THE annual celebration of all things vinyl is set to hit Bolton with fans expected to queue through the night to get their hands on exclusive records.

The tenth Record Store Day takes place tomorrow and with vinyl enjoying a renaissance around the country, one Bolton shop is expecting this year to be the biggest yet.

X-Records, in Bridge Street, will be opening its doors and more than 500 records will be exclusively available for the day.

Owner Steve Meekings said he expects people to queue through the night to make sure they get their hands on this year’s releases.

He said: “This is the eighth year that we’ve done it. We’ve got busier and busier year on year. As vinyl has made such a comeback I think this will probably be our biggest one yet.”

Mr Meekings said that he thinks vinyl has enjoyed such a revival as people ‘kick back’ against digital, and people of all ages are buying records.

He said: “I think it is crossing a good range of people. We’re getting an extraordinary reaction from young people who are just getting in to music.”

Exclusive records this year include a re-release of The Beatles’ Penny Lane single, an edition of an Elton John live studio session and a number of Prince singles.

Mr Meekings said: “I think this year we have more than 500 different titles across a range of genres. I think there is even some classical records this year.

“We’ve got all the real big acts from The Beatles to David Bowie to the big rock artists, the likes of Pink Floyd and that sort of thing. There are records for everyone really.”

For the proper fans though, the only option is to queue through the night to make sure they get their hands on the prized records.

Mr Meekings said: “We get quite a few who stay overnight to get their place in the queue. More than 150 people were waiting in the queue when we opened last year. I think they have a good camaraderie.

“As I said, it is our eighth year and a lot of the people who queue have come eight times, so they all know each other.”

More than 200 indepedent record shops across the UK will get together to celebrate all things vinyl for Record Store Day.

Mr Meekings said that for X-Records it is also the biggest day of the year in terms of making money and how busy the shop is.

Other artists with featured releases this year include U2, Toto, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley and Emilie Sandé.

X-Records will be open from 8am for people to call in and browse.

For a full list of this year’s releases and more information go to www.recordstoreday.co.uk