The 15th annual Record Store Day is being observed on Saturday at Dr Disc Records in downtown Windsor.
The store’s event poster caught the attention of KISS front man Gene Simmons earlier this month, catching staff by surprise.
“We were blown away with the poster when we first saw it,” says store manager Aimee Charette. “Record Store Day Canada had shared it through their social media. So we were already pretty excited about that.”
Charette says they learned Simmons put the poster on his Twitter and Instagram accounts around 2 am after their phone started going off.
“We’re just glad he liked it because there’s always a risk if you’re inspired by someone’s image,” she said. “So we’re thrilled that he in a way gave it his seal of approval.”
The poster was made by Dr. Disc employee Greg Maxwell depicting actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo donned in iconic KISS makeup.
Maxwell recalls, “I woke up to a bunch of texts one morning and thought something terrible had happened and it was just something awesome.”
Maxwell tells CTV News he’s created many of the previous Record Store Day posters for the store, even before he worked there.
“I mean, I grew up with KISS and was a big fan and picked up a guitar when I was 14 because of KISS so it was a cool thing to see him share that,” he said.
Record Store Day has become a worldwide “holiday” to celebrate music and small business.
Charette says doors open at 9 am and warns to arrive early to see unique items and promotions typically associated with the day.
“Every year there are always people excited by what they find and unfortunately there’ll always be someone who was hoping to see something and maybe the first person got it before them,” Charette adds. “So there’s always the agony and the ecstasy of will you be able to snag that copy of the exclusive release.”
Employees at Dr. Disc Records ahead of ‘World Record Day’ in Windsor, Ont. on Friday, April 22, 2022. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)