Would it be fair to throw a stern look to the baby’s father if she cries? Considering no one has paid to watch Villagers front-man Conor O’Brien’s Record Store Day performance, one might argue against it.
Conditions are less than perfect anyway; one girl has already fainted because the windows barely open two-inches (not far enough to keep the crowd squeezed into the small café cool on one of the warmest days of the year). What would a squeal be to this stuffy room?
That’s not to say any of the 150 music enthusiasts gathered upstairs in Dublin’s Tower Records are ‘hot and bothered’ however. In fact, smiles grace every face.
The crowd is here to celebrate the seventh annual day acknowledging vinyl as one of the best ways to consume music, with some fans being lucky enough to pick up limited edition vinyls by David Bowie, Joy Division and Jake Bugg released specially for the day.
Crowds pile into Tower Records’ café on Record Store Day 2014
From early in the morning, there’s genuine astonishment as people find the rare covers they’re keen to add to their collection, with Tower Records offering some of the world’s rarest vinyls including one of only 1,000 glow-in-the-dark presses of the Ghostbusters theme song.
“We had crowds queuing right up the street (before opening this morning),” said Tower Records’ Jenny Headen: “It was absolutely fantastic… And it was great to see lots of people coming out and supporting independent records.”
Headen continued: “It’s fantastic for us to have support like that, and to have people releasing their records on vinyl because there’s such a resurgence in it at the minute. I think it’s up 40% for sales for vinyl now in the last year so it’s really great.”
Independent music stores like Tower Records can apply for special release vinyls, but with hundreds of shops worldwide doing the same and a limited number of copies available, staff don’t know what they’re going to get.
“It’s like Christmas,” Headen explains: “We get an order in and can’t wait to see what’s in the box to see what we have to sell.”
When the early shoppers leave, they’re replaced with different types of fans, the ones that tell their children to “pick out their favourite picture”. Other people prove chart-topping Macklemore’s recently adopted line “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is true, and shelves start to look bare.
Shoppers trickle in and out all day, with some individuals just coming in for the performances by O’Brien, SOAK and Lisa Hannigan. It’s just one of the hundreds of stores globally celebrating the day, with HMV even coinciding their Grafton St. shop reopening with the occasion.
“I think (Record Store Day) had a huge impact on the reopening, I think it definitely did,” said the store’s manager Darren O’Mahony: “There’s great excitement, a lot of great atmosphere and great bands here today.”
“Vinyl is the only growth in music at the moment, and I think vinyl is going to become bigger and bigger,” O’Mahony said: “I mean, it was like feeding time at the zoo (today), so many people going through the vinyls.”
The live music is playing almost constantly in the Dawson St. café, but there’s breaks for autograph-signings and pictures. After his set, O’Brien reveals why he enjoys Record Store Day.
“I think it’s nice that we have people coming together for reasons that aren’t alcohol-based” O’Brien told the News Reporting Times. “To celebrate the nicest things in the world which is records and vinyls and music and art. It’s just a good day.”
The baby saved her father any potential scowls in the end. Perhaps convinced by the voice of O’Brien or the harmony the crowd found themselves in, she never cried.
You can listen to a report from Dublin here.
The News Reporting Times 