In its inaugural year, NAD is prompting music fans all over the UK to enjoy an album of their choice
The first ever National Album Day will take place on 13 October, but it’s 15:33 on Saturday afternoon the organisers want people to stop and reflect on their favourite album by listening to it in full.
There has already been a week-long build-up to the big day, with events of all shapes and sizes taking place across the country. The BBC is backing the event with a series of radio programmes, and one show that has proven popular with listeners is a two-part special featuring Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, discussing how he created the 1998 album You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby.
It’s 70 years since the first album hit the shelves and the long play record was born. It had been predicted that there would be a decline in album sales as the way people consume music changes. But album sales in the UK are in a healthy state, with 135 million albums purchased in 2017. The figure includes physical sales, downloads and streams, and shows a rise of 9.5 per cent compared with sales in 2016.
Ambassadors for National Album Day includes Orbital, Jess Glynn, Tom Odell and MOBO and Mercury Prize nominee Novelist, who have been sharing reasons why they love the album and encouraging music lovers, retailers, artists and record labels to take part in the big day.
“Ever since I can remember, one of my favourite things to do has been to buy my favourite artist’s albums the day it comes out,” said Tom Odell. “That feeling of peeling back the cellophane wrapper, opening up the booklet, and reading the lyrics along while I listen to the record from start to finish is a thrill…”
For more information on how to get involved, visit nationalalbumday.co.uk
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