My Passion for Vinyl

Okay, so this has been a long time coming!

My attention has been diverted elsewhere for a while, but I’ve finally got around to putting pen to paper—or perhaps more appropriately, dropping the needle on the record—and telling the story of my passion for vinyl.

Music had always been part of my life and remember spending time in my grandma’s café as a four-year-old, listening to the music on the jukebox, compliments of the customers.

I had grown up surrounded by the music of the 1960s, and by the time I was 11, music and fashion were already becoming a huge part of my life. Back in 1968, I was proudly following the Mod scene, complete with my own suit and a pair of winkle pickers. Looking back, I must have been quite a sight!

Then came 1970, and everything changed.

The Skinhead movement, which had emerged in London in the late '60s, was beginning to filter around the U.K. Along with the boots, clothes and hairstyles came something with the fashion that really caught my attention—a completely different sound.

I discovered Jamaican Reggae music.

Artists such as Prince Buster, Toots & the Maytals, Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker and The Pioneers opened up a whole new musical world to me. The sound was fresh, energetic and unlike the usual pop music I had been listening to.

Its roots were firmly planted in Jamaica, and I was hooked.

Many evenings were spent with mates at local discos held in school halls and youth clubs, listening to DJs spinning their vinyl, those nights introduced me to Tamla Motown, Soul, Reggae and all sorts of pop music.

Then, of course, there was the vinyl itself.

I imagine most of you reading this will remember buying your first vinyl single.

My first record purchase came in late 1969: ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies. I was absolutely delighted with it—and that first seven-inch single was the beginning of something that would become a lifelong passion.

I had taken on a seven-day-a-week paper round at the age of 13, and suddenly I had my own hard-earned money to spend. While other kids might have been saving for something else, mine was destined for record shops around Walsall and Birmingham!

From Oz Came Ian—and The Beatles

In 1970, my Mum’s sister Marge returned from Australia, bringing family and my 14-year-old cousin Ian with her. Ian was about 18 months older than me and, to a teenager, he seemed incredibly Worldly.

He had been living in Adelaide, Australia since 1961 and returned with amazing stories of adventures, girls and, perhaps most importantly, music!

Ian was a huge music fan and had a real passion for The Beatles. He brought back records, books, posters and memorabilia, and I was fascinated.

This was the point where my interest in music collecting expanded beyond simply buying records to actually collecting music history, and once it did, there was no stopping me!

A Decade of Musical Discovery

Between 1970 and 1974, my musical tastes went in just about every direction imaginable.

I was buying and listening to Glam Rock, Pop, Soul, Reggae, Heavy Metal, Prog Rock, Hard Rock and still frequenting discos was introduced to Northern Soul and ‘all-nighter’ visits to Wigan Casino.

After leaving school in 1972 and starting work full time, my record collection began growing at a fast rate, having my own income meant that every payday presented another opportunity to visit the record shops and add something new to the collection.

Then came the mid-to-late '70s, bringing even more musical discoveries:

Jazz-Funk, Disco, Punk and New Wave.

The Beatles and Northern Soul had probably been my biggest influences, but the arrival of the ‘New Romantics’ following on from the New Wave scene in the early 1980s opened yet another door of music. I loved the new electronic sounds coming through from bands like OMD, Ultravox, The Human League and Kraftwerk and Duran Duran.

The synthesizers, electronic rhythms and futuristic sounds were a world away from those early Jamaican records I'd discovered as a teenager, yet somehow it all made perfect sense to me.

Music was constantly evolving in an ever-changing musical landscape and I wanted to be there for all of it.

From Vinyl to CD

By the late 1980s, the music scene had changed again.

Dance music, Techno and Trance were becoming a huge part of my listening, and once again I found myself discovering new sounds and new artists.

But there was another change happening that would have a major impact on record collecting.

The CD had arrived.

Vinyl, which had been such a huge part of my life, was gradually being replaced by the shiny new compact disc, eventually, I succumbed and bought my first CD:

‘Popped In Souled Out’ by Wet Wet Wet.

I had moved into another chapter of my collecting journey, and slowly changed from collecting vinyl records to compact discs, it was over a number of years and then suddenly vinyl seemed to have disappeared and was only to be found in second-hand shops for ‘next to nothing’ cost, Most people gave up this outdated mode of listening to music and went for the ‘new tech’  

Of course, I didn't stop loving music. Far from it, my passion simply moved into another format.

Having invested many years and lots of hard earned money, I kept hold of my vinyl collection along with my ‘Pioneer stack system’ complete with record deck 'just in case'

But what happened next?

Well… that's another story!