Next weekend, on Saturday 19th April, independent music retailers from across the UK will come together to celebrate the UK's seventh annual Record Store Day.

Special vinyl and CD releases made exclusively for the day will go on sale across the country, with a whole host of exciting activities including intimate performances and live music events taking place in local record stores.

Among those taking part are stores throughout Hertfordshire, for some of whom this will be their first year of Record Store Day celebrations, including Empire Records in St Albans, and the newly established - yet increasingly popular - LP Café on Watford High Street. With St Albans having hosted Music City in March, a proud salute to its own diverse musical heritage, and Watford Live 2014 brewing excitedly in the pipeline, it seems these two cities in particular are vying to make Hertfordshire a centre of cultural interest outside of London.

The increased take-up of interest from local music retailers in events such as Record Store Day is a subtle but confident sign not only that independent stores can seemingly start to survive again on the high street, but also that a quiet pulse beats in the background of a generation with a passion for music and involvement in their local scene.

Record Store Day takes place on Saturday 19th April. For a full list of participating retailers and details of all specialist releases for the day, visit the Record Store Day 2014 website (http://www.recordstoreday.co.uk) Based on information supplied by Kerry Manning.