A stalwart of Bedford’s music scene reached a milestone in 2025, as Roll Your Own Records (RYOR) celebrated its 10th birthday in December.
Run by Dave Wright and Andy Yearly, RYOR run events that give anyone the opportunity to pitch for a DJ slot, no matter your level of expertise or genre of music.
The idea for RYOR began when Andy was travelling in Australia.
“I used to go to a great drum and bass event in Sydney called Roll Your Own,” said Andy. “When I got back to Bedford, I knew there weren’t enough D&B people locally to make it work, but then Herd opened up on St Cuthbert’s Street, and it was just the perfect place to start something different.”
Since 2015, the RYOR community has grown, and Dave and Andy are unanimous in agreeing that they have had the privilege of meeting amazing people with incredible record collections.
From nights at Herd to street parties, Record Store Day events at Beerfly to FoodDrunk at Esquires, the RYOR team can be relied upon to bring the party vibes and an eclectic mix of music.
“Over the years, we’ve built up a brilliant roster of DJs we can handpick from, as well as encouraging new people to get involved,” said Dave.
“It’s organically grown over the last 10 years and is a fun side project alongside our full-time jobs,” said Andy. “We’ve got to work with some amazing people and venues, and our birthday party at Herd in December was a great celebration of the RYOR community.”
To celebrate their birthday, RYOR have collaborated with Jess at Boyd’s Printworks to create a run of t-shirts, and all profits will be reinvested into equipment for their events.
To find out more, get a t-shirt and to get involved in one of their 2026 events, check out their website rollyourownrecords.co.uk.
