RECORD stores worldwide are getting prepared for the new normal at this year’s Record Store Day and Glasgow’s shops are no different.

After the initial date of April 18 was postponed twice, this year will see three different ‘drop’ dates with select vinyl releasing on Saturday August 29, September 26 and October 24.

There’s no doubting the importance of the event to small, independent stores and stores across Glasgow are taking all the steps to ensure that, despite Covid-19 regulations, this year’s event is still a success.

Love Music will celebrate their 25th anniversary next year and were involved in the first Record Store Day (RSD) back in 2008. Sandy Mclean, the store’s owner, is looking forward to another great event.

“I’m very, very, very excited, very busy, nervous, anxious, optimistic,” Sandy said. “A big part of Record Store Day has been the first-come first-serve aspect of it, where people can’t just sit on their arse and order and have it delivered to their home.

“This year, with Covid to deal with, encouraging people to come in big tribes is not the top of the list of things I want to do [so] we’re making changes to the way we operate.

Sandy and the staff at Love Music, located on Dundas Street near Queen Street station, will be taking people’s orders as they queue and trying to get them ready for when they get to the front of the queue, to avoid the amount of people coming into the shop.

There are regulars who come and camp overnight the night before in order to get their hands on limited-edition releases, with eye-catching names like David Bowie always a popular choice. Sandy says these people have went from total strangers to good friends.

Independent stores usually mark RSD with live bands however that idea has had to be shelfed this year, with Sandy adding: “I think it would be irresponsible to do anything like that, we really just want to serve our customers as safely as possible.”

Sandy, who moved to the UK from Nova Scotia in the 70s, praises RSD for being the reason behind the resurgence in interest in vinyl and says it’s helped make people realise collecting records is cool.

He added: “It’s like the difference between steak and hamburger: buying an LP is like buying a nice, juicy steak. You might only treat yourself once every so often whereas you’re having a hamburger more often.”

Another store gearing up for another huge day is Monorail, which has participated in RSD since 2009. Dep Downie, the shop manager, said: “It’s great it’s finally going to happen, the setbacks are understandable, lockdown was imminent.

“[RSD] is fantastic, the biggest day in our calendar. It’s a shame because normally it’s just a big celebration of being an independent record store and we normally have bands and DJs playing all day.

“We usually open at 9am and shut the shop at 8pm but carry on until the bar closes in Mono. This year will be completely different, there’s a lot of great releases but it won’t be a hangout.

“It’ll still be the nicest day we’ve had in a long time but it just won’t be quite the party that we normally have.”

Despite the restrictions being put in place, Dep and Monorail are still extremely excited to see it finally going ahead.

“I’m really, really happy to see that it’s happening, if you told me two months ago that it was going to be cancelled outright I would have understood so the fact that it’s actually happening is great,” he said. “It’s so important to independent shops.”

He added: “Record Store Day is like an extra Christmas, it’s bigger than Christmas for most record shops.”

Record stores have individual lists of releases. August 29 will see vinyl from Biffy Clyro, The Cure, The Godfather movie soundtrack and many more.

Visit recordstoreday.co.uk for the full list or contact stores for their selection.