Gary Flockhart: Celebrate record store day - while there’s time

RECORD shops. Remember them? Actual brick-and-mortar buildings, where you could spend a leisurely afternoon raking through a rack of dusty vinyl.

You might even take advice from one of these stores’ many clued-up staff and head home having discovered a new favourite band.

Sadly, in an age when iTunes dominates the music market and HMV is just about the last chain standing, these magical places are few and far between. Independent record shops have become an endangered species in the last decade, and yet we’ll miss them when they’re gone.

This is precisely the reason why we should be embracing and supporting Record Store Day on April 21.

Now in its fourth year, this is the one day that all of the independently-owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music - and some of the Capital’s stores are getting in on the act with a series of planned events of their own.

At Avalanche, Ryan Hannigan will show us how to make album covers using a star wheel press. That will be followed by an after-party at Electric Circus, with various friends of Avalanche coming along.

Meanwhile, Coda Music will be having a day of in-store gigs. So far they have Kris Drever, Bella Hardy, Rura and Rab Noakes confirmed.

The Bow Bar is getting involved too, celebrating Record Store Day by having a cask of RSD2012 ale on tap all day from The Revolutions Brewing Company in Yorkshire.

Record Store Day is a great idea - in fact, it’s absolutely brilliant - and we should all show our support.