Go backstage with The Music and receive FREE:

  • Exclusive members-only editorial, charts
  • Our subscriber-only newsletter
  • Members only competitions to win tickets, experiences and more
  • Access to our street press archives
  • First access to our exclusive limited edition vinyl variants

Thank you for being a part of our community! Enter your email address as verification and you'll be taken backstage right away.

Please ensure that you provide a valid email address.

Royal Visit Causes Havoc With Record Store Day

Scott Fitzsimons

Brisbane store forced to close for four hours on year's biggest trading day

More Record Store Day Record Store Day Profile

The Royal Visit of HRH Prince William and Kate Duchess Of Cambridge will have an unforseen impact on Record Store Day this weekend, with a Brisbane store forced to close for four hours in the middle of one of its busiest trading days of the year.

Police have advised the Brisbane chain of record, book and film store TITLE that they will need to be closed from 1pm – 5pm this Saturday 19 April to accommodate the operation surrounding the visit. As a result, the store is extending its opening hours at either end of the day.

“We were told two weeks ago that we would have to close, but weren't allowed to announce it until this week,” TITLE's Marketing & Communications Director David Boyce told theMusic.com.au today. “We were told but we didn't know the details.”

He added, “We didn't really have any room to negotiate… Police didn't know about the significance of the day, but even if they did it probably wouldn't have made a difference.”

Come Saturday the store will be open from 8.30am to 1pm and then will re-open from 5pm until as late as customers allow it to be. Boyce said that they will be focusing the morning session on the limited edition releases they expect to be snapped up in the early hours while live music will be on offer during the afternoon session.

Join 'Backstage Pass', our FREE members program for music fans

“The silver lining is that the morning is the busiest trading period of the day anyway,” he said. “It's our biggest trading day outside of Easter… TITLE does film and books as well, but [Record Store Day] is all about the music and is comparable to Christmas without books and TV.”

Falling on the Easter weekend this year, the limited edition releases are expected to land in store tomorrow given there will be no post on Friday. It does give stores the chance to confirm what releases they will have on offer before Saturday though, and record-hunters are urged to check TITLE's website for confirmation on what will be available this Friday.

As well as box sets and vinyl releases, cassette releases from Green Day and Skrillex and a book Dust And Grooves will be highly sought-after items this year.