Record Store Day’s celebration of vinyl returning to Ontario communities Saturday

Record Store Day is returning to Oshawa and Ontario and indeed around the world Saturday, the 18th annual celebration of independent record stores.

The event is also an opportunity to honour the vinyl record and especially all the people who collect, cherish and sell records, with Another Spin Records locations in Oshawa, Bowmanville, Ajax and Whitby, as well as Kops and Now and Then (Oshawa), Sunrise (Pickering) and Zap’s Record in Cobourg among the record stores participating.

Andre Lessard at Another Spin said the day is a chance to bring in some “rare and new titles” for the event, as well as run a contest to win rare vinyl from Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift and the Tragically Hip.

“Last year was our craziest ever – people lined up around the block at 4-5 a.m. to get in. We want to show our customers the love back,” Lessard said of Saturday’s festivities. “We are going to get in more 200 titles.”

Everyone who buys vinyl at the Oshawa and Whitby stores will be entered in the draw of their choice of showcased artist, he added.

At Kops in downtown Oshawa there will be plenty of hard-to-find titles available, especially from global mega star Taylor Swift.

“We’re calling it Taylor Swift Day Appreciation Day,” said Kops manager and noted music historian Will McGuirk.

The resurgence of vinyl records has boosted the popularity of the event every year since its inception, making it a fun day for record collectors.

The current popularity of vinyl records has prompted an enormous amount of very popular bands releasing full LPs from their past, with many of the albums offered with a new features and a higher quality vinyl that mirrors the type on the original releases.

The people who line up to get their hands of those recordings are the reason Lessard opened his doors on Bond Street in the middle of the pandemic, after making more than a dozen trips to the store with his personal collection of 5,000-plus records.

“One thing that I look forward to each day are my customers. I have met so many knowledgeable music fans, all sharing their album and live concert experiences. For me, that never grows old”.

“Vinyl is here again to stay.”