On Saturday 13th October the entire British music community are coming together to celebrate the first ever National Album Day. There’s going to be a week-long build up of events and activities across the country celebrating the album format involving all the amazing talent involved from artists, song writers, labels, retailers and sleeve designers.
Barclay James Harvest are one of the world’s most successful progressive rock bands. 1974’s ‘Everyone is Everybody Else’ is seen as the band’s artistic high point. It was voted into Radio Caroline’s Top 100 albums of all time and John Peel invited the band to record a session for BBC Radio One at this time. In celebration of National Album Day the band will perform their classic album ‘Everyone is Everybody Else’ in full, for the first and only time on Saturday 13th October at the Islington Assembly Hall.

The album turns 70 this year. That’s 70 years of classic albums, life-changing records, favourite new albums, favourite first albums, the albums that changed your life and the ones you just could not live without – albums mean different things to different people – but there is no denying the huge impact they’ve not only had on our lives but on British pop- culture as we know it.
There are lots of ways for you to get involved from hosting album listening parties, going record shopping with friends, attending live album playbacks or just rejoicing in your record collection and telling us all about the records you cherish and love.
At 3.33pm on National Album Day everyone in the UK is being asked to stop what they’re doing, sit back, relax and play an album of choice in full, from start to finish.
Album sales continue to thrive. In 2017 135 million albums were either purchased, downloaded or streamed – a rise of 9.5 per cent on the previous year.
4.1 million of these were on vinyl – the highest level since the start of the 1990’s.
Join the listening party by using #NationalAlbumDay and tag @AlbumDayUK on social media!
Iain McNay, Chairman of Cherry Red Records, said:
“The format of the album is so important. Even in this era of the growing popularity of streaming, the majority of artists still think in terms of writing and recording albums rather than just tracks. National Album Day is a great reminder of the creative thought and brilliance that goes into the making of an album, and it is a way that we can all participate by listening to and remembering our favourite albums. The album is the King of music formats; long live the King!”
