“Vinyl was some kind of mystical artefact as a kid. I knew that if I approached it, I’d usually get told to handle it with care. So it was like doing brain surgery everytime I wanted to put on a record, holding the needle with infinite care and hoping that it would not bounce off, or skid across, the spinning disc.
“Looking at the old Beatles records that I spent most of my childhood with, it looks like I was never too successful in taking enough care of them. The inner sleeves are all aged with drops of fruit squash and drawings on, the cardboard outer sleeves are all tattered and have come unglued at the sides. And the actual records themselves are like some advanced jitter-techno megamix of the Fab Four’s hits. ‘Here Comes The Sun’ has somehow lost half a chorus, ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ now has a weird 4/4 dusty thud transposed arrhythmically across the waltz, and side 1 of ‘Rubber Soul’ has been warped concave, so that now the whole side lasts about twenty seconds as the needle bounces across the grooves.
Sam Forrest | Echo Godless
And there was the album artwork. I’d spend hours drawing pencillized recreations of the photographs. ‘Beatles For Sale’ was my favourite, a) because of George’s coconut shaped haircut on the back and b) because it had a picture of the band playing instruments on the inside. Hours were spent perfecting the ‘Ludwig’ logo on Ringo’s kick drum and carefully drawing the frets on John’s guitar.
The whole process of searching for, and buying the vinyl was like some mystical challenge too. I’d spend teenage afternoons in Red Rhino Records in York lost in the Metal section gazing at the covers on Iron Maiden records and having the covers of thrash metal bands like Testament and Bathory have more of a lasting effect on me than the music itself.
Sam Forrest | River Bed
Also, what with vinyl being a physical artefact, it gets judged better too. One offending record by an unnamed Texan group was recently snapped over my knee in a fit of rage after they were deemed to have ‘gone up their own arse’. Try doing that with an mp3. And thumbing through my vinyl collection it’s easy to spot the records that have perhaps been a mistaken eBay purchase after a bottle of wine. The fact that they are still immaculate is an obvious sign of neglect and signposts my as being guilty of buying into hype and not using my ears to listen first and then buy later.
Whereas the best records in my collection, Beatles, Kinks, Masters Of Reality, Jane’s Addiction and The Everly Brothers all show the signs of age, human affection and overindulgence. So that just like a second hand guitar, vinyl gets better with age.”
—Sam Forrest
