John Coltrane fans may want call early at their local independent vinyl outlet when the nineteenth Record Store Day rolls around this weekend (April 18). Among more than 500 limited vinyl exclusives are The Tiberi Tapes: A Preview Of The Mythic Recordings (Verve/ Impulse!), which presents early 1960s performances of Coltrane and group made by New Jersey saxophonist Frank Tiberi, including an alternate near-twelve minute version of Giant Steps. Over at France 1965: The Complete Concerts John Coltrane Quartet (Charly), three French dates appear over four LPs, featuring the quartet’s only live performance of A Love Supreme.
Bonus Tracks!
RSD temptation doesn’t end there. As ever, big beasts expand celebrated albums with second discs. The Who’s A Quick One (UMR/ Polydor) pairs a mono mix with singles, EP tracks and alternate versions on green and orange vinyl. Also remastered and enlarged are Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band’s Lick My Decals Off, Baby (Rhino/ Atlantic), Little Feat’s Little Feat (Rhino), Cream’s Wheels Of Fire: Live At The Fillmore & Winterland (UMR/ Polydor) and Jackson C Frank’s self-titled sole LP (Sanctuary). Jerry Garcia’s Reflections (50th Anniversary Edition) (Round Records), meanwhile, is joined by two bonus LPs of outtakes and live cuts: Crosby Stills & Nash’s The Solo Albums box collects CSN’s debuts with a bonus LP of demos and sessions from all three.
Alternative Versions!
Other familiar albums are reimagined in wholly new forms: Rod Stewart’s Alternate Atlantic Crossing (Atlantic/ Rhino) shadows his 1975 album tracklist with different takes, while The Doors’ Strange Days 1967: A Work in Progress, Part 2 (Rhino) shows their second LP in protean form. There are similar reframings on John Prine’s Found Dogs (Oh Boy), Suede’s Antidepressants – Demos (BMG), Mark Lanegan Band’s Bubblegum (Original Draft) (Beggars Banquet) and, most radically, on John Lennon’s Love Meditation Mixes (UMR/Calderstone), where Sean Ono Lennon reworks 1970’s Love over three iridescent ‘Pearl Arctic’ LPs. Joni Mitchell’s For The Roses (Asylum/ Warner Records), meanwhile, finally gets her preferred original artwork on neato rose-coloured vinyl.
Picture Discs!
Fans of revolving 12” art are directed to picture discs including the self-titled debuts by Funkadelic (Org Music), The Modern Lovers (BMG) and Motörhead (Chiswick). 2026’s Zoetrope releases include George Harrison’s Dark Horse and Extra Texture (Dark Horse), a one-disc abridgement of The Kinks’ One For The Road (BMG) and Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel (Real World), while this year’s groovy vinyl tones include Roxy Music’s Viva (UMR/EMI) on gold wax, a punk pink edition of Sex Pistols comp Jubilee (UMR) and David Bowie’s Excerpts From Outside (Parlophone) on clear vinyl (there’s also a Neon Pink 12” of the Pet Shop Boys’ remixes of Bowie’s Hallo Spaceboy single).
Live LPs!
You want live albums? They got live albums. Choice picks include Pink Floyd’s quadruple, clear Live From The Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975 (Legacy), Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts’ 2025-recorded The Live Album (Reprise/ Warner) and Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band’s See.Hear.Now Asbury Park 2024 (Legacy Rep). Elsewhere are live sets from Brian Wilson, Blur, Status Quo, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Ray Charles, the Grateful Dead, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Terry Callier, Yes, Adrianne Lenker, King Crimson and XTC, whose Live At Emerald City 1981 (Ape House) kicks off a new in-concert LP series. Taking things further, Sonic Youth’s The Diamond Sea/ Grayfolded (Ume) sees Plunderphonic prime mover John Oswald re-edit 32 live versions of the Washing Machine track, on white vinyl.
Wait, There's More...
It goes on, in near-infinite variety. Paul Weller releases live BBC versions of When Your Garden’s Overgrown and Boy About Town on 7” (Parlophone): more BBC sessions can be heard on Madness’ Faces For Radio (West Village Music Management) and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Radio One Sessions 1982-1983 (UMR/ ZTT). Enticingly, Pavement’s debut EP Perfect Sound Forever (Matador) is repressed for the first time since 1991 on white 10”, while The Human League’s Being Boiled makes it onto orange 12” (Cherry Red) with bonus 1978 Peel session tracks. Marc Bolan’s Songs From Marc (Demon) compiles unreleased performances from his 1977 TV show just a month before his death. Slint’s Untitled (Albini Rough Mixes) (Touch and Go) is an unreleased session from 1989, and who doesn’t need the new half speed master of Gong’s Flying Teapot (Charly), a remastered 10” of Miles Davis’ 1951 bandleader debut The New Sounds (UMR/ Concord) or a facsimile of the Japanese edition of the US Stones comp Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (ABKCO Music)?
Note that multiple releases this year will benefit the War Child charity: these include Fleetwood Mac’s The Original Fleetwood Mac (Commercial Group) on two-LP Transparent Bio LP Vinyl, The Cure’s newly remastered Greatest Hits and Acoustic Hits (25th Anniversary Edition) (both UMR/Polydor/Fiction), and the solo albums by Manic Street Preachers’s James Dean Bradfield (The Great Western, Commercial Group) and Nicky Wire (Intimism, Commercial Group).
New Albums, Too!
After all that, there are non-vintage treats too. Robert Plant’s Saving Grace: All That Glitters… with Suzi Dian (Nonesuch) is an all-new 12” EP which includes a cover of Bert Jansch’s Poison. Pretty Things’ From The Other Side (Madfish) is a ‘Coke Bottle Clear’ 10” tribute to late voice Phil May and producer Mark St John, with unreleased tracks completed by Dick Taylor. Soft Cell’s Dancetaria Remixes (Big Frock) is a 12” preview of the duo’s last album, which arrives later this year. Hip hop heads will thrill at Bobby Digital Presents: The Juice Crew (36 Chambers/ DN/ Hitmaker), where Wu-Tang’s RZA produces a new set by golden age MCs including Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap. Previous epochs meeting, to be reborn on vinyl? Sounds like Record Store Day. Be lucky, record hounds.
See recordstoreday.co.uk for more info. Support your local record shop.