Special edition vinyl available today

INDEPENDENT music shops across the country are throwing open their doors with the launch of 300 special records to mark today's Record Store Day.

It is the seventh year that shops in France have taken part. At its launch in 2011 some 90 shops were involved and this year 260 are signed up.

Among the 300 special releases are collectors' editions, re-releases, unedited versions and covers.

One particularly poignant release is Sting Live at the Bataclan 2016 - a concert that re-opened the club following the horrific terrorist attack in 2015.

The album contains six songs recorded at the event: Fragile, Message in has Bottle, I Can't Stop Thinking About You, One Fine Day, Englishman in New York and Every Breath You Take.

While the advent of CDs, mp3s and streaming have all had commentators writing the epitaph for vinyl, independent music stores, and records themselves are making a comeback.

The production of vinyl records in France rose from two million in 2011 to 15 million in 2016.