Record Store Day celebrated at King of Prussia & Plymouth Meeting malls
UPPER MERION » Whether you’re one of those loyal audiophiles who stuck with vinyl records for decades, through thick and thin, or hopped on board as a latecomer in the last few years, Record Store Day was created for you — and for devoted record purveyors like Roy Thomas, of course.
For the owner of The Rock Shop stores at King of Prussia Mall and Plymouth Meeting Mall, celebrating Record Store Day, coming up on April 21, and formally honoring the musical format invented in the late 1800s is “literally like rolling the last two weeks before Christmas into one day. It is such a huge buildup with getting and tagging all the titles, setting up the store, getting the word out, but then the store opens and it all becomes totally worth it when that line of people comes pouring in. Seeing how excited our customers are to get their hands on that one rare gem missing from their collection, or the reissue they thought would never happen... it’s awesome.”
Store manager Dan Cathcart is looking forward to his fourth successful RSD at The Rock Shop.
“I still get excited each year to see what is going to be coming out,” Cathcart said. “This year I’m clamoring for a pressing of Jeff Buckley — Live at Sin-e in a box set for the first time ever and a Grateful Dead live at Fillmore West from ‘69 box set!”
Other vinyl releases scheduled to be unleashed on RSD 2018 include Blue Oyster Cult, “Rarities, Vol. 2;” Fleetwood Mac, “Tango in the Night” alternate; The Kinks, “Phobia;” Arcade Fire, “EP;” John Fogerty, “Centerfield;” Pink Floyd, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn;” B-52’s, “Rock N Rockets Live;” David Bowie, “Welcome to the Blackout live 1978;” U2, “Lights of Home;” Chuck Berry, “Greatest Hits” and Taylor Swift, “Fearless.”
The Rock Shop is one of several stores across the state designated as a participating Record Store Day store, which organizers define as “a brick and mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on full time, stand-alone physical store locations, with a major commitment to music retail, and whose company is independently owned, and not publicly traded. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores, not online retailers or corporate behemoths).”
According to the website, recordstoreday.com, other participating stores in the area are Deep Groove Records & Audio, Phoenixville; Electric Avenue, West Chester; Ma Tones, Collegeville; Shady Dog Records, Berwyn and Gold Million Records, Bryn Mawr.
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees who wanted to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned record stores in the US. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Organizers say the once-a-year event is “for the people who make up the
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