OLD RECORDS NEVER DIE........

During the two and a half years since i started buying and collecting Vinyl again, i've read a lot of articles and blogs about record collecting. turntables, and the like - Long Live Vinyl is a favourite magazine, well worth the cover price - and i've come across a lot of snobbery. You know the sort: if you haven't paid a fortune for the rarest first pressings/limited editions/remastered at half-speed audiophile 180g repressings/obscure before-they-were-famous 7"s etc and listen to them on the most expensive top of the range equipment, then you're not taking it seriously and therefore not a "real" music fan. I've never bought into that attitude: i occasionally splash out on new releases or re-issues (which are over £20 a pop these days), but for the most part i buy used or second hand from charity shops and the few independent shops dotted around Nottingham, and i play them on a vintage (old) 1973 Marconiphone Radiogram that my other half bought me as a birthday present for £60. It's in good nick and has clearly been looked after, and although there will no doubt come a time when i will have to part with it, for now it does a grand job. Used records might have a little more surface noise than expensive re-pressings, but the pops and crackles are part of the appeal of Vinyl: if you want flawless sound, then CD's do a good job.

Nottingham has several decent independent record shops: we have a Rough Trade and a Fopp for new releases and re-issues, as well as a tiny place near the Lace Market area called Forever Records which has a small selection of new and used Vinyl. Further afield there is Vinyl Lounge in Mansfield (where you can also get a coffee!) which also sells a good mix of new and second hand, and Langley Mill Records near Heanor (closer to Derby) which sells second hand, and Ridgeways Records in Kirkby-In-Ashfield which sells new and used. I must confess i haven't yet visited these last three yet, although they are on my list! There are a few small used Vinyl shops that are tucked away or blink-and-you'll-miss-them on main roads: the jumble sale style Robs Records in Hurts Yard, a narrow alleyway: Music Inn Records in the West End Arcade: and on Mansfield Road, the long-standing Good Vibrations and newcomers Anarchy Records, both strictly used Vinyl as well as old cassettes, cds, VHS tapes, DVDs, and other assorted knick-knacks and memorabilia. These last two are regular haunts for me. Good Vibrations has a large selection of albums, singles and 12"s, although the majority are 60's/70's and Rock/Folk/AOR/MOR, with some 80's onwards. I do sometimes find the odd jewel in there, usually from the Punk/Post-Punk era, but you're more likely to find ABBA and Yes. It's been run by the same couple for years, although the husband sadly passed away this year after a long illness, so the opening hours have understandably been as and when. I have picked up a few gems from this place, most recently Skids 3rd album, The Absolute Game. 

By far my absolute favourite place to pick up old and used Vinyl from is Anarchy Records, further up Mansfield Road from GV. It's a small shop, dark and cramped, which sounds like i'm doing them a disservice, but that is not my intention: it reminds me of some little antiques store, like the one in Gremlins where the Mogwai came from! Everything is arranged by decade and/or genre, but not alphabetically. This means that you really have to go through all the records, and that often leads to uncovering surprise gems and treasures. And it's from here that i've bought most of my used records: Punk, Post-Punk, 80's Pop, Electronic/Synthpop, 90's Dance and Indie, and the odd curio. I've bought most of my growing collection of Madness singles from here, 45's and 12"s and most recently their first compilation Complete Madness, all in pretty good nick! Classic singles by everyone from The Beat and Betty Boo to Pigbag, The Psychedelic Furs, The Skids and The Specials, and albums by Blancmange and UB40..... my growing collection of vintage Vinyl 7"s and 12"s is a ragbag assortment but it's a well loved one. It's only over Christmas that i've started to arrange it into alphabetical order, thanks to the gift of two handmade wooden crates decorated with the logos of  a record label and a band - 2-Tone Records and The Jam, in case you're wondering - as opposed to them being stashed in the storage compartment of my radiogram.

I first spotted these on a website called Modculture a few months ago, and they - along with many other crates featuring various classic record label and band logos - are available on ebay. I will no doubt be buying more as my collection expands and i split it into genres and bands. My Madness vinyl collection will eventually be stored in a couple of these. Since i began writing this entry (it's taken me a few weeks over and after Christmas) i've purchased a few more 7" and 12" singles, all used Vinyl. Old records never die.