A treat in store

Saturday, April 18th is Record Store Day, when music lovers around the world are urged to converge on their local independent record store and spend a bit of quality time – and maybe even some money. Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 as a way of bringing artists and record stores together to celebrate a culture that’s fast facing extinction due to downloading and faceless chain stores.

“I hate to see record stores disappear, and I’m old-school in that I think you should pay for your music,” says Bruce Springsteen, a firm supporter of Record Store Day.

“I was introduced to lots of great music through my local record store,” says Peter Gabriel. “It was a place where people knew music and they knew me, and could make great suggestions and discoveries.”

Among the Irish shops participating are Freebird, Tower and Road Records in Dublin, Plugd Records in Cork and Rollercoaster Music in Kilkenny.

To get yourself in the mood, pop down to one of Tower Records’ gigs, now established as a rite of passage for Ireland’s indie bands. Check out power-pop heroes Superjiminez on Friday, April 10th at 5pm, and multi-talented, multi-styled singer Aoife Moriarty on Friday, April 17th at 5pm. As that literary champion of vinyl Nick Hornby says: “Record stores can’t save your life, but they can give you a better one.”