Tomorrow sees the third Record Store Day taking place; this is when record shops all over Britain will be trying to tempt music lovers to pay them a visit.

There will be limited edition records and CDs by big-name artists on sale in participating shops on the day only, which will make them instant collectors’ items.

The very fact that record shops need a special day speaks volumes about we now buy our music and that there’s a generation for whom the experience of visiting and browsing in record shops hasn’t existed.

It also says a lot about the disposable nature of music and to a large extent why, I think, people don’t feel the need to pay for it if they don’t want to.

If you’re buying online then all your doing is downloading a computer file, it may be easier than making a trip to your nearest record shop but it’s faceless and emotionless.

I make no apologies for eulogising about the wonderful days of vinyl when every purchase was an event, something you’d saved up for and looked forward to.

The cover and the sleevenotes (which some of us devoured while listening and remember to this day) meant that each album had and still has a memory attached to it.

I can remember clearly how I felt when I bought my first album, first single with a picture cover, those picture discs and 12” extended plays, the great albums and the few that would prove to be a hasty purchase, thankfully there weren’t many of them.

A well-stocked record collection is not just a pile of records, it’s the story of your life, and although they don’t hold the same lure as they once did, if you’re passing a record shop tomorrow, pop in you might find something wonderful.