I love the smell of vinyl in the morning: Record Store Day 2017

There are tales, already, of desperation. Of men - and I'm fairly confident that we're talking exclusively men - camped out on high street pavements at Stupid O'Clock, desperate to be first through the door on this, the tenth annual Record Store Day.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, this is when the most serious of record collectors pile into music shops in the hunt for limited edition vinyl releases put out just for the day, and all part of an initiative to get people shopping for actual music in such independent outlets.

It brings the die-hards out early: my local shop, Greenwich's excellent Casbah Records, had the first punters lining up a full FIVE hours before opening at 10.30am, while Brighton's Resident Music had its queue form at 3am for an 8am opening time. There is a limit, and three in the morning goes way beyond it...

There is, of course, a huge degree of trainspotting about it all (and I don't mean heroin peddling). Most of the music will have been available before, and the profile of many queuing suggest that they might spend the rest of their Saturday at the end of a Clapham Junction platform with notebook, pencil and a pair of binoculars. But all that notwithstanding, Record Store Day is, actually, a bit of fun.

While it will attract the arch music nerds as well as the prospectors looking to grab swag to resell on eBay, there are also plenty who simply enjoy the tactile pleasure of rifling through record racks in a slightly musty-smelling shop in the hope of finding something unique to take home and, you know, play. These, then, are the whom Record Store Day is for. It's easy, in this cynical, corporate world, to assume that the whole thing is a cunning wheeze designed to ink money for the record companies and their artists, but there is a knowing awareness amongst those waiting to get into their local emporia that it's all about the love of music.

It's why I can guarantee that High Fidelity and This Is Spinal Tap will be cultural references for many in today's Record Store Day queues. They'll know all about record shop demagogues and Jazz Odyssey because they understand that music ownership at this level is a subculture, rather than just the acquisition of listening material with which to wallpaper the day.

The rarity factor is important but, I think, so too is the satisfaction of curiosity. There are those of us who have plenty of versions of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive already, but a previously unreleased recording, on a single-sided single, wouldn't go amiss. It doesn't, actually, matter what you're in the queue for, whether a demo version of The Smiths' The Boy With The Thorn In His Side or a pink vinyl reissue of Aqua's Barbie Girl (no, me neither...). Tastes and interests are disparate: earwigging on conversations this morning outside Casbah I was reassured by the enormous diversity of ambitions - reassured because it meant that I was more likely to get what I wanted. The fascinating and compelling part of Record Store Day is that it brings out every taste, all sharing a common love of music as well as the tactile appreciation of physical music ownership.

© Simon Poulter 2017

As for me, I was about as successful as I could have hoped for: Bowie's Cracked Actor live album, The Who's Quadrophenia on parka-green vinyl, a few Prince singles, the first new The The music for 15 years and an Elbow cover of one of their older tracks. And, yes, that 'new' copy of Interstellar Overdrive.

For old heads like me, Record Store Day has been an encouragement to return to their vinyl libraries, to enjoy the tactile experience of youth in opening up gatefold sleeves and placing needles on grooves, rather than the somewhat impassive process of clicking a mouse. But younger consumers - even teenagers - are also playing a part in the revival of vinyl that saw more than 3.2 million vinyl albums sold in the UK last year, and now account for 15% of the industry’s income from physical formats.

Having been a part of the industrial push for all-things digital back in the 1990s, it might sound strange to be returning to the record deck. But there's a place for all formats - the convenience of digital and the tactile enjoyment and perceivable aural warmth of vinyl. Younger consumers, however, are also appreciating that there is something more that comes from vinyl, that it is not just some on-trend meme they need to sign up for. They're also discovering classics like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (last year's best selling vinyl release) or The Dark Side Of The Moon for the first time. Healthily, that means they're discovering - through vinyl - that music was once more than a pick-and-mix stream of songs recorded by someone who has won a television talent show. The industry will never see the likes of 1975 (the year, not the band...) when 92 million vinyl LPs were sold in the UK, but for this old head, just knowing that vinyl side of  music consumption is in relatively rude health is a thoroughly pleasing thing.