Watch: We spoke to Love Music ahead of Record Store Day 2023

Only a stone’s throw away from Glasgow’s Queen Street station, sits Love Music which is one of the city’s best-loved record shops.

The shop which has stood the test of time through the vinyl revival as well as the CD boom in the late 1990s is still supplying the people of the city with music of all sorts of genres.

Owner and manager Sandy McLean took over the store in 1996 and 27 years on has all the experience to know exactly what his customers are after.

Over the years they’ve had a number of famous visitors who have stopped by including the likes of Sir Billy Connolly, Seasick Steve and Glasgow rockers Glasvegas.

As well as a host of highly sought after records, one of the prized possessions in the shop is a bottle of sugar free Irn Bru which was drunk by Billy Connolly.

Once again they will be taking part in this year’s Record Store Day which will give the shop a welcome boost.

“Record Store Day came along and gave the whole industry a shot in the arm.

“It helped create the vinyl revival and went hand in hand with what we were doing so basically we got so much exposure via Record Store Day and the press that came along with it.

“We’ve been able to survive and that’s the main thing with Record Store Day. It’s to bring people back into physical record shops rather than just sitting on your butt at home and clicking on a button and getting it sent to your home. It’s very convenient but at the same time you are missing out on a big sense of community.”

Record of the Week

For our latest Record of the Week, we spoke to Love Music regular Matthew McCrudden who nominated Glasgow band The Blue Nile’s second album Hats, released in 1989 which he considers to be the finest Scottish album of all time.

Their first album A Walk Across The Rooftops could be considered as their best work but they didn’t miss when creating the follow up as Hats created songs such as ‘The Downtown Lights’, ‘Headlights on the Parade’ and ‘Saturday Night’.

The Blue Nile could be said to be a band who have a certain mystique around them and although they have a faithful their last release was almost 20 years ago.

He said “The album has several tracks on it that are very melodic and akin to the Blue Nile’s style.

“There’s quite a story to the Blue Nile, they’re quite an elusive band to get ahold of and get to see.

“My favourtie tracks on it are 7am probably and Over the Hillside.

“As I say, there’s not much new work that comes out of them so maybe I’ve listened to this album to death. The Blue Nile will always take their place in the Glasgow top ten easily.”