Record Store Day: Wellington vinyl shop owner hoping to be a hit with music lovers once again - here's how
The owner of a popular record store in Wellington is gearing up for the return of 'Record Store Day'.
Spinning Around Records has proved a hit with locals since it opened around 18 months ago.
After leaving BT where she had worked for several years, Emma Perks decided to follow her passion of pop music and open the shop on New Street in Wellington.
'Record Store Day' returns on April 12 and will see almost 300 independent record shops across the UK come together and celebrate their unique culture.
Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day. And last year, residents and music lovers were queuing down the street, waiting eagerly in anticipation for Emma open her shop doors.
The record shop owner is looking forward to, and preparing for the celebration next week. She said records by Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo, among others, have proved popular with customers so far this year.
"The big ones this year are the Oasis Time Flies box set," she said. "It is the first time it has been re-pressed since it first came out, so you can imagine what an original copy went for.
"It is a proper chunky monkey and I have a lot of people after that, but also a lot of people are after the Taylor Swift Fortnight record as well.
"Another one is the ambassador for this year which is Sam Fender."
Spinning Around Records will open at 8am to mark Record Store Day. Special releases will have limited availability and be sold on a first come, first serve basis.
The record shop specialises in pop music, but also features genre's including indie and rock.
And, Emma said her shop has welcomed customers from several generations including youngsters from as little as 10-years-old who are buying their first records.
Speaking on how things have gone so far for the business, she added: "It has gone really well. We have hit the ground running and haven't stopped since. Everyone loves having a record shop back in the town again.
"I do a lot on my socials and sell a lot of records online as well.
"I have been collecting this time around for 10 years and because I have a big love of pop music, I never really found any record shops that catered for it and had a big selected. So I decided that I wanted to do something with a difference and opened the pop focused record shop.
"A lot of your record shops are more indie, contemporary sort of music or they are music from 30 to 40 years ago, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I specialise in pop and have ones that lots of people might not have heard of."
