goodnewsfromthewalnuttree:

Record Store Day Part 3 - The Wait and the Spoils

Check out the pictures above for my Dear Deidre style picto-story:

9.03am - Arrive into Kingson after narrowly missing a train from Vauxhall that would have got me there 20 mins earlier.  Head to Banquet Records, possibly the finest record shop in the 6 zones of London and my preference for Record Store Day. Head to the end of a very long queue.  Banquet is 100 yards down the road and round the corner.  The shop opens at 10am.

9.14am - I’m given a wristband that states I am customer 120.  I can now go and pee if I need to.  I don’t need to, I wait.  I eat a little bit of a bread roll I bought for breakfast from Tesco.  I know there are about 70 Radiohead singles.  This is what I want.  50 People need not to but it.  I cross my fingers and hope that they’re not all going to buy one for Ebay.  

10.08am - The shop is now open and I have moved down a little bit.  One of the men in front of me has got so bored that he has decided to read the Financial Times!  here is a video of the queue made by Banquet Records, see if you can spot me and how happy I am.  

Read the previous writings: RSD part one and RSD part two.

10.47am - I’ve now moved about 50 yards and am almost close to being able to lean against a wall, there had been no leaning options up until then.  Yes, that is an old lady in front of me, goodness knows what she was after, maybe AC/DC or Queen?  She did quite a lot of smoking.  Banquet have been releasing news on their twitter, I study it anxiously,  The updates come thick and fast.

11.37am - The sun has come out!  Hooray!  I take off my scarf.  The man in front takes off his coat, be careful fair skinned ginger man, the sun can scald in minutes! It was about now that my favourite moment happened, the people behind me were talking about how the girl had dumped some guy and he had cried in her car and she had to wait while he was upset when all she wanted to do was leave.  At that very moment the very same guy approached the queue unaware that he had just been the subject of the conversation.  Even though I hadn’t been involved in the chat I still had to bite my lip so as not to smile.  Wonderful moment!

11.46am - We turn the corner onto the shop street and I have a compleyely different view for the first time in a couple of hours.  I am also out of the sun which is a good thing, I burn very easily.  The girl behind is told off for leaning against a shop window.  I make it worse by telling her that she is probably not going to get the Nirvana reissue that she wants. We are friends now and chatter begins to break out.  The man behind me says he wants Jamie XX, I suggest that may be unlikely too.  They probably hate me.

12.12pm - We get to the shop window and I strain my eyes to see if there are any of the Radiohead singles left.  My little heart is all a flutter when I see that there are about 30 left, with 8 people in front of me I am probably going to get one!  Yes!  The picture shows how popular a limited single by Kings of Leon is in 2011.  Not very.

12.14pm - I’m in!  After a brief and excited chat with the Banquet guy manning the door in which he says that the shop is busier today than Christmas week!  I dash around trying to locate all I need and want.  The Yeasayer single has not arrived, Nirvana is sold out.  I get the last Toro Y Moi 7 inch, a man asks me where I got it from and I have to tell him that I got the last one, I try not to look smug about it but in my head I am victorious! 

12.51pm - I am out and finished shopping, there is still a queue of people going around the corner a whole 4 hours after the shop has opened.  Wowzers!  The staff at Banquet Records had been exemplary, working cheerily and directing me with exact precision to each release I wanted, good work!  Anything left after this weekend will go on their website.

The Spoils - I got:  Radiohead//Metronomy//Cults//Ryan Adams//Toro Y Moi//Gorillaz (not sure why)//of Montreal//Beastie Boys

So that’s that, music is saved for another year!!

Read the previous writings: RSD part one and RSD part two.