ONE of the organisers of Record Store Day has hailed the event as the most successful so far.

Held in Newport on Saturday, it saw dedicated fans of vinyl flock to the city far and wide, writes Tom Moody.

And, Matt Jarrett, the co-owner of Diverse Vinyl, who organised the free festival in conjunction with Newport Now and six other venues around the city, said there was a real atmosphere around the event.

“It went really well,” he said. “There was probably a couple of hundred people across the venues.

“We’ve done one-off gigs before, but this is the first time that we have organised something like this.”

Diverse employee, and Goldie Lookin' Chain member, Graham the Bear was working on Saturday, and he too hailed the event's affect.

He said: “The festival gave Newport a lift. Everyone was really excited to see the gigs. 

"The town was buzzing. 

“The spirit of the day is to get people in to independent record shops, which it does. 

"At the moment there is a great selection of music.

“This has been our most successful year. 

"When I came in to open the store at around 8.30am there were about 80 people there.

Mr Jarrett added they anticipated what would be snapped up by people hunting for rarities, but there were a few surprises. 

“The one that we got asked for most that we weren’t expecting was we had a Frankie Goes To Hollywood 4x12-inch set,” he said. “We had one in but three or four people asked for it.”