John Smith and the Common Men

So today (April 20th) is Record Store Day and wanting to get my Doctor Who themed 'John Smith and the Common Men' 7" I set the alarm to get up early.

Having no idea of the scope of Record Shop Day's draw I decided to just try to get to one of the two participating stores in my home city for opening time and then if needed head to the other one. One store which I won't name opened at 9am so they got my first choice slot. There was already a healthy queue when I arrived but nothing major and someone from the shop was assuring us they would open soon so I was sure I would be in and out in no time... over half an hour later they finally opened and the queue flowed like treacle on a cold day.

As we slowly inched toward the shop a fair few unhappy shoppers were exiting as it appeared the shop had not had deliveries of some of the titles as Universal had let them down but as the Common Men release was on an indie label I wasn't too worried... eventually got into the shop and finally got to the counter and asked for my selection... dumbfounded and slightly rudely I was told they weren't stocking that one before he moved on to the next customer.

To say I was not happy about that would be an understatement but never one to give up I went to where, in hindsight, I should have gone first - the Liverpool institution that is Probe Records... which had a disheartening queue outside the door and down the street by this stage. I'd wager there close to 200 people in front of me but I wasn't going to write the day off so I queued and this time it flowed like treacle on an even colder day!

Credit to Probe though - I was in line for a few hours there but the staff were jolly and even gave out sweets and later biscuits to those still waiting outside to get their grubby little hands on their chosen vinyl! They even confirmed for me that the Common Men release was indeed in the shop and they still had some copies, thus giving me hope and a reason to stay!

My patience paid off (as you may have already assumed by the photos already posted!) and I finally bought myself a copy of the nifty retro-designed numbered vinyl... then I asked for the Reservoir Dogs 20th Anniversary Soundtrack coloured vinyl (which colour you get is a mystery - I was hoping for pink for Steve Buscemi's character but was happy enough with my lurid yellow Michael Madsen version!) which I was also interested in and they'd sold out. This is where I turned a negative into a positive - having wasted that time at the unnamed record shop earlier that day I knew they hadn't had all their deliveries early on and knew they hadn't had Reservoir Dogs when I was there... so I went back to their now empty store and my hunch had paid off as I was able to get a box-fresh copy from the same, still surly despite the lack of a crowd, shopkeeper.

I was hoping the whole day would be an in/out kind of deal but five hours after getting up I had what I had come out for!