“One of my earliest memories is really vivid—sitting in a sun filled room flicking through my dad’s massive record collection and being allowed to listen to them on his treasured record player. I was transfixed with how everything started with a crackle and suddenly music burst to life from this weird black spinning disc. I didn’t know how it worked, but appreciated all that it did and the sounds that came from this crazy machine.”
“One of my most memorable presents ever was this record player / tape deck that I received when I was about 12. I would steal dad’s records and play them over and over—favourite 33s were Sergeant Pepper, the White Album, Revolver, and Rubber Soul by the Beatles and Through the Past Darkly by the Stones. To this day I still have the latter record, as I appropriated it from my dad (with his subliminal permission!) when I left home.
Although vinyl had largely been replaced by cassettes when I was growing up, I spent my pocket money and time from the age of 10 to 16 in old record shops in the town I grew up in (Exeter), buying vintage 45s—old Elvis, Stones, Beatles, and Troggs records. As part of this record/tape deck there was a microphone and I started recording myself singing over vinyl instrumental B-sides—which usually involved swearing—recording the songs on tape and playing it all back to my unimpressed mum.
It’s kind of how I started writing music I guess, and years down the line I’m still swearing on records and she is still equally unimpressed—but let’s leave that for future psychologist conversations.
I was gutted to find that a while back when he moved house and sized down, my dad ‘sold’ his collection. Well, I say sold, but he was ripped off by a dealer who offered him about £80 for over 300 records, including the aforementioned Sergeant Pepper, White Album, and many, many other classics. I cried inside when he told me!
Through the years I have owned various record players, but never turned into a collector—but always spend hours looking through other people’s collections. Dan, who recorded our last album, has a whole wall full of 33s, white labels and 45s—I usually spend my time when not laying down parts going through his record collection and seeing what gems I can find.
Harry who plays guitar with us is a self-confessed vinyl geek too—just last night at rehearsal he was talking about his recent eBay bidding to buy rare vinyl, explaining subtle differences about colouring on old EMI and Parlophone labels and sleeves for vintage records.
You just don’t get the same history, nuances, and intricacies with new recordings, CDs, Mp3s, which is why vinyl will never die.”
—Ian George
Katalina Kicks’ new album Dirt arrives on September 7, 2014.
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