Local independent vinyl shops in Twickenham and Teddington are gearing up for Record Store Day, which falls on Saturday April 23 this year and attracts thousands of collectors and music fans to purchase limited editions of their favourite bands and artistes on ONE DAY ONLY.

There are about 400 special releases only available on this day and early morning queues are expected at both Roan Records in Church Road, Teddington and Eel Pie Records in Church Street, Twickenham with only a limited number of albums available.

The owner of Eel Pie Records, Phil Penman told Nub News: "Record Store Day is by far the biggest day the calendar for Eel Pie Records and independent record shops UK wide and all over the world.

"Eel Pie Records has participated in RSD since 2018 and each year we have had queues of up to 100 excited record collectors waiting outside in beautiful Church Street for their chance to grab the limited-edition special releases. But we've become extremely efficient in keeping the queues moving and keeping our precious customers happy! We have a great team of young people come and help us and we all work hard and have fun on the day.

"There are around 400 special releases available from 9am on 23rd of April. All are limited and collectible; many are weird, wonderful and obscure; and the big name releases include 2 David Bowie EPs, a picture disc from The Cure, and a Blur Remix collection.

"We expect many of the releases to sell out on the day, and in the days following, but any stock remaining will be made available online from 8pm the following Friday (29th April)"

The owner of Roan Records, Rob Palmer said: "Record Store day started in the USA, fifteen years ago. The idea is to encourage record buyers to visit their local independent record store. When it started there were only a dozen or so releases. This year there is over 500 to choose from.

"These releases have usually, never been released before or are in different format or colour. They are also limited editions. To buy one of these titles you must visit a record store, where they are sold on a first come first served basis (no more than one copy of any title). They cannot be reserved, and they cannot be sold online until a week later.

"Last year was Roan Records first RSD and the queue started forming before 5am. The queue snaked its way back up Church Road, with customers who had a wish list of what they were hoping to get. It's a great fillip for us small independent stores, both financially and in creating awareness of one's retail store.

"This year we will have our resident DJ Andrew spinning tunes and we will have some live music throughout the day and trying to create a party atmosphere."

The entire landscape of music taste is represented with albums from bands and solo artistes including Blondie, Blur, Bowie, Alice Cooper, The Cure, Def Leppard, Foo Fighters, Frankie Goes to Hollywod, Peter Gabriel, Rory Gallagher, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, The Kinks, Elton John, The Jackson Five, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Billy Bragg, Santana, Rick Astley, The Rolling Stones, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Motorhead, Prince,The Proclaimers, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, Mike Oldfield, Willie Nelson, Simple Minds, Donna Summer, Joss Stone, Supergrass, The Who, Suzanne Vega and Steve Hackett. (not every store will stock every record)

Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on a "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world including war-torn Ukraine, where there are seven vinyl shops in Kyiv and one in Lviv called the Vinyl Club.

Their website carries a poignant message: "The people in the world of record stores in Ukraine are just like the people in the world of your record store, except where they hold their festivals is being shelled, and their employees, customers and musicians are now soldiers."

CHECK OUT Eel Pie Records here.

CHECK OUT Roan Records here.

For more detail about RECORD STORE DAY click here or see the range of releases here.