There’s many things I like to do after working an evening pub shift. Grab a takeaway and put the Xbox on, maybe catch up on some TV. If I’m feeling ultra productive, I might even write an article for this dear site.
Bottom of that list is probably relegating myself to standing in the cold for five or more hours.
So why do it? Maybe this article will explain it that little bit more… or maybe you’ll just come to the conclusion that I’m an oddball. That’s your prerogative after all!
So after getting in from work at around 11am, I digested some astonishingly inedible cheesy chips, drank a ginger beer and spontaneously decided to hail an Uber down to the much celebrated Pie And Vinyl in the heart of trendy Southsea.
How late could I realistically leave it to head down? I knew the store opened at 8, so I figured maybe I’d sod around on the Xbox and head down for about 5am. Then I saw this tweet…
#RSD16 Eager music fans spotted queueing already outside Southsea's @PieandVinyl for Record Store Day in Castle Road pic.twitter.com/cEDH4SCSCc
— Spotted Portsmouth (@Spotted_Pompey) April 15, 2016
What the actual?!
So I brewed up a latte into my flask, changed out of my work gear, trying not to wake up my girlfriend, and summoned the Uber. Have you ever attempted to explain your motives to a taxi driver at 3am? Don’t. Although he did oddly perk up as I mentioned the resale value of some of the records being offered up…
I arrived outside Pie & Vinyl at 3.15am. The queue was already fairly respectable. About 15 or so chaps lounged out on school chairs, sun loungers, sipping coffee from the pre-installed urn (thanks Pie & Vinyl!). Music was blaring out of a bluetooth speaker and there seemed to be a pretty decent vibe. Until about 10 minutes later when the bloke from the council came and told us to stop the noise…supposedly sane people sleep at 4am…Who knew?
The atmosphere kinda dulled a little for about half hour or so after that as people retreated back into their iPods. Although I eventually made chit-chat and administered a queue friendship with another gentleman, who also happened to be a writer.
The hours passed nice and quick as we chatted about all manner of bands and journalistic hates and eventually it was about 6am. Now for the first major downside of long-term queuing. When nature calls…
It’s all fine at about 4am, as the harsh black skies of night helpfully disguise your degradation of someones alleyway, however its a bit more awkward as the sun comes up. Eventually we settled on some trees on the common, trying our best to be as subtle as possible as runners presumably took us for drunk yobs.
Queue is growing outside @PieandVinyl . I'm 13th – not long to go now #rsd pic.twitter.com/T8J6LKthLm
— Martyn Cox (@martyncoxgarden) April 16, 2016
At about 6am the staff from the store came out and took orders for coffees and their brilliant breakfast pies. It was at this point I realised that I didn’t even bother learning the name of the gentleman I’d been chatting to for the past 3/4 hours. Turns out it was also Martin!
Eventually at about 8.15am, having made a new friend, consumed my body weight in coffee and tamed a pigeon, we were let into the store. Even with a controlled system of 25 in at a time (technically about 10 looking at records at any point) it was civilized chaos, men in tweed blazers trying to thumb through the same racks for the White Stripes release. It was at that point, staring at the racks that I realized, not one other person had gone for the same slabs of the black stuff as me…so I may have queued in part for nothing.
Happily, the realization that not everyone present was a big fan of Big Star or Manic Street Preachers meant I managed to get the two records I was after, and a couple of others for luck. My loot after 5 hours you ask?
Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life
12″ Vinyl Single (x4 trk) housed in printed inner sleeve, inside a copper mirrorcard outer sleeve – Pressing of 4000
Big Star – Complete Columbia: Live at University of Missouri 4/25/93
2 x LP, 4000 print run (1000 in UK)
Iggy and The Stooges – Metallic K.O.
Metallic silver colored vinyl, 1500 print run.
The Libertines – Live 2015
2 x LP, 1000 print run.
Total spend: £75 for records, £10 for 2 Uber rides, £8 breakfast pie and latte
Total: £93
Was it worth it? I’d say so. It’s not just crazy, it’s bloody well deranged to decide to queue for 5 hours in the British weather. But chatting to interesting and like-minded music fans before gettin your hands on hard to get releases from some of our favourite bands really does make it feel like it was time and money well invested.
Part of the charm of record collecting is that stories cling to them so much better. No-one remembers the exact time, place etc when they bought that Taylor Swift cd, even if it did turn out to be their fav album of the year. Most of my vinyl I can remember the stores, the sellers, the journeys and scenarios that put me together with these round slabs.
From the Joy Division vinyl I bought for £2 from a seller clueless about anything released post 1975, The Badfinger LP that was the real reason I went on the college trip to London and now, these four briliant limited edition albums I physically fucked myself over for. Maybe I just need more friends…
https://twitter.com/PieandVinyl/status/721235748293369856
