The fifth annual Record Store Day is upon us, and hundreds of artists, including Paul McCartney, Phish and David Bowie, will have exclusive releases available to mark the occasion.

Record Store Day will be celebrated at independent record shops around the world tomorrow, April 21, and in addition to the many exclusive releases, many stores will have special events and concert performances to mark the occasion.

Other notable artists that will offer exclusive releases include the Black Keys, Flaming Lips, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Metallica.

Record Store Day was first held in 2008, and was designed to support the struggling independent record stores around the U.S. Since then, the event has grown international and includes some of the world’s biggest artists getting in on the action to save indie record stores.

Record Store Day’s official website defines exactly what an independent record store is:

A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a stand alone brick and mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on a physical store location, whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation.  (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).

The website also has quotes from artists describing why independent record stores have been important in their musical upbringing.

“My introduction to all this great music and to ‘the music business’ came from hanging around, and eventually, working at independent record stores,” said Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. “Nothing beats browsing in your favorite store, listening to music, finding something new or old that you’ve been searching for, all that. And without these stores, there’s just no way Wilco would still be around.”

You’d think after you get fleeced in divorce court for $50 million that you’d decide that maybe marriage just isn’t your cup of tea. Not so for Sir Paul McCartney. This past Sunday, McCartney married Nancy Shevell in London. Strangely enough, the occasion marked what would have been the 71 birthday of his famous bandmate John Lennon.

The couple has been engaged since May when McCartney popped the question after dating Shevell for four years. The marriage marks the third time down the aisle for Paul and the second for Shevell. McCartney’s first wife Linda passed away from cancer in 1998 and his second match to Heather Mills ended in an extremely messy divorce that rolled itself out in the tabloids.

It seems he’s wasting no time after his honeymoon to getting back to his ‘On the Run’ Tour. He’s scheduled 11 additional dates that will carry him through the end of the year. Mostly European dates, McCartney kicks off the leg in the United Arab Emirates on November 13 and wrapping up in Liverpool on December 20.

Reportedly Paul McCartney is scheduled to open the 2012 Olympics in London.

The former Beatle in July did hint that he may possibly take to the stage for the highly anticipated event accompanied by Ringo Starr, his former Beatles band mate.

However according to The Daily Telegraph, at that time Starr will be engaged on a summer tour of the U.S. and won’t be able to perform with McCartney in London. McCartney, in the meantime, is supposedly the show’s headliner. However, The Daily Mirror reports the details haven’t been determined yet.

An inside source said, it was hoped to have British music’s cream of the crop all in one lineup. However, it appears Macca now will be joined on stage by some of the younger stars.

Allegedly both Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones turned down the opportunity to perform during the Olympics opening ceremony.

Reportedly, McCartney will be marrying Nancy Shevell, his fiancee, in a small London ceremony.

The opening ceremony for the 2011 London Olympics will occur July 27, 2012, with the closing ceremony taking place August 12, 2012.

Ticket sales have been strong for Paul McCartney’s tour “On the Run,” which has resulted in organizers adding second shows for Montreal and Chicago.

Currently, the summer schedule for McCartney has eight shows, starting with performances at Yankee Stadium in New York on July 15-16 and followed up with a performance at Comerica Park in Detroit on July 24. The tour now includes recently confirmed dates for Bell Centre in Montreal on July 26-27 and at Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 31-August 1. The outing is currently set to wrap up in Cincinnati on August 4, but there is no telling if McCartney has plans beyond that Cincinnati dates.

McCartney’s “On the Run” trek will most likely be following the same formula he used on his recently finished “Up and Coming” outing, which included almost three hours worth of music, which spanned over his whole career, including solo, Wings and Beatles material in addition to tracks from the album “Electric Arguments” by the Fireman. McCartney’s backing band will once again include Brian Ray (backing vocals, bass, guitar), Abe Laboriel Jr. (backing vocals, drums), Rusty Anderson (backing vocals, guitar) and Paul “Wix” Wickens (backing vocals, harmonica, percussion, guitar, keyboards).

Two remastered McCartney sets were released last week:”McCartney” (1970) and “McCartney II” (1980). The reissues, which come with bonus tracks, were personally supervised by the former Beatle himself.

Earlier this month, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Bruce Forsyth, the British television personality. Sir Paul McCartney thinks the honor should have gone to someone else first: Ringo Star, his former band mate with the Beatles.

When asked why the Beatles drummer wasn’t selected, McCartney replied to Geoff Lloyd of Absolute Radio, don’t ask me. Lloyd then said maybe McCartney should personally ask the Queen. Sir Paul quipped, she was out last time I dropped by. Otherwise, I would of course have popped in to say, Sir Richard Starkey, love. I do think it’s time. However, she was probably busily working with Sir Brucie.

Inevitably, the conversation veered towards The Beatles. Sir Paul said that although he was the one that made the announcement in 1970 that The Beatles were disbanding, the decision for making it a permanent break wasn’t his.

McCartney said, Ringo, George and me basically said, this doesn’t need to be final does it? Couldn’t we do a few gigs or think about it again tomorrow? However, John went off with Yoko. He said, no this is great. I am feeling a great release. So that made it kind of final.

Despite just wrapping us his “Up and Coming” 15 month long tour in Las Vegas this past weekend, Paul McCartney is already planning his next road outing. McCartney previously announced he will be kicking his “On the Run” trek off with two shows on July 15 and 16 at Yankee Stadium. Now Songkick.com, the tour tracking website, is reporting that the former Beatle also has stadium shows scheduled for Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago and Detroit.

The shows have not officially been confirmed yet, but the concerts in Chicago reportedly will take place July 31 and August 1 at Wrigley Field. There have been rumors of McCartney performing there for months. Last week, in fact, an article in the Chicago Tribune stated that a city council member in Chicago had introduced an ordinance authorizing shows on the two dates for Wrigley field, which led many to believe an announcement for the shows was imminent.

Updates will be made available as additional details are announced. Meanwhile, tickets for the pair of McCartney shows in New York appear to still be available.

On July 15, Paul McCartney will be kicking of his new tour called “On the Run” with a show at Yankee Stadium in New York. Reportedly, negotiations are also underway for McCartney to perform two concerts at Wrigley Field in Chicago as well.

Monday, June 13 is the scheduled date for tickets to go on sale for the recently confirmed gig at Yankee Stadium to the general public.

McCartney’s new “On the Run” outing most likely will be following the same formula as he has used on his current trek “Up and Coming”: almost three hours worth of music that spans his entire career, which covers solo, Wings, and Beatles material in addition to selections from the Fireman’s album “Electric Arguments.” Once again, McCartney’s backing band will consist of Paul “Wix” Wickens (backing vocals, harmonica, percussion, guitar, keyboards), Rusty Anderson (backing vocals, guitar), Abe Laboriel Jr. (backing vocals, drums) and Brian Ray (backing vocals, bass, guitar).

Two McCartney shows appear to be headed for Wrigley Field in Chicago. On June 8, Tom Tunney, a Chicago Alderman, introduced an ordinance to give the ok for nighttime concerts on July 31 as well as August 1 at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Next week, the ordinance will most likely be voted on.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Chicago Sun-Times reported the Cubs and McCartney are finalizing negotiations to have shows on those dates.

Since 2005, musicians that have had concerts at Wrigley Field include Billy Joel, Elton John, The Police and Jimmy Buffett.

The most recent concerts for McCartney took place in South America last month. June 10 is the last date on McCartney’s on and off again “Up and Coming Tour.” In 2010, the tour performed over 30 dates in front of over 1 million fans. Last year, instead of announcing his schedule far in advance, McCartney announced the dates piecemeal. This year he has been using the same strategy.

Paul McCartney has his first 2011 North American gig lined up. On June 10 he will perform in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The former Beatle is continuing with his on-and-off again “Up and Coming Tour.” In 2010 the tour consisted of over 30 dates and performed in front of over one million fans. Last year, instead of announcing his itinerary way in advance, his dates were announced piecemeal. This year it looks like he will be repeating his successful strategy.

On Saturday April 16 tickets will be going on sale for the show in Las Vegas.

On McCartney’s tour his shows have generally lasted around three hours, featuring songs from throughout his entire career including his solo, Wings and Beatles material, in addition to “Electric Arguments,” The Fireman’s album.

Currently, the only other dates for this year that have been confirmed for McCartney are three shows which will take place in May in South America.

Paul McCartney, who just last year toured South America, in May will be returning to the continent with the “Up and Coming Tour.”

According to McCartney’s website, the former Beatles band member will perform in Lima, Peru on May 9; in Santiago, Chile on May 11; and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 22.

All three concerts will take place in large stadiums. The show in Lima, McCartney’s first ever performance there, will take place at the 80,000 capacity stadium Estadio Monumental, which is the country’s second largest stadium.

In Santiago, he will be performing at Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez Pradanos, Chile’s largest stadium, which has a 47,000 seating capacity.

In Rio, McCartney will performed at Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange, site for the Summer Olympics in 2016. According to the McCartney website, the singer will be the first musician to play in the stadium. It opened in 2007.

On April 14, tickets will be going on sale. McCartney’s website will announce presale details.

After playing mostly at large venues like stadiums and amphitheatres for most of his career as a Beatle and as a solo artist, Paul McCartney gave in to the invite to perform at the historic 350-seater and intimate 100 Club last night.

But the venue didn’t matter to McCartney as he welcomed and thanked the small but jam packed crowd for coming despite the chilly snowy weather outside.  “Actually I’m glad you got here, in the warm from the snow…We were thinking there’d be about four of you in the audience!” he said.

The crowd was filled with undying Beatles fans and hardcore musicians who looked at McCartney as a music god.  Legendary songwriter Paul Weller was also in the audience.

Among the songs McCartney played that night were “Jet”, a Wings classic, “Something” while playing the ukulele gifted by fellow Beatle George Harrison, and a song that he offered to his deceased first wife Linda McCartney, “Maybe I’m Amazed”.

He also played “Here Today”, a moving song which he dedicated to another fellow Beatle, the great John Lennon.  While performing the song, he asked the audience “Can you believe it’s 30 years?” The McCartney-penned song came out soon after Lennon’s murder and the original recording also featured the voices of Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

McCartney seemed to be in a very jolly mood all throughout the show which was very apparent when he sang his often criticized Christmas theme “Wonderful Christmas Time”  with a very buoyant spirit.