I was standing at the bus stop this morning ready to make my way home when I noticed a girl of around 16 staring at, what I thought was, my legs (?!).
It turned out she was straining her neck to get a glimpse of what albums were in my Head Records plastic bag.
I had a chuckle to myself as it brought back memories of a skinny kid with long greasy hair and ripped jeans doing exactly the same, my teenage years of the mid to late ’70s when everyone of a certain age would be straining their necks to see what was in the bag.
A time where the album charts generated as much money, if not more than, the singles chart (if you don’t know what a single is ask your parents or, God forbid, your Grandparents).
During the week we would head round to a friend’s house, five or so albums in a clear bag, the coolest to the outside of course. Then it was an evening of all things music accompanied by tea and toast.
The conversation varied from album to album, the state of the cover, the artwork, was it the artists best and on and on, each one of us had a designated night for visitation and the music varied depending on who’s house we went too.
As the digital age encroached itself upon us, vinyl all but disappeared by the early 90’s. My own collection ground to a halt and so the CD collection began, it felt like a betrayal but by this point you couldn’t even buy a stylus for your deck or record player.
Now, bang in the middle of the digital age, vinyl is making its comeback. It’s great to see people flicking through racks of albums – that musty-ness adds to the ‘vibe’ of the store.
As sales have doubled in the last year both here and in the U.S, I can’t help but think Mr. Sony, Mr. Warner and the likes are pricing us out of the enjoyment of buying.
An average new release is around £25, or even worse, you can buy a re-release of an album in 180mg which has now been turned into a double album with only two or three tracks a side instead of the five or six on each side of the original.
Peter Gabriel’s first four albums are the perfect example of profit rip off. They’re missing the point – vinyl is meant to crackle, to hiss, to bring warmth and nostalgia on finding what you term to be an old classic.
Buying vinyl is a journey like no other, and buying music from iPlayer is just so impersonal – you switch on your computer, download what you want and…Done. Back on the couch within five minutes and bored out your nut.
Now, when buying vinyl, you have to take the bus into town, when you walk into the store and Dark Side Of The Moon or Never Mind The Bollocks is playing the hairs on the back of your spine rise at the memories it evokes, you browse, you buy, you will the bus to come quicker so you can finish the final part of the journey – the listening.
The ultimate part of this experience is in finding an old rarity in great nick, first pressing for around £7. Oh, the joy that no new pressing can ever bring! So Mr. Big Record Label Boss, get a grip and stop ripping people off, give us back our vinyl in all its former glory. After all, it really is the only way to listen.