For the Record

One of my first LP's

For some time now husband has been wittering on about getting his beloved Arcam Hi-Fi system out of storage in the garage. When we moved we didn't really have the space in the sitting room so opted for a Sonos system dotted around the house - which is fantastic I might add.  The first port of call had to be for new speakers, as the previous ones had got damaged in the last house move. So one day I came home to find the room scattered with speakers, cardboard boxes and husband chuntering under his breath at the shortage of cable.  Eventually they were connected to the rest of his gadgetry storing hundreds of songs and tested by playing Santana and Fairport Convention - loudly.

Happy as a pig, he spent the next couple of weeks playing all his favourites, absorbed in nostalgia and the quality of digital sound.

Then came the suggestion of a turntable. Oh and surprisingly there was a really good one on Gumtree and was local! It would be daft not to! So it was only a matter of time until we would be out buying records. Another coincidence that there was a record fair on in Newcastle the very next day. 

Fortunately the two boys were being entertained elsewhere and we had a rare day to ourselves. We braved the hordes of Scots and South African rugby fans invading Newcastle centre and paid our two pounds entry fee. 

Music has always been a big part of my life. Dad loved it, Mum hated it, but tolerated it as long as nothing was played while she was in the room.  It was Dad who agreed to me getting my own record player for my birthday.

Mine was something like this

I can still smell the vinyl and plastic aroma that you got when playing one of these, the clunk as the arm swung over and the next single dropped down seconds before the crackle and hiss started.

I remember getting record tokens for christmas and buying these. It was years later that I realised they weren't the original artists!

Put them away dear!

We moved on to more advanced technology a few years later and when Dad treated us to a new Hi-Fi system. 

all hi tech in our house

It was about the same time as Punk rock appeared and I really got into music.  I worked in Ames' record shop in Clitheroe, Lancashire on Saturdays and loved the combination of serving customers while listening to music. We sold tickets for events at King George's Hall in Blackburn and so got two free tickets and often backstage passes for doing so.  There were only two of us who like punk/Indie music and so whenever the likes of The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned etc played, I was there at the front of the queue and managed to get autographs on many occasions.

The Clash 

Of course I also got staff discount and had a lot of singles and albums ranging from Mud's 'The Cat Crept In' to The Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in the UK'. Below is what's left of my chewed up by a puppy singles box from the 1970's and a sample of the singles you might find in there. 

My chewed up singles box and dodgey singles

When I left home to join the Navy in 1981, my Mum decided to have a clear out in my room and threw out my beloved green plastic mac which had autographs from the likes of The Undertones, Siouxsie, The Skids and Stiff Little Fingers. I also had a couple of Pils bottles and beer mats, autographed after meeting bands backstage.  The screaming fit I had at her when I realised what she had done fell on deaf ears.

Sunday night recording the hit parade

When these came out I had to record all my singles and albums onto cassettes - so I could play them on my philips Cassette player when out and about. See I was always up with geeks! Stupidly making a little arrow mark on the label as I did them so I knew not to record them twice. And we all had these on and off record/pause for an hour on Sunday evenings while listening to the Top 20 on the radio.

The new record player

So back to 2015 -  forty years or more since I was buying and playing vinyl records I was there flipping through boxes full of 12 inch vinyl, albums and singles. Smiling to myself as memories of gigs or nights with my friends flashed through my mind. The smell of plastic covers, carefully removing inner sleeves and flipping the disc carefully without touching the surface to check for scratches. 

There were lots of punk and Indie records, apparently they are quite popular these days. So while husband searched for his weird and wonderful Prog Rock albums I took a trip down nostalgia lane, wondering how much my autographed singles and albums would fetch should I want to sell them...not to mention the green plastic mac! 

A good couple of hours later we wandered out with half a dozen records. I bought myself this one. I wasn't really into The Mission until cassette/CD days but wanted to see what it was like on vinyl. I also bought Prince 'Purple Rain'. One of my favourites from the 80's.

We stopped off at HMV and to my surprise saw loads of 12" albums on display. Lots of old ones but some newer bands too. I expect the market will be mainly those of our age or older, but at anything from £10-£30 for the new presses, they aren't cheap. 

Would I swap vinyl for Google Play? Definitely not. We are still debating where to keep the records without cluttering up the place. Imagine finding space for the 176 singles I currently have in my 'Faves' playlist. I love digital music, but there is nothing quite like listening to a bit of hiss and scratch on a turntable.

There's another record fair in December...