Celebrate Record Store Day With Starr Records
Saturday 20th April marks the 17th annual celebration of Record Store Day! The first unofficial record store day was back in 2007 in the US when independent record store owners gathered to celebrate the culture of record shops. Record Store Day has since grown into a worldwide celebration with thousands of record shops in different corners of the globe participating each year.
Many of you will agree that there’s nothing quite like popping into your favourite local record shop and treating yourself to some shiny new vinyl come payday. There’s just something about that homey feeling you get in independent record stores that could never be replicated on a commercial scale. Record Store Day recognises the unique value of these spaces and there are special vinyl releases and live performances to mark the occasion.
Record Store Day Gigs
Starr Records, located downstairs in the Oh Yeah Centre, is the only record shop in the whole of Belfast to be officially taking part this year. So, if you want to get in on action, this is the place to be! The folks at Starr have not one but two very exciting gigs lined up on 20th April and will be serving fresh vinyl as always from 9am-5pm on the day.
At the Oh Yeah Centre from 1-4pm there’ll be live music from some of NI’s finest artists including Drew Makes Noise, The Breeze, Arborist, The Gold Tips, YinYang, The Funeral Rose & Lemonade Shoelace. All for a fiver while stocks last!
If you’re fast, you can grab tickets here: https://starrrecords.co.uk/events
Later that night, Starr Records will be gracing the decks at 5th Element Masonic Hall, a collaboration with Plan B. The tickets flew out for this gig and it’s sold out already, so count yourself lucky if you managed to snag one! Starr will be playing bangers from doors til close and the Plan B guys know how to deliver top quality raves, so ticket holders are in for a real treat.
Q&A With Sinead Green
If you’ve ever called in to browse the vinyl collection at Starr Records then you will surely know co-owners Sinead and Jeff who are always on hand to help with any obscure requests or have a yarn about music. We sat down with Sinead to chat about the shop and their plans for Record Store Day, here’s what she had to say.
Why did you decide to open a record store in Belfast?
‘‘There was no independent record shop that sold new vinyl releases in Belfast back in 2019, after Head Records and Sick Records had closed down. The idea for Starr Records spiraled from a series of pub meetings where myself and Jeff, we’re sort of going, ‘right, there’s something missing here in the city’. Jeff already had Dragon Records and he has always been the main stock curator. I come from an admin background, so I was thinking if we were serious we’d need to register for accounts, have some credit accounts set up, a business bank account, we were going to have to have X, Y and Z. Once we had everything in order, we actually opened on Record Store Day in 2019.’’
What does Record Store Day mean to you?
‘‘Being the only record shop in the city to take part in Record Store Day, we’re providing a service to Belfast that nobody else is providing. We're allowing our regular customers who shop with us all the time to have the chance to participate in the global event that we're a part of. So we're pretty proud of that. It's the biggest day of the year for us and it's a really brilliant initiative to highlight the recording industry, the people who work in the music business, the artists coming in to play with us and the DJs spinning records for us.’’
How does Record Store Day allow you to celebrate Starr Records as an independent record shop?
‘‘Having access to the Record Store Day special releases allows us to foster our community. It's allowed us to carve out our brand as an old school independent record shop. You know - come round, we know your name, we know what type of records you like to buy, we know what gigs you want to go to. The only way that you can know these things is by fostering and forging your community and keeping that connection going. Record Store Day lets us do that with the help and support of all the other record stores in the UK and globally.’’
Why is it so important for Belfast to be part of the celebration?
‘‘I'm really proud that Belfast is included because for so many years during the troubles and beyond, you’d look at all the big gigs that were happening and Belfast was often left out of their tours. Nowadays loads of amazing artists are performing across the city and there’s all the new records that are coming out from local artists, world class artists, that are from here.’’
Why should people pay a visit to Starr Records on Record Store Day?
‘‘We're not specialists, we cover every genre. Punk, funk, metal, dub, reggae, jazz, everything - so there’ll be something for everyone in store. It's nice on Record Store Day to see everybody from every sort of clan or tribe all coming down and muddling together, it's classic.
The gig at Oh Yeah is designed to showcase what Belfast is about. Not only does Belfast deserve the UNESCO City of Music title, we also live it and breathe it every day. The multi-genre aspect of the line-up wasn’t done by accident. We want to help to showcase our phenomenal local artists as they stand here on Record Store Day with their own records. There are artists on that bill who will go on to huge things and they will be remembered. Each act will also be playing a cover version of their favourite record of all time which will be really special.’’
The folks from Starr Records will be live on BBC6 Music this Tuesday 9th April at 5.30pm chatting all things Record Store Day with Huw Stephens. Be sure to set a reminder now and tune in!
