Hopes for 'record' success in Chichester as young fans await exclusive Taylor Swift release on Record Store Day

The international event, which unites record shops from all over the world in a celebration of analogue music, is already one of the busiest days in the South Street Shop’s calendar, but Mr Crane thinks this year’s event will be extra busy thanks to the release of an exclusive record by Taylor Swift.

First recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown with a series of collaborators, Folklore was originally a surprise release in July 2020, but the 33-year-old popstar was never able to play the record live until The Long Pond Sessions that September. Those recordings will be released on vinyl for the first time ever on Saturday as a Record Store Day exclusive, and Mr Crane says young fans are chomping at the bit to get their hands on a copy.

"We’ve been inundated ever since it was announced with young girls and guys desperate to get their hands on the record, wanting to know what time they should start queuing,” Mr Crane said. “I think our regulars who are used to getting in the store early are going to be slightly surprised to have to relinquish their first position in the queues to possibly 30, 40 or 50 young Taylor Swift fans, which is great.”

He added that the experience takes him back to his own days collecting records as a young man, before the advent of digital music changed the face of the industry forever.

"It reminds me of when I was a kid buying records, ringing up shops in Croydon asking ‘have you got this, have you got that?’, and then jumping on the bus to get it,” he said. “And it’s also refreshing because when I opened up the shop five years ago, our demographic was your stereotypical 35-year-old record buyer and now we’ve got teenagers coming in. It’s really refreshing.”

In fact, vinyl has a real cachet with young people in Chichester. “We get a lot of university students who are really really into vinyl. I think it’s being able to hold the music, to really own it,” says Charlotte, Mr Crane’s daughter, who manages the shop. “You get to appreciate all the art work, and you get these wonderful bonuses inside them, which is great as well.”

To find out more about Analogue October Records, visit their website: www.analogueoctober.com

Or, to find out more about World Record Store Day, click here.

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