Happy Record Store Day!

Hey all

Happy record store day everybody! Here's a quick link to a video of one of my favourite record store memories. I was about 15-16, visiting Birmingham, Alabama and me and my dad went exploring. We found - in between visits to a comic book store and a Johnny Rockets diner (both were completely alien and utterly thrilling to me) - we ended up going upstairs into Charlemagne Records. We spent hours looking through records, taking them over to a sofa and putting them on a couple of turntables with headphones for us to zone out on.

I remember the staff being so friendly, giving us t-shirts and discounts after it became apparent we were going to head in there every day of our trip and spend time and money. Their country section was amazing - One of the reasons for our journey in Alabama was to go north to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and try and find the graves of The Louvin Brothers.

Anyway, that's probably my first memory of actually falling in love with a record store. When they're done well, they're some of the most spiritual places on earth and I hate the idea that one day we might be without them. If you didn't manage to get to one today then try and make it your mission to get to one this week and pick up a new best friend (or record, if you will).

Charlemagne Records on Vimeo