hundredreasonsband:

It’s Record Store Day on Saturday (16 April). But every day’s record store day, right? Bands need record shops and the people who work in them, until you get to be so mega massively huge that you have the sort of following who’ll buy your records direct from you and you can snub the record shops who stocked your first album and told everyone you were great, thus helping you to get to make your second album…

I met Larry when Banquet Records was still Beggars Banquet. I ran mail order, Mark Gravity worked downstairs, set up the punk / hardcore / emo section, ordered everything that wasn’t house. Pre-internet we sold insane amounts of records no other shops knew about at that time - literally hundreds of Promise Ring, Wheat, Nerf Herder, all on the basis that we told people they were good.

Larry, in a pre-pre-HR band, shopped there. He asked us to help his band out in around 1996, because we worked in a record shop and so must’ve known what we were talking about… Somehow it all worked out fine anyway. HR did Banquet instores, played Banquet shows. Record shops matter.

On Saturday to celebrate Record Store Day, exclusively at Banquet Records, you can buy the last ever, brand new, boxfresh copies of Ideas Above Our Station on LP. Pristine as the day they left the pressing plant (cos we only opened the boxes on Sunday) they’ve got really nice full colour inner bags. I think 1000 were pressed but know for a fact only around 200 sold as that’s why there was no Shatterproof vinyl. The rest of the LPs were pulped. Imagine.

If there’s any left after Saturday, you’ll be able to get them online from 23 April. But there’s loads of great stuff out on Saturday, so if you’re local or fancy a good day out with people who care about music and bands, head to Banquet and the massive queue of excellent people (and Ebayers) on Saturday.

jane / H*R