“As ’80s babies we get our music mostly in CD form. Every now and then someone would dig out an over used cassette tape or the lucky few would even stroll confidently onto the school bus with a shiny new mini disc player. Up until the late ’90s, our only engagement with vinyl was to dig out one of our mum’s Gloria Estefan records as we would try to make ‘that scratchy sound’ that PaRapa the Rapa used to make on the Playstation. This was quickly stopped by our parents after a few broken needles.”
“In honesty, vinyl had always seemed archaic and cumbersome. Why lug a piano around when you can get a Casio from the local department store for £30? It was only when the digital age really dawned that I began to understand the real magic of holding a 120g piece of decorated plastic. By 2005, music was becoming so accessible that it was overbearing. It’s like sitting down at a restaurant and being presented with a menu that has 3,000 different dishes.
It was with this new-found feeling that I journeyed into the loft to dig out my parent’s old record collection and accompanying record player. I was greeted by the shiny leather trousers of Phil Lynott on the front of Thin Lizzy’s Live & Dangerous as well as a flamboyant Prince Rogers Nelson astride a mean looking motorbike on the cover of Purple Rain. Before I’d even heard a single note of sweet analogue sound, I got it. A 1970s teal Dansette Monarch later and I’m officially a convert.
Personally, I don’t like to buy new records on vinyl. They’re quite expensive and I’m from Yorkshire (Google Yorkshire folk and their reluctance to part with their cash to fully understand this reference). The fun for me is to sift through a tatty and overloaded trunk at the back of a charity shop with the hope of finding a bargain: “Black Lace—nope. White Snake—not my cup of tea. The Best of the Everly Brothers for £1.99. We have a winner.”
This way you can buy 5 or 6 records at a time and you’re still happy even if you only get into a couple of them. Anyway, even if you don’t like something now it’s always worth giving it another go in a few years—just leave them up on the shelf looking pretty. You can’t do that with an mp3 now can you?”
—Joe Carnall
“Take Me Home” from Milburn is in stores now via Red Essential.
