Saturday 20th April saw the annual Record Store Day entice the ever growing record buying faithful to “dig” for their favourite available releases. There were a number of records with a Beatles connection amongst the items available from your local independent record store.

Prior to the summer release of the Mind Games deluxe box set the Lennon estate have released the Mind Games 12″ EP as a taster of what is to come. Offered in two versions [Black Audiophile and Glow in the Dark vinyl], the mix on this release enhances John’s vocal and the instrumentation as a whole giving us a tantalising preview of what is to come. The songs included are ‘Mind Games’, ‘I’m The Greatest’, ‘Aisumasen’ and ‘You Are Here’ each sounding fabulous and with a cover design by Sean makes a very collectable item.

George Harrison’s first two solo releases ‘Wonderwall Music’ and ‘Electronic Sound’ are repackaged as limited edition Zoetrope picture disc pressings and pre-empting a series of similar releases of the entirety of George’s back catalogue. Dark Horse records had quite a significant release presence on RSD ’24 by also issuing Joe Strummer and the Mecaleros’ ‘Rock Art and the X-Ray Style [pink vinyl], ‘Dreamer in the Field’ [clear vinyl] by Huun-Huur-Tu / Carmen Rizzo & Dhani Harrison and ‘Numbers’ and ‘Izitso’ by Yusuf / Cat Stevens.

Ringo also continued his regular policy of releasing new music on EP. On this occassion selecting the 12″ rather than 10″ format. This stunning marble vinyl limited edition contains four new cuts written by Linda Perry, of 4 Non Blonde fame, ‘February Sky’, ‘Gonna Need Somebody’, ‘Adeline’ and ‘Crooked Boy’. The songs were all written specifically for Ringo and were produced by Perry at her studios to which Ringo added his drum parts and added vocals. While three tracks settle comfortably into the recent formula that Ringo adopts for these EP releases rarely diverting from the essential Ringo “style” the exception is the opening track ‘February Sky’ which is altogether edgier and the stand out track on the EP. His best song in many years!!

All in all, there are some really nice releases to tempt us all and I hope that anyone seeking these records had luck on their side at Record Store Day ’24.

By Gwyn Jenkins.