SDEtv

SDEtv / Record Store Day Preview #3

SDE concludes its Record Store Day 2017 previews with this video exploration of David Bowie‘s Cracked Actor (and BOWPROMO1), Elton John‘s 17-11-70+ and Bruce Springsteen‘s Hammersmith Odeon London 1975. Watch the video below…

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139 thoughts on “SDEtv / Record Store Day Preview #3”

  1. I casually strolled into Revo in Halifax today and picked up the Springsteen release

    They were getting Record Store Day deliveries yesterday ?!?!?!

  4. It would be nice if something could be set up whereby people are able to help others with finding items but only face value was paid, along with postage.

    I’d happily do that if my local shops had items people wanted.

    :-)

  5. Things were quite different in Japan- as Bowie items were scare and I was told very few arrived here so most of us missed out on them- the jewel in the releases were Japan only items Beatles Japanese 7” with a special jacket- very very rare and Todd Rundren special 7” with a great Japanese jacket- get them if you can! I am heading over to ebay to pick up my wants not happy but…….

  6. Wondering if anybody who got the Elton 17-11-70+ RSD version has been able to redeem the download code? Mine won’t work, and support are being pretty hopeless so far… no huge surprise as Universal’s “Sound Of Vinyl” download portal is consistently the worst in the industry, with very late delivery of downloads, sometimes weeks after release – but this is a new error where the code is rejected!

    1. My code couldn’t validate, dropped support an email last night was s sent a new code this morning. No issues, already seen a thread on this, seems a common fault.

  7. I queued in manchester for 10 hours, and got the Bowie items i wanted, but wont be doing it again. I thought £49.99 was a bit steep at the time for a one sided 7 track release, after reading actual reviews on the sets wuality, mine will now be going on ebay.

    Its a stroke of marketing genius by parlophone, they released 2 Bowie albums (and yet another coloured vinyl 12″) exclusively as a rsd releases, and due to would-be flippers, have probably shifted significantly more copies than if they had been standard non-rsd releases!!! Now people are starting to panic, ebay is flooded with them and the price is being driven down, with many flippers breaking even or selling at a loss, after ebay fees. The main people on the make are ebay themselves (and parlophone!!!).
    Clearly, as I found out with the beatles #1s blu ray release, limited edition means nothing these days, especially where major labels are concerned.
    Expect cd and digital download releases of these items later in the year…

  8. If anybody is interested Drift Records in Totnes Devon has got copies of Bowpromo and Cracked actor.. i emailed this morning
    Thanks
    Mark

  9. BOWPROMO sees Bowie fans ripped off again.
    Channels reversed, runs slow, sleeve notes pinched from a fan website with no credit and lower quality than the bootleg version.
    Any fool could have compared the sources and determined that the version that leaked several years ago was from a fresher copy.
    I really don’t understand how such an important catalogue has such poor quality control. This release is an insult and a waste of a lot of money.

  10. I tried to fight the urge but ultimately the urge won out. The jewel in the crown this year was the magnificent Randy Newman box of his first 5 studio LPs, expensive but beautifully packaged, with a perfectionist’s attention to detail! I also brought home Lou Reed’s Perfect Night, Ramones singles box, the White Man in Hammersmith Palais EP, Neil Young Decade, Bowie Promo, and scored last year’s Incredible Bongo Band singles box at a fabulous markdown. It was a good day, but not for my wallet.

  11. I’m delighted to hear of the many successes and much joy brought about by RSD. Geat stuff!

    Ultimately and honestly, and this is where I understand others may think and/or feel slightly or even very differently given quite a few gripes here, e.g. too expensive, too crowded, etc. – RSD is at its core purpose a “marketing event.”

    The music business or music industry, meaning mainly the record companies and record stores, even the independent ones, are not and cannot be charities. Money is their lifeblood if you will or they fail, as we have all too often seen alas. Sure, they have varying degrees of commercial ambition – e,g, different prices for the same items on the day – but RSD of course seeks to help them promote their businesses. It hopefully helps them to keep and even increase their consumer sales.

    Accepting this – which is so critical and not easy to do at all given the very personal emotions and other very personal experiences we can have around music – is not easy at all.

    Once accepted though, it helps me to understand RSD will always be inherently heavily impacted by the rules of economic rules of supply and demand. Plus the impacts of marketing hype and the optional, individual legal opportunities to buy and re-sell online and in-person in secondary markets e.g. eVilbay and record fairs – and so on.

    Yes, one or more aspects of RSD are not everyone’s preferred way have it be. Commerce is unfortunately seldom if ever universally praised. That said, I’m still very glad RSD exists and is even growing. Quite frankly, if I may say, yes, without the re-selling I’d not have got anything but I was able to get everything this year. Just my two pennies, controversial as they may be to some. Certainly nothing personal. Cheers!

  12. Has anybody seen the quantity of cracked actor vinyl for sale on ebay ?
    For a limited edition it has a lot of flippers
    Takes the shine off a little?

  14. RSD = Random Sidewalk Discussions. Some of my favorite, and totally free, aspects of the day are the conversations with fellow fanatics in line outside the store (which was a chilly 5 C in Michigan). Our store was selling on the low-end and had a hardy stock on hand, which belied the modest size of their retail space. Looks like they do robust business on Discogs starting the following day, which likely earns them the extra stock and the opportunity to mark up and make up for the generous deals they offered in person.

    The Iggy Pop Post-Depression Live set is the jewel in my very heavy RSD ’17 crown! Beautiful package, 3xLp with book, booming live sound and a lusty, idiotic set list. Hidden gem of the day was Link Wray’s Beans and Fatback.

  15. First time I’ve done RSD. Straight in at 1pm for a Cracked Actor and straight back out again. It does seem plentiful and I fully expect there’ll be a CD release before too long.

  16. I went to my local at about 1pm on Saturday, they’d just had a delivery of a load more RSD titles so got Cracked Actor.
    Went into Sister Ray this morning (Monday) on London and picked up Bowie promo (they’d had another delivery late on Saturday.)
    Pays to pop back in.

  17. I took a different approach this year….

    No early start, no queuing, no stress.

    I got to one local shop at 10:30am and picked up 6 Prince 12inch singles. Two minutes away was another shop so I popped there to pick up a Prince 7inch and a Sting 12inch.

    No queuing. Straight in and straight out.

    I’ll do the same next year – but I hope there isn’t anything I want next year!

    :-)

  18. Managed to get there and started queuing at 5.45am at Rough Trade in Nottingham. Alarmed to see such a huge amount of people in front of us, much busier than 2015, the last time I went to RSD. RT have a number scheme when you are given a raffle ticket (we were 81 , 82) so by the time we got in, it was a bit of a free for all, so organised up to a point but when we were actually let in, no Beatles, Manics or T Rex. Got Cocteau Twins and Bowie stuff, but have to say the prices were just ridiculous. And the number of people attending has definitely increased. God knows what it will be like next year, if I go of course. Always depends on what is released.

    1. I’ve found when comparing prices that Rough Trade have a massive mark-up compared to others!

      Sadly I do try to avoid them as they do seem to ripped off people.

      :-(

  19. Managed to pick up a few goodies (Pink Floyd 12″, Roky Erickson tribute album, Big Star) but the Bowie releases were already gone. Seeing them on Ebay but not paying those prices! I’ll wait a few weeks and see if they come back down to earth!

  20. There is only 1 record store within 30 miles of where I live that was participating in RSD. I was able to get the Def Leppard EP (my primary target so I’m still happy) and Prince’s Batman, but they did not have Bob Seger nor The Cars.

    Still had fun, especially waiting in line and meeting/talking to a lot of cool collectors!

  21. I enjoyed this year’s RSD and bought two Bowie albums and two 45’s. None of the shops in Central London had the Gilbert album on their lists sadly.
    “Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles 74”) is rather lacklustre in my opinion. Sure it looks nice but after hearing side 1 I knocked it off and I doubt I’ll listen to it again anytime soon. “Bowpromo” on the other hand sounds sensational and I for one am very glad to see this get an official release (although I really wish they had kept the Dana Gillespie side too). At £49.99 it was pricey but after three hearings this weekend I don’t regret a penny spent on it.
    I also got The Raincoats and the Patti Smith 45’s. “Hey Joe” and “Piss Factory” sound the best I’ve ever heard them.
    Next year I would like some vinyl exclusives from Blondie and Marc Almond, please.

  22. The Elton John 17-11-70 2017 version has left a few unanswered questions? To the best of my knowledge there are 3 different mixes of the concert. 1. The original broadcast mix. 2. A remix, made from the 8 track tapes, by Elton’s record producer Gus Dudgeon for the original 1971 album release. 3. Another remix, from the 8 track tapes, by Gus Dudgeon in 1995 for album release! The 1995 remix also had an extra song. Gus said at the time (1995) that he would have liked to have release the whole concert, BUT the 8 track tapes had distortion on some of the songs, and were unusable! So, how come all of the songs can now be officially released for the first time? Have they just remastered the broadcast mix (which wasn’t distorted)?

  23. Queued from 0445 at Drift Records Totnes, 7th in the queue, got bowpromo and OCS hydro also wanted Quadrophenia only 2 copies, the lads who were 1st and 2nd got those{thats the way it goes} also in the queue was Steve Craddock of OCS{ he lives in Torquay, he wanted a real obscure one which he tweeted} and the 6th person also a OCS fan like me he followed Steve on Twitter , i came out the shop after my purchase and told where to head for..I learnt later on via the OCS grape vine Steve got the one he wanted.. One good thing one of the staff came out to chat to the customers to give them an idea of numbers of each title..thats when i knew i wouldnt get the who..but I managed to get it via a dealer in Europe from eVilbay

  24. RSD 2017 was a great success for me; I picked up:
    – Bowie’s Cracked Actor 3xLP
    – Bowie’s BOWPROMO 1xLP box set
    – The Cure’s Greatest Hits 2xLP PicDisc
    – The Cure’s Acoustic Hits 2xLP PicDisc
    – Dead Or Alive’s Unbreakable The Fragile Remixes 2xLP
    – Diana Ross’ Diana (Chic Organization Version) 2xLP
    – Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive single-sided 12inch
    – Pink Floyd’s 1966-67 EP PicDisc
    – AIR’s Le Soleil Est Près De Moi 12inch Splatter Colour
    – The Buggles’ Video Killed The Radio Star 12inch PicDisc
    – Placebo Feat. Bowie 12inch PicDisc
    – The Art Of Noise’s Moments In Love 12inch Purple
    – The Art Of Noise’s Moments In Love 7inch Shape PicDisc
    – Toto’s Africa/Rosanna 7inch Shape PicDisc
    – ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery 7inch Clear
    – Chemical Brothers’ C-H-E-M-I-C-A-L 12inch Single-Sided
    – Vangelis’ Blade Runner LP PicDisc

    The only two I didn’t manage to get and will purchase on Discogs:
    – Madonna’s Dance Mix 12inch
    – StGermain’s How Dare You 12inch

    Best RSD ever!

  25. I asked my friend if he wouldn’t mind picking up the two Bowie albums for me, as I wasn’t going to be visiting a store on RSD.

    Even lovelier to learn that I’m now getting the items for my birthday, as gifts. Such a nice surprise.

    As Paul said, I expect that Parlophone will release the albums on CD. The Bowie catalogue has been milked extensively – to the delight or disdain of fans – and I can’t see that an opportunity to acquire further sales above RSD will be bypassed by the label.

    I had a quick peek for the Bowie promo tracks on YouTube this morning and learned that they’ve been out there for a while. I wasn’t aware of the original promo until the press release for RSD landed earlier this year. Some lucky souls have an original in their mitts.

    1. I’ve heard that the Bowie RSD Cracked Actor and Promo were on the schedules before Bowie passed away (not sure about the Placebo pic disc though). So I don’t think it’s cashing in after his death as such.

  26. Scored everything I wanted except the Prince Pic Disc and Slick Rick. Got the Bowpromo but skipped Bruce as it was priced at $90! I’m Loving the 5 LP Emmylou Harris Box which was the same price as Bruce.

  27. Didn’t want to but picked up the Motörhead triple today on EBay for £45 so less than yesterday so that makes feel better and total of 175 for my stuff. Didn’t want the cars set but tried it last night and the etching is great and he sound is mint for a live set

  28. 2nd year in a row I have avoided RSD – I have been an avid vinyl collector since the mid 70s and own somewhere in the region of 80,000 records. I supported my local stores for years and years when vinyl was hardly sold anywhere but to me (personally) it should be about the local store and indie labels, it has lost its them e for me so I took a personal decision to ignore the event and the fake limited editions that it is now driven by.

    Just my way of dealing with it, kudos to those that still chase that elusive RSD item and queue for 12 hours to get it..

  29. Did record store day for the first time and got most of what I wanted.Got Spacemen 3 – Recurring, Dr Robert/PP Arnold and Kathryn Williams. Missed out on Durutti column but ordered an original release from musicmagpie for £18.23 on-line! They had 31 and have 4 left/available.
    Queued from 06:30 and the store had lots of Bowie left by the time I got in. They has 20 plus Cracked Actor £32.00 and 8 BOWPROMO £50.00, plus lots of Blade runner (£21.00) and Floyd (£15.00) , although no U2 or Cure. In fact they had decent quantities of most of the big releases and this was 3 hours plus after they opened .

    The kicker was when I got home Kathryn Williams no label on side 2 and damage around the spindle area and large patches of white ,the actual playback is fantastic. Dr Robert the clicking on side 2 from end of track 2 onward makes it a poor copy . The Dr Robert inner sleeve indicates track 5 is the start of side 2, sloppy printing but this is supposed to encourage you to buy vinyl.
    So queued for 4.5 hours and purchased 2 poor pieces of vinyl (£19.00 and £21.50) . Which means in my eyes I have paid £61.50 for a reissued copy of Spacemen 3 Recurring (£21.00) when I could have picked up an original for £45.00 and not queued for 4.5 hours. Don’t thing I will bother again.

    1. Plus of course both Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce have urged fans not to buy the S3 releases as they are not strictly official and they receive no proceeds from the sales.

      1. hi,

        I wasn’t aware that they had requested people not to buy them as part of the ongoing dispute with Gerald Palmer and who owns the rights to Spacemen 3.

  30. From my previous posts you will will no my views on RSD and how it has completely lost the plot. Reluctantly I went along to my local shop because there were releases by The Smiths, The Coral and Courteeners whom I have all their releases. Fortunately I managed to get all three. I also wanted the British Sea Power and Kasabian releases but no joy.
    Queued for 45 minutes to get in and 45 minutes to pay for my purchases.
    The shop let us in batches where it was a free for all. The releases were on display in no order at all and it took time to identify what I wanted. There could be no advantage of being first in the queue trying to get that elusive release where there is only one copy if the person behind spots it first amongst the unsorted piles of vinyl. Do other shops let people in one at a time and give them a few moments to source their choices and do they sort them in at least alphabetical order? The completely disjointed nature of the display really surprised me.

    1. The 2 shops I go to on record store day let 3-4 people in at a time, they frequently come outside to the queue & ask what people are looking for & say if it’s gone or they didn’t get any. The records themselves are in a seperate section for the RSD & sorted alphabetically, they seem to put one copy of each out & keep the rest behind the counter. when you go in they ask what you are looking for & if they have it behind the counter get it out for you. All in all pretty good stuff, both shops admitted the record companies are starting to take advantage price wise, they also only let one person buy one copy of what they want.

  31. I called a record shop in the 11th district of Paris yesterday after 10 am to book a copy of Cracked actor (52 €) and picked it 45mn later without queueing. Quite happy with it : nice artwork and great mastering by Tony Visconti.

  32. @Graham Turner

    All unsold stock goes on sale at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning (1 week later 29th April 00:01)

    A lot of European and USA stores will have their stock onine soon as the doors were closed to the public yesterday (They have different rules on the online sales)

    It’s definitely worth still visiting your local stores on Sunday, there’s loads of stock left for plenty of items (not all though, some are sold out)

  34. Got to local Everyday Music shop in Seattle at 8:30a for 9a opening. About 30 people already in queue. I was able to get Bowie Cracked Actor for$39. BOWPROMO was there for $55. Saw it in the SODO Silver Platters shop for $49. Couldn’t justify that for seven tracks.

    Was able to get second to last Smiths 7″ for $9 and grabbed the live Sting EP for $19 (last one there but I saw several at Silver Platters. Huge line at Silver Platters to back of store until about noon. Nice to see.

    As per above question, yes, the shops will keep the RSD releases in stock or sell leftovers online. I know Amoeba will be selling extra stock on their site starting tomorrow. Free shipping within US.

  36. £50 for BOWPROMO is a rip off and after seeing what you get in the box it’s NOT WORTH IT! Nevermind the Flippers on ebay and price it’s going for on there! Totally taking the mick with the Bowie and Prince releases this RSD. The Prince Picture Disc and Elton John Live album didn’t even reach Manchester Stores as the staff in the Manchester shops said they were ‘late arriving and they didn’t have them. The prince 12″ singles were just carbon copies of their original releases – WHAT’S THE POINT IN THAT! Cashing in on the artists (Bowie and Prince) deaths. Surprised there were no George Michael RSD releases! To answer your question Graham Turner, the shops can sell whats left at any time but NOT ONLINE until a week after the RSD date for that year. One of the Manchester shops still has stock from RSD 2016!

  37. The line @ a store in El Paso started up @ 2:30 AM. As usual, I did not participate. I wandered in @ 11:00 am and the shelves were bare for RSD. It looks like US eBay has Elton & Bowie for $60 to $75. Putting these items in wider release would really make a lot of people happy
    J

  38. Bit of a daft question but what happens to any unsold RSD stock? I’m assuming stores can still sell these after the main day?

    And does there tend to be much that goes unsold anyway? I wasn’t able to make it to my local today (Resident, Brighton) so was wondering if there was much point trying tomorrow instead? Cheers!

    1. The unsold stuff remains in the shop and, if.memory serves, they can sell online after a week. Don’t know about other stuff, but I imagine there must be a shedload of unsold Peter Hook albums somewhere.

    2. You will have to wait a week. The shops are not allowed to sell left over RSD stock until then either in store or on-line. So make a date next Saturday 29th.

    3. Hello Graham.

      The stores can sell the RSD stuff anytime they like after RSD finishes.

      I picked up a Kaleidoscope single that I missed out on last year in a shop today.
      So that was RSD 16 stock sold on RSD 17!

      I was in 3 record shops in Dublin today/yesterday and there was plenty left over.
      The War On Drugs/ Blade Runner/ The Sweet/ to name just a few.

      I could have brought several U2 picture discs and flogged them on Ebay.
      But I’m not a “flipper” so I didn’t!

    5. There was a bin of past rsd releases discounted at the record store I visited. So it generally is there until it sells. I suppose it depends on how voracious the clientele are.

    7. As far as I can make out Graham, stores can still sell stock after the day – some shops are open on Sunday! But they can’t sell any remaining stock online until next Saturday.

      There’s usually plenty of unsold stock although as you might imagine, none of the ‘hot picks’. Saying that however, my local still had 10 copies of Bowie’s Cracked Actor & 5 copies of Bowpromo1 left at 3pm yesterday and not many people were in the shop to buy (most were watching the live sets). Black Circle Records in Leighton Buzzard if you’re interested – a newby on the scene so their first RSD.

  39. I wanted quite a few things and had saved a substantial amount of money to pay for same. Doing so meant I had not spent much, if anything, in my local shop for weeks. I visited both of the two shops I can get to in a day and came away with one LP, which at least saved me a couple of hundred pounds. There is a fair liklihood I will now find other uses for the money. Not sure how successful that is in terms of the point of RSD, but there you go. Incidentally, it has to be said in the small shops I visited there was no chance, as seems to have been the case in Paris, of wandering in at 11am and taking ones pic of the Bowie stuff etc. The one or two copies of these that they got were gone in seconds.

  40. So given all the stock above and all the comments on every other forum, the pressing runs sound like they ran into the many many thousand. The urge to quote John Lydon overwhelms me…

  41. Got a lot this year at the locak Tower: the 4 Bowie related items, Pink Floyd, Springsteen, Neil Young, Madonna, Elbow, Goat, Beatles, Buggles, Toto and Prince picture disc. I need to go into a room now for 2 months, eat nothing and answer no SDE deal alerts to afford The Sgt Peppers box…..

  42. That confirms the disparity between stores. I paid £13.99 for Batdance, £12.99 for Buggles (very happy with that!), and yet they were selling Little Red Corvette pic disc for £17.99. Would have loved that if it was an extended version.

  43. Got the Cracked Actor 45 euro, also Stevie Nicks Rarities 17.99 euro Fleetwood Mac Alternative Mirage 21.00 euro, Manics 12″ single (Bargain) at 10.99 euro, Prince Batdance 12″ 16.99
    Little Red Corvette 7″ Pic Disc 16.99, Buggles 12″ 16.99, The Beatles Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane 7″ 16.99and the U2 Red Hill Mining Town 12″ pic disc ….. Just missed the BowPromo by a whisker, but got the last of the Stevie Nicks.

  45. I got The Smiths 7″ but paid a tasty £10.99 for it at a store in Edinburgh. And the ‘demo mix’ version of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side is virtually identical to the original release.

    1. Agreed, the mix sounds a bit flat, with a bit of a tin can effect, actually sounds to me like the mix they used on the old syndicated radio show “Rock Over London.” The version of Rubber Ring, however, is a completely different recording, which really made my day.

  46. Bought in Paris:
    Marillion – FEAR – Golden vinyl (30 €)
    Pink Floyd – Insterstellar Overdrive (22 €, saw it later for 18,50€ in another store)
    Hooverphonic – Jacky Cane – Red Vinyl (22 €)
    Bowie – No Plan – Clear Vinyl (13 €)
    The Beatles – Penny Lane / SFF – Single (14,50 €)

    I arrived at 11:00 AM and there were still plenty of stock for all the overpriced Bowie stuff (both PROMO and Cracked Actors), the Springteen live, the Blade Runner picture disc and many other high-profile titles. I went to 6 stores in 3 hours and the atmosphere was always friendly and relaxed.

  47. Looked on eBay earlier to see the flood of touts selling their early morning purchases at eye-watering prices.

    I even saw a Badlands bag underneath a copy of Cracked Actor, clearly bought at my local record shop in Cheltenham but being resold at 4 times the price. Very sad that this is what RSD has come to.

    I avoided all the queues, popped down at 4pm to have a mooch. Ended up going to Vinyl Vault (also in Cheltenham, amazing second hand-only record shop) and picked up a 1960s orange label of Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan for a tenner. RSD well spent ;-)

    Would have liked that new Smiths single. It not queueing for hours for an over-priced 45…

    2. It’s the same every year. High eBay prices. Unfortunately some panic and pay them. In a month or two they will be much cheaper for 95% of the releases.

  49. Could someone give me an approximate idea of how much the average RSD album is on the day? I’ve never partaken as I’m usually working and when I’m not I don’t like to get up before the crack of noon.

  50. I did RSD for the first time this year – was surprised the boss allowed me! Got everything I wanted. Buggles, and 4 out of six of the Prince Maxi Singles. Wasn’t interested in Lovesexy or Sign O The Times. Oh and Moby Porcelain White label. Kudos to Vinyl Hunter in Bury – great shop and VERY well organized.

  51. Didn’t get in store until the afternoon here, downunder. But they still had about 10 copies of the BOWPROMO, price was around £40/US$50. Maybe too rich for most, or they didn’t know exactly what it was! No Cracked Actor though unfortunately.

  52. got bowiepromo £50 , cracked actor £35, no plan £20
    madonna £15, placebo/bowie £15 & mccartney cassette £12.99 all from resident brighton and queued up from 5am

  54. Arrived at my local, and best, independent store only 5 minutes before opening at 9 am, and I was about the 10th in line, which was a surprise, I was sure the queue would be much longer!
    Since I’m a regular there and since I passed my order to the owner (which is a long time friend) two of my “most wanted” were put aside for me (Cracked Actor, $68 and No Plan ep $32 in Canadian $ ) so there was no rush to get them; they only got one BOWPROMO which went to someone else who ordered it before me! Fair enough! This is the item I wanted the most but there is still a chance they will get some more so fingers crossed (apparently they didn’t get all they ordered so they are awaiting another shipment, not good if own a store and this RSD is attracting people from all over for one day) !
    After that I went to another shop where I got The Cure pic discs.
    I really wanted The Smiths, both U2 and Placebo pic discs but never saw those.
    I think the Blossoms and The Coral pic discs were UK only (I’m in Canada) but I would have picked those given a chance!
    All in all not bad since I wanted only a very, very small fraction of what was on offer.

    1. The rules of record store day according to my local store was that no-one can reserve stock. So if that’s true and what you’ve posted is true then you epitomize all that is wrong with the day.

      1. Quite, Your record store “mate” in Canada runs the risk of being cut out of future events and he would have little room for complaint. I went to RPM records in Swindon, and the guy who owns it is a friend, I have done work for him before in my line of business and I go in at least monthly (or slightly less). He made it absolutely clear that I shouldn’t ask as he wouldn’t do it and you have to admire that. So asking for stock to be put aside is bad enough, but the shop doing it is just plain horrible.

        Queue like everyone else, or buy on ebay after the event, but rolling up late to get stock held back is pretty crass.

    2. Dealers hold items back for “mates?” This probably explains why after queuing for 4 hours, I didn’t get anything I wanted, leaving me having to spend ridiculous amounts of money on eBay.

  55. I got everything I wanted apart from the Marillion gold vinyl, but I have a plan for that. I did get BOWPROMO, but am a little disappointed and it might well go on Ebay later just so I can get the money back. Wish I had bought the FSOL 3-LP set instead now. Love the new version of Floyd’s Interstellar overdrive.

  56. Love the idea of a sde backed ‘swap shop’ if Paul makes this a goer would like to open with an offer to swap my unopened bowpromo (paid £60) for similarly unopened record store day issues of dr robert/pp arnold’s five in the afternoon plus durutti columns short stories for pauline.
    Also have a buckaroo game gathering dust!!
    Well done to all those who got what they wanted.

  57. I was at my earliest arrival 5.15 am and worst position in 8 years at 26th in line – at least wasn’t snowing this year – shop (vinyl and vintage in wolverhampton) had arranged for a local cafe at 6 to come and do hot drinks and sandwiches orders so fair play. Max 10 items and no duplicates – was thinking I’d be lucky to get anything but £200 later got most of my wishes ( smiths 7 inch with “trump will kill America ” in run out groove) , (u2 – lazy release both a and b sides the same ! ) ( pink Floyd – interstellar which is a great version but again blank b side!) ( Bowie – triple live lp £34 and left promo box behind as couldn’t justify £51 for a one sided lp no matter how nice the box) (2 spacemen 3’s so will have to try and track the missing one down) ( madonna for the better half) ( Brett Anderson – chuffed with that in coloured vinyl) ( Springsteen live – 4 lps at £43 way better value than Bowie promo) and finally ( marillion on gold vinyl – double for £20) so a good haul all round – didn’t see any who or crazy world of Arthur brown so may keep an eye out later . Hopefully this will keep my local vintage vinyl shop going for a a whole longer and good to see lots of younger people out

  58. I’ve seen the complete list of records and there are some nice vinyl exclusives on there. I heard on the radio, here in The Netherlands, the records stores are overcrowded. Healthwise I’m not good in crowded spaces. I can’t stand for a long time and this country is tough on anyone in a wheelchair so I found my piece never being able to actually buy any of the releases. But it’s great to see it brings people to the stores.

  60. Managed to grab Neil Young, The Cars, Snall Faces at the Beeb and Bowie Cracked Actor. Desperately wanted Alteres Images and The Who Quad OST but no luck so that will be an EBay then in a few weeks. Skint now as had a blow out on the recordstore.co.uk £8 sale earlier this week.

    If anyone has or can get any of the two above pleased to pay a realistic price

    1. I bought 11 albums on that recordstore sale! They haven’t arrived yet. Superb value and some of them are double vinyl like The Who Endless Wire

  61. Who decides the prices of these things? I have noticed prices ranging from £50 – £75 for the BOWPROMO and similar variances for Cracked Actor and No Plan. It would therefore suggest that the stores are setting their own prices. For the record I managed to get the BOWPROMO for £50.00, Cracked Actor for £34.99 and No Plan for £17.99 from Grimsby.

    Downside was I got to the store for 4:15 to find four other people in front of me, three of which wanted the only 3 copies of The Beatles single I had set my heart on. Anyway got some good stuff otherwise so mustn’t grumble. The first person was there at 1:20 but there was a story going round of somebody who had queued from 5:00 pm last night.

    1. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think stores can set whatever price they wish, like any other stock. They buy for the ‘dealer price’ and markup accordingly.

      1. They must be able to, my local was selling the one sided pink floyd interstellar overdrive for £20. Got the smiths £12, Zappa £14. Didn’t have much else, only one copy of the manics (which I wanted to go with tigers box set) and 2 copies of the Beatles which went immediately. Sad to see so many of them now on eBay

  62. Queued at Banquet Records from 5pm last night and was 7th in the queue. Picked up £300 pounds worth including Bowprom for£45, Cracked Actor for £31, No Plan for £17, Springsteen for £40, Elton for £26, Bowie/Placebo for £15, Floyd Intersteller Overdrive for £14… too many Picture Discs this year for my liking.

  63. Was anyone able to gt their hands on the Beatles 7″ Penny Lane/SFF? Both my local stores were sold out by the time I got there.

    1. I never saw one. Didn’t see The Smiths either, although I wasn’t an early riser this morning, which no doubt was a factor…

  64. Seems like shops are making up some of the prices .
    Like I wrote earlier my Bowie Gen promo was £60 but I paid £42 for the Cracked Actor set ?

  65. Also Paul I had another idea. Rather than the dmstuff being sold for lots more what about you setting up some sort of ‘swap shop’ where guys like us are selling something or have a spare copy and if someone else has something you wanted you could be the middleman with the items sent to you and the money for the postage back out and a small fee (say £5) someone who had a no plan but wanted a red hill mining town could each get what they wanted but not at double or treble the cost. What do you and the rest of the guys on the site think?

  67. I managed to get in line at one of the better record stores in Dallas around 2:45 a.m. The store opened at 7:00 a.m. Mother Nature offered us a windy, cool and drizzly/rainy morning in which to wait in line. I was the 4th person there. I was able to pick up the 3 items that I was after: Bowie “Cracked Actor” ($39), Bowie “BOWPROMO” ($53) and The Smiths “The Boy…” 7″ ($9).

    The store’s RSD allocations were down this year to almost half the usual inventory they carry. The store had 5 copies of each of the Bowie titles and 10 copies of The Smiths 7″. The store mgmt said that production runs were down this year. Don’t know if that’s accurate or not.

  68. The Bowie promo is just an artifact, really bad executed in my opinion. As for the live album, I hope it’ll come out on CD at some point, maybe before the Berlin era box set coming next september. A double CD plus the DVD of the BBC documentary would be fantastic, that’s the kind of archival release from Bowie that would make sense to me.

      1. Probably bad executed is the wrong expression, I meant that is a pointless artifact, mainly. It was originally a white label promo, right? I think that the idea of issuing a white label promo replica is already lame in itself (personal opinion), but then making it like a box set which looks like the white label disc, just why? Couldn’t they simply put together some artwork like they’ve done with the ‘Cracked Actor’ record and release it like an EP? This way just looks very bad to me, it is something that wants to replicate a white label record, but it does in the form of a box set with extra material (boring pictures we’ve already had countless times before) and then it actually does not replicate the content of the original record, cause the Dana Gillespie songs aren’t included. What’s the point? Maybe it’s just me, sure Bowie collectors won’t miss on it.

        Look, apart from the awful composition they’ve done on the back cover, this bootleg makes much more sense:
        https://www.discogs.com/it/David-Bowie-Dana-Gillespie-Bowpromo/release/7562563

        2. What’s the point, indeed. I’d also like to know why they squashed all 7 songs on one side of vinyl when they could have spread the grooves over both sides? I mean, given they weren’t including the Dana Gillespie tracks that would have originally occupied the other side. Record company logic, eh??

          1. Because it’s a more accurate replica of the original with the tracks on one side.

  69. Well I got the Bowie promo from Amazon marketplace last night for £41 so to me RSD is a complete farce. If this really is to support the local shops then why did ours have such a piddly allocation?

  71. Bowie Promo was indeed seventy five quid and Cracked Actor a comparative bargain at ‘only’ forty eight pounds (that’s what I told myself anyway!)

    Plenty of other things were nowhere to be seen (Neil Young’s Decade, Lou Reed’s Perfect Night & Marianne Faithfull’s Rich Kid Blues for starters) so I just got The Smiths single and Cracked Actor, which is currently sounding most excellent blasting out of my stereo. Definitely over the odds price-wise but the amount I’ve saved from SDE bargains makes it worth reinvesting in the community!

    1. It’s strange how the shops all seem to be charging different prices. I queued up from 6.30 got all 4 Bowie I wanted Cracked Actor 40 BOWPROMO 60 got both Cure 35 each. Got both Pink Floyd U2 for 15 in a way the shops and record companies are the scampers 60 quid for a one sided vinyl with 6 songs and it was the really daft ones that were sold out next person to me wanted toto barbie girl and dee-lite and they were all sold out

  73. Here in Amsterdam at Concerto got Got Cracked Actor and No Plan clear vinyl 12-inch, Diana Alternative Chic mix (0nly 1 copy in the store) and Motown Funk.
    After 25 people were allowed in the store Cracked Actor was sold-out.

  74. Me & friend decided to head out to a smaller town 30 minutes from our hometown. Got to the shop at 5.45 and were 2nd in the queue!

    Our local shop had a queue at 3am !

  75. Just returned from my local indie store. Lucky me, they had nearly everything I wanted: Cracked Actor, the Bowpromo box, Electric Warrior (gold vinyl), Rainbow double, Rock’n’Roll E.P., Dennis Wilson, Ben Folds, Pearl Jam 7″ – and all at reasonable prices (thanks Valentin!) Surprise: my No Plan copy has a sticker saying ‘clear vinyl’ but it’s actually transparent blue!
    The only things I didn’t get were the Placebo/Bowie pic disc and the Macca cassette tape. Oh well, surely won’t complain!

  76. Good stuff Paul, thank you.

    I can’t get to any stores, but have ordered Cracked Actir from Amazon.de, £44, just hope they honour it. No Plan blue from Amazon.uk, saying it has been dispatched !!.

    I see some guys saying they picked up bOWPromo at stores for £75, !!!

  77. Got all my stuff by 8.30 today
    Bowies , Macca tape, Beatles , SFaces pic disc , Sweet 12″, White man at hamersmith palas ep and Blade Runner pic disc.
    Now skint !

  78. The Bowie machine has got to give these a wider release surely, the costs involved in their production including the TV mix of Cracked Actor would not be recouped via RSD so must at some point come out on general all format release. That my hope anyway

  79. Thanks for that, Paul. A BBC live version of ‘Bombers’ appeared on the ‘Bowie at the Beeb’ compilation in 2000, but as you say, the last studio version release was on the Rykodisc ‘Hunky Dory’.

  80. Who decides who is a fool? If I believe something is worth what it costs, then it’s not up to anyone else to judge. That being said, I’m hoping the BOWPROMO doesn’t cost too much because I’d like to get it AND Cracked Actor! Getting in line at 6 am tomorrow morning…

  81. While at one time RSD was a niche target market, I am guessing we are nearing the top of this frenzied cycle. The prices seem to be a bit higher this year, I suppose they figure there is enough of a target market to pay the flipped out price. The Bowie Gem promo record is cool, and indeed does offer a slightly different take on Hunky Dory material. The real shame is missong the Dana Gillespie side which has the awesome bowie produced Andy Warhol with Mic on guitar, in a slightly alternate mix. This should have been included in the box set…. but whatever another $60 to be made, nice packaging. I do belive the mix of the Elton record is the original mix.

  82. Giving RSD 2017 a miss for a number of reasons. Now I’ve seen the price of the BowPromo I’m convinced that’s the right decision.

  84. Hi Paul, any idea which version the Elton John album is, the original mix or Gus Dudgeon’s 1996 remix (which I think isn’t as good)?

  86. Thanks for making the video. I was only interested in the Bowie ones and to be honest now I have seen the promo I don’t think I can justify spending £50 on it.

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