So I’m jumping on the nostalgic vinyl bandwagon this year and will attend my first Record Store Day (affectionately known as RSD) event on April 22.

What is this Record Store Day thing, you ask? Well, according to the website, http://recordstoreday.com/Home, RSD was dreamed up in 2007 by a bunch of independent record store owners and employees in the US as a day “for the people who make up the world of the record store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day.”  Some locations also hold festivities, including live performances, meet and greets and other fun-filled events.

The movement has spread across the globe since the first event in 2008 and there are now RSD participating stores on every continent except Antarctica. I vaguely remember hearing about Record Store Day two years ago when U2 announced the vinyl release of Songs of Innocence for that year’s RSD. But I regrettably wasn’t interested in collecting vinyl back then… This year, I decided to increase my U2 Collector-ness to include their vinyl.  I don’t even own a record player anymore, but there is something special about vinyl, something about the sound.  Something about having no real choice but to listen to the tracks in the order the artists intended you to (I still listen to new music with the ‘shuffle’ turned off for the first few times I listen so I can hear it as someone planned me to hear it…).  Something about even just owning it as part of one’s Rock God collection…

When I first started buying my own music in the 80s, records were the only choice. There might have been 8 tracks still available, though I don’t think so; and there might have been cassette tapes, but records were the ONLY legit choice. My dad, wise and practical man that he was, taught us to buy the record, then record it onto tape and listen to the tape. That way you can wear it out, break it, lose it, and you still have the LP in perfect condition.

I seem to remember Rick Springfield being the first record I bought… Working Class Dog, with Jesse’s Girl being the single that made me want it. I soon gathered my mom’s Beatles albums into my collection and eventually, amongst other Rock God finds, bought every single thing Michael Jackson recorded, including the ET picture disc. But over time buying vinyl gave way to tapes and tapes gave way to CDs. And then, as a nomadic adult tired of hauling boxes, I got rid of my vinyl and tapes, and now with digital, most of my CDS.

I really regret giving up those vinyls now, especially my mom’s Beatles albums…. and that ET disc, that might be worth some money now…

Strangely, I never had any U2 vinyl. Mostly because by the time I got into them, it was all about the tapes and then CDs.  Now, I have a strong desire to get their vinyl, preferably first releases at garage sale prices, lol…

So, much to my delight, U2 announced in March that they would be releasing a re-make of Red Hill Mining Town as a vinyl single for Record Store Day, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree!

Got to get me that! … How do I get me that!? How do I participate in this Record Store Day thing? Well, luckily the U2 community is full of wise souls who impart wisdom on such things. One website in particular is stellar at providing us fans with this type of information – u2songs.com. Love this website. Such a valuable source of information for anything U2 discography-related. They even have a special page dedicated to Q&A on this RSD release, including a link to the RSD website, which provides a list of all RSD releases and participating stores.  The number of artists releasing RSD items is plentiful and varied; David Bowie, the Beatles, Prince, Madonna, the Lumineers, Alice in Chains, the Cure, The Ramones, and, yes, even Miley Cyrus, are just a few.

I’m pretty excited about it.  I’m only going for the U2 album, and apparently not all stores get all albums.  Even if they ordered it, they still might not get it.  And there are limited numbers of the albums.  I think I read that there will only be 7000 of the Red Hill release… around the world… So there is an element of risk and surprise.  There are  eight stores in Edmonton who are participating:

Blackbyrd Myoozik
Freecloud Records
Listen Records & CDs
Revolver – Bonnie Doon Centre
Revolver – Londonderry Mall
Sound Connection
Super Tunes
The Gramophone Inc

Will I choose the right store? Will I find this album there or will I need visit many stores in search of these Rock Gods!? I mean, there are worse ways to spend a Saturday than riding around town exploring record stores…