Barringtone, The TVD First Date

“My Mum singing hymns: ‘Ri-ise and shi-ine and give God his glory glory!’ and Brotherhood of Man’s “Save All Your Kisses for Me” high volume, definitely hitting the notes—with such off-the-scale enthusiasm that no-one could ever have questioned her commitment to the theme.”

“My Dad on the other hand, a real crooner. Elvis’ “Love Me Tender” at bedtime remains my most evocative musical memory from childhood. He told me Elvis Presley was the unrivalled King of Rock and Roll and I totally thought it was an official title, and then after Elvis’s death was reported, having given it some thought and in all seriousness, he told me that the new King of Rock and Roll was… probably David Essex. I of course immediately informed all my friends of this latest development in Rock and Roll royalty.”

So though my parents weren’t really ‘culture vultures’ and there was not much in the way of vinyl in the house there was a kind of ‘music as celebration’ vibe going on, and my parent’s vocalisations were on the whole pretty adept, even possibly beautiful. Anyway, there was also a piano that went largely untouched (till I was about 10) but most crucially there were two older sisters and it is to them that I owe a debt of gratitude in that they introduced me to ‘pop’ and ‘rock’ music very early on, which at the time would have been regarded as ‘alternative’ or even ‘esoteric’ and was certainly a real eye-opener to me.

Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, Iggy Pop… I didn’t know anything about these acts or artists in truth, but there was a steady supply of fascinating music coming from my sisters’ bedroom and I definitely wanted to get involved. I remember buying my first single, Kraftwerk’s “The Model” on 7” (with guidance from older sister obvs—as I was like 9) and thinking it was the boldest thing I had ever done and feeling pretty sophisticated and hip.

My next major purchase was a Jimi Hendrix record. I knew absolutely nothing about him, nor had I ever heard his music but I bought it on a hunch because I had heard the name and there was a German imported ‘best of’ compilation in the local WH Smith on special offer for £2.99. After my success with Kraftwerk I considered myself to be a bit of an authority on German pop music and as the cover didn’t have any pictures of him on it, it just said ‘Jimi Hendrix’ and all the sleeve notes were in German, which I couldn’t read, I naturally assumed Jimi Hendrix was a well-known German rock guitarist, maybe a friend or even a colleague of Kraftwerk.

Fast forward to my teens and my record buying had really started to take off: Grace Jones’ Living My Life, This is Big Audio Dynamite, The Fall’s The Wonderful and Frightening World Of… We Are DEVO, I felt I had a distinct advantage taste-wise compared to my peers as a result of early tutelage from my sisters—my peers at this point were inexplicably all Mötley Crüe glam-rockers.

Then Manchester became a thing. Tony Wilson put locals on the telly like The Smiths, The Fall, Joy Division and it all kind of morphed into the era of ‘dance music’—Happy Mondays’ Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Can’t Smile (White Out) was a seminal record for me it truly straddled the false divide between ‘indie’ and ‘dance’ and I have ever wondered what on earth it must have been like for John Cale working with Sean Ryder and Co. and vice versa. I can’t imagine the conversations about artistic intent, aesthetics etc that must have gone on—still the results were superb and I still find it a great pleasure to listen to.

So then college, house music, decks, DJ-ing (badly), leave college, try more DJ-ing, rack-up enormous overdraft almost exclusively down to buying records—the usual story to be honest. Though I was never a completist or a true crate digging obsessive, I somehow amassed a pretty good, eclectic collection of a few thousand albums, 12”s and 7”s, which I still enjoy to this day. CDs have come and gone and I don’t even have a player except an old DVD player that goes through the telly—so vinyl remains king.

I still purchase my favourite contemporaneous musical artiste’s releases—John Maus, Ariel Pink, Deerhoof – but also collect vinyl by artists like Rodney Graham, soundtracks (The Wicker Man, yes!) or comedian Neil Hamburger and am currently awaiting with great anticipation the release of Sean Ashton’s vinyl audio book Living In A Land, 500 of which will accompany the first edition of Inscription: The Journal of Material Test – Theory, Practice, History.

It is just this extraordinary variety of projects accessible through vinyl, coupled with its physical durability, its multi-sensual appeal (who doesn’t just like to have a look at the record itself, hold, smell, taste the vinyl!) that makes vinyl so uniquely collectable and desirable and, of course, all musicians long to see their work committed to vinyl. Transforming one’s efforts into a 3 dimensional construct is deeply satisfying—as any true narcissist will attest.

In short, vinyl, I salute you!”
—Barry Dobbins