Cassette Store Day

"Music sounds great on cassette; I have a big collection of original albums on cassette from artists like Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, MC5 & Suicide. I also have great compilation tapes I made to play on Primal Scream tours. Cassette is a cool medium to listen to music on. Warm and fat. Good bottom end. Yeah!"

- Bobby Gillespie, 2013

For those of you who, like Bobby Gillespie, love to listen to music on the old school medium of tape, and can still remember making countless mix tapes, or listening to the latest single on a cassette Walkman, mark Saturday 7th September 2013 in your diaries.

In an attempt to encourage the resurgence the cassette has been making of late, “International Cassette Store Day 2013 is a celebration of a physical product that is accessible, fun, cheap and still going strong in the turbulent current musical climate”. Unlike Record Store Day with it’s limited UK and US reach, International Cassette Store Day is being celebrated all over the world. In addition to it's London launch at Rough Trade East, on Brick Lane (which features live performances and DJ sets in-store), there will also be similar events run in record stores in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo, as well as recently confirmed events in Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Germany.

The event has been organised by Steve Rose who runs Sexbeat, Jen Long who runs Kissability and is a Radio 1 DJ, and Matthew Lewendon who runs Suplex Cassettes. “When Steve had the idea for doing an event/day that is the cassette version of Record Store Day he asked me and Jen to be involved and we all thought it was funny, but worth a try”, says Matthew Lewendon. “Now it has spread around the world and gone beyond what we expected, and still seems to be growing everyday. It is awesome as there have been so many people wanting to get involved, with a multitude of events, in-stores and gigs all over the world celebrating cassette culture. We're all nervous and excited, and fingers crossed this is the start of something bigger.” And it certainly could be with the caliber of artists climbing on board the tape bandwagon.

Alongside the aforementioned, other artists and labels getting involved are Transgressive (At The Drive-In, Pulled Apart By Horses), Bella Union (The Flaming Lips), Domino (The Pastels), 4AD (Deerhunter), Wichita Recordings (Best Coast, Los Campesinos!), Burger Records (Suicidal Tendancies, Twink), Jagjaguar (Vocano Choir), Fat Cat(Animal Collective), Fire (Guided by Voices), Lex (JJ Doom) and Blood And Biscuits (Efterklang, Mum) just to mention a few. With such a wide range of music and labels to choose from, there is no excuse not to add tape to your music collection and get caught up in another music listening revival.

If you are a tape fan and there is not a store near you participating, all releases that don't sell out on Cassette Store Day will be available through the shop's or label's websites a week after the event.

LIST OF UK PARTICIPATING STORES

Ignite records, Birmingham

Cult Hero, Brighton

Resident, Brighton

Rise, Bristol

Tangled Parrott, Camarthen

The Record Shop, Cheltenham

Malcolm’s Musicland, Chorley

Ox Box Records, Edinburgh

Monorail Music, Glasgow

People Independent Music, Guildford

Crash Records, Leeds

Jumbo Records, Leeds

Norman Records, Leeds

Rough Trade East, London

Rough Trade West, London

Reflex, Newcastle Upon Tyne

The Music Exchange, Nottingham

Drift Record Shop, Totnes (Devon)

Static Records, Wigan

Vinyl & Vintage, Wolverhampton

Rise Records, Worcester

The Inkwell, York

Banquet Records, Kingston

Last Shop Standing Record Store, Plymouth

You can keep up to date with the ever growing list of labels and artists releasing material on tape at the official website, or follow the event on Facebook and Twitter. 

SL