VARIOUS ARTISTS – Popscene: From Baggy To Britpop 1989-1994

The early nineties were an exciting time for guitar based music. Grunge dominated the rock scene, but as any avid viewer of the ITV Chart Show will tell you, circa 1992, the indie chart was brimming with great bands, often more of a UK vintage. Shoegaze sounds captured the underground; jangly indie acts – like The La’s and World of Twist – celebrated more of a 60s vintage, and the social commentary that drove bands like Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and The Wonder Stuff found itself crossing over for massive chart success.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT: Record Store Day 2019 – Was it worth it?

…And so ends Record Store Day for another year.

As with previous events, we enjoyed the build up more than the event itself. There’s a pleasure in perusing the list of releases, wondering if any of your favourite bands will issue a must-have coloured vinyl LP, or keeping your ear to the ground for oddities that might even be too obscure or limited to make the main list. We’ve enjoyed sharing our top picks for the day with fans and readers…and as always, we’ve raised eyebrows and a wry smile at photos on social media of middle aged men who’ve abandoned their families to sit on a fishing stool under a blanket outside of their favourite stores at 6 AM. You’ve got to admire that kind of tenacity – especially on what turned out to be a particularly Arctic April, weather wise.

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RECORD STORE DAY 2019: Real Gone’s top picks

When Record Store Day first began, it was a great idea. Those who were regulars at independent record shops like Avalanche in Edinbugh and Resident in Brighton could potentially get their hands on very limited, exclusive items. It was a celebration of record buying culture, more than anything. Over the years the event has grown. After all of the major labels sensed a potential cash cow, it increasingly became about reissuing stuff en masse at inflated prices.

Record Store Day has become an event full of mixed feelings. There are now tales of people not actually visiting their local (and favourite) stores on RSD as the crowds of unfamiliar faces have made the experience quite stressful. People queue for hours in the hope of finding one of the many artificially created rarities – a lot of which seem to appear on ebay just hours later at even more inflated prices. In recent years, there have even been dealers “pre-selling” their RSD wares on the internet up to two days before the event that was supposed to get people into their shops.

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