RECORD STORE DAY DROP 1 - 2021 was back with a bang once again! Restrictions meant that it was not going to be the usual open house affair with a system playing away, thankfully that did not deter the crowds and RSD was a cracker!

As with previous Record Store Days, the excitement really starts to ramp up in the days leading up to RSD when stock starts to arrive in stores, and it’s no different at Derricks Music. Photos of the limited edition releases start to appear on their social media, our posters advertising our fabulous free prize draw to win a Rega Turntable start to plaster the walls. Customers calling in our store start asking what records I’m hoping to get and vice versa. Of course there is another Elvis on my list - Anyone who knows me could have guessed that one!

So….. as per usual, a few days before hand people start asking the question of what time the doors are opening and how long do we expect the queue to be. We had been hoping that the restrictions would have been slightly eased by the time of the first drop but there was no need to worry, as come the morning of RSD it was clear that the support was still there and as strong as ever.

The morning had arrived and I made my way down to Oxford Street (Swansea) to be greeted by the queue that was already halfway down the road at 8.30am (past Reeds Bakery if you know it) so we knew we were going to be in for a busy one once again. Doors were to opened at 9am and it was all systems go!

I have to say that I was a bit gutted that we couldn’t stop and chat as we always have done, but it was necessary to keep the flow of customers in and out of the shop to allow for proper social distancing. We had anticipated this might be the case, so instead of the old pen & paper method of entering our giveaway, we had managed to get a very quick QR code scan for entry into our competition which worked a treat. Definitely how we’ll be doing things in future.

As always, we had some of our Audio T Record Bags to give away at random, but how to decide who gets one? I hatched a cunning plan…. Being a huge Prince fan myself, I told the crew of Derricks Music (Christos, Sian and John) that the next person to ask for the Prince album would get one. Low and behold, a few minutes later the shout went up “WE HAVE A WINNER!”

Normal service resumed, with lots of people managing to get hold of what they had been patiently queuing for. Luckily the weather held up for the day!

We approached the end of the day and it came to the time for us to pick our prize winner at random. The name was chosen and I made the phone call… Straight to answerphone! This is in fairness the first time we haven’t gotten an answer straight away, but literally a couple of minutes later we had an ecstatic return call. It’s always such a pleasure to hear the surprise in the winners voice every time, let’s face it - it’s a brilliant prize to win!

As I’ve said; it was a shame that we were restricted as to what we could do on the day and were not able to spend time chatting all things music and Hi-Fi but it really didn’t dampen the day at all. It was great to see so many faces we know and meet lots of new friends. Once again we have to say a huge thanks to all at Derricks Music for having us along for the day and having such a blast. RSD drop 2 is just around the corner so no doubt we will be seeing lots of you again in store.

To find out more about Record Store Day 2021 click here.

Thanks for reading.

Nic, Chris and Ade - Audio T Swansea

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Here’s a couple of my own RSD purchases along with our very happy prize winner receiving their Rega Planar 1.