl and special packaging have become the hot tickets, with many releases selling out in a matter of hours (if not minutes), and fans queuing up on high streets to ensure a copy of their favourite artist’s record. This year, Network is joining the fray with a very special release, which marks our first foray into the recondite world of the vinyl single.
We’ve already successfully released CD collections of the soundtrack music to many of the iconic ITC filmed adventure series from the 1960s and ’70s, and this year will see a new range of boutique vinyl albums, compiling the best of these releases onto collectable 12″ LPs in retro packaging.
As a taster for what’s to come, our Record Store Day release takes the form of a 7″ vinyl EP, with the appropriately retro title Themes for Action, showcasing some of the most popular ITC main titles: The Saint, Danger Man, The Prisoner and Man in a Suitcase. If you think you’ve heard them already, you’re only half right: because every track has been newly remastered for vinyl. With the sleeve designed to resemble an actual 1960s artefact, this will be a strictly limited edition – available only from participating outlets on Saturday 20th April.
The rules of Record Store Day are simple: if you want a copy, you’ve got to get down to your nearest participating independent record store and actually buy it. You can’t make reservations, and you can’t buy online. It’s all about getting people into the stores themselves, and with the ongoing demise of the British high street, that’s got to be a good thing.
Not every release is available at every store, so it pays to check first to ensure the release you want (ours, of course) is available at your local indie record shop by finding your nearest outlet.
Dealers will usually know what releases they’ll be getting in stock, but as we’ve already said, you can’t reserve a copy and you can’t get them from anywhere else. The only way to be sure of a copy is to join the queue, pray it doesn’t rain and hope they don’t sell out before you get to the counter.
If that’s not your idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday, you’re probably not going to be interested in vinyl singles anyway. For the rest of us, it’s a nostalgic return to the way record buying used to be. There’s only one other thing you need, and that’s a record player. Now, where did I put that old Dansette..?
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