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Record Store Day launches, exclusive releases announced

By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 20 March 2012

So, Record Store Day in the UK was launched at a secret London location last night, with PiL performing and Orbital DJing in a Shoreditch basement. This was witnessed not only by an invited audience of journalists in the room, but also the world (or certainly a proportion of it) via a Boiler Room TV stream.

Record Store Day’s UK coordinator Spencer Hickman told CMU: “The support of artists and labels and music fans for this annual celebration of the indie record shop has been amazing and is really appreciated. To have PiL and Orbital play at our launch is not only a real honour, but it’s a sign of how much Record Store Day has developed”.

As well as the performances, 350 of the exclusive releases being made available for this year’s RSD on 21 Apr were announced. Amongst them are special releases from the likes of Coldplay, Gorillaz, Florence And The Machine, Bat For Lashes, Common, 2manydjs, Benga, Refused, Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm, Future Of The Left, Belle & Sebastian, Blondie, M83, Bo Ningen, Botch, Machinedrum, Mastadon and Fiest, Metronomy, Trentemoller, and many more.

Hickman continued: “Record Store Day has now become an established part of the music calendar and what makes it special is the character and individuality of record stores. There’s nothing to beat the enthusiasm and atmosphere of a great record shop. The reason great indie stores succeed is that they love music as much as their customers do. Record Store Day is like one huge festival taking place in every part of the UK. It’s primarily about the record stores and the events, not just the products available”.

You can find the full list of releases and participating records store at www.recordstoreday.co.uk