While the “Record Riot” concept had its roots in John Bastone’s hosting of record shows in Waterbury, Connecticut (later to morph into the Cromwell show), the first real RECORD RIOT took place on June 29, 2008 in Brooklyn, NY at the Polish-American club, Warsaw, in Greenpoint. The world was way different way back then, as Brooklyn did not have its own regularly-scheduled record show (save for DJ Shakey’s vinyl events and the intermittent Southpaw record show), and the Brooklyn Record Riot made quite a mark, with over 900 frantic attendees on that June afternoon. The club was packed—too packed, that was the complaint—but everyone drank Z beer, made serious loot and had a ball. Yes, things were just getting under way…
Now it’s more than 15 years later and we’ve added (and subtracted) multiple shows to the Record Riot playlist. We’ve experimented with many different locations & formats, moving on from some ideas (Trumbull CT), keeping some locations “on hold” (Leesport & New Hope PA), dreaming about other show ideas (Philly! Philly!) but Record Riots now has a solid base of quality record-buying events, ranging from Central Connecticut to Jersey City, up the Hudson River to Albany & west to Buffalo—and now far south (from our standpoint!) to Richmond, Newport News, and Chesapeake VA. While most record shows may seem the same from the outside, so do most dry cleaners or law offices—and clearly there are differences in those businesses. Record Riots exist where the interests of the customer and the dealer intersect, and it HAS TO work for both parties. The location has to draw customers, the dealer has to make money & it must be FUN too. If these three things don’t happen, we eventually shut down the show, even if we could make some money by continuing. Because we are customers & dealers also, John & I know that there are other things that you could be doing with your time and energy, other places to sell your records. We listen to everyone and never assume that we know everything. And we try to provide quality dealers, great music, the proper ambiance for record shopping. And how many late night phone calls have we had: “Steve, so-and-so really wants to sell. Can we squeeze him in?” or “We better get there early to set up extra tables.” or “Let’s get that great local DJ for the show.” We do our best, in our personal relations with you, with promotion and advertising, with interesting locations and venues. And like we say: “A Record Riot could be coming to your town.” And who knows? It just might.
Steve & John