“When I was 12 years old I bought my first 7 inch record; Blutonic by The Bluetones. Prior to this I had a shitty transistor radio which only picked up long wave radio before upgrading to a double tape and radio. I had owned a few tapes (most notably a Classic Rock collection I begged my dad to buy with his ESSO tokens featuring my then favourite, “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty) and some copied albums from school friends. The only ones I remember were Nevermind by Nirvana and Definitely Maybe by Oasis, both of which were listened to till they snapped.”
“I didn’t have my own record player when I started buying seven-inch records, but my Dad had an old Technics with a single tape deck in the corner of the living room which sat in silent deference to the television. I would sit with my headphones on each night and soak in as much jangly ’90s indie as could be afforded before bed time.
I felt like I had made a breakthrough by buying a record and was now truly involved in music. The record itself was a limited run of 5,000. This meant, to my 12 year old brain, that only 4999 other people on the planet could possibly like The Bluetones as much as I did. This was real. This was entirely mine.
Through weekend trips to Magpie Records in Worcester, (now having moved locations a number of times and renamed Phoenix Records if it is still exists, and I hope it does) my record collection grew, mainly by seven-inch singles as these were cheap enough to buy one or two each weekend on my pocket-money. When I look back at these singles now I can see that there was definitely a period that I would buy pretty much anything on coloured vinyl. I guess I thought that they would be worth more someday. It was a weird time figuring out what I liked and didn’t, which is why I have a “Lenny” by Supergrass, “Miles Ahead of the Race” by Helen Love, and “Grind” by Alice in Chains from probably a weekend’s trip to Magpie.
I eventually started travelling further afield to Tempest Records in Birmingham which afforded a lot more choice and I started buying stuff like Fugazi and Shellac. I remember at the time taking home Steady Diet of Nothing and not getting it and thinking that Ian McKaye had a horrible voice. It took about 6 or 7 listens till I started to get the bass groove over the tremolo guitar and got really into it—and now those records are really important to me
At University in Norwich I used to order records from Sound Clash or skulk around the record exchanges and charity shops for second-hand vinyl. I remember finding a pristine copy of Remain in Light by The Talking Head in a charity shop in Norwich—it was marked at 25 pence. I don’t think I ever got, or ever will get, so much happiness from ¼ of a pound ever again.
Around this time I found a double seven-inch Glasgow EP released by Plastic Cowboy records featuring the track, “Do You Remember?” by Mogwai and “Neoprene” by El Hombre Trajeado. I was stoked about this as it was a Mogwai song I had never heard before and El Hombre Trajeado are a great band that sadly, by the time I checked them out, were long gone. I have a few records that remain on almost constant rotation; Parades by Efterklang, On the Beach by Neil Young, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Deceit by This Heat.
One of the great things about records is that they endure. People save them and stash them away and they get sold on to those of us who are happy to pick through the bones of someone else’s sadly dissolved record collection. I don’t think there will be a time that I don’t buy records or a shortage of great records to buy.
A friend’s father has a floor in his house devoted solely to his records. That sounds great, doesn’t it?”
—Chris Neil
Olympians will release the “Adventure Gun” EP via Barely Regal Records on 29th April.
