Vinyl-ly it’s happening to me

Last night I cheered myself up by hooking up the turntable I bought at the weekend. This purchase was prompted by the recent acquisition of one of my brother-in-law’s record collection. We were visiting my in-laws and whilst we were there we noticed large boxes stacked in the hallway. They were full of LPs, probably around 300 of them. Apparently my mother-in-law had threatened to give them away if her son didn’t take them to his new house. Why do mothers feel the need to do this? My own mother threw out all my comics when I left for college. I had no real sentimental attachment to them, and only kept them as part of a hoarding nature. However I found out at college that they were worth close to £1,000, returned home to realise my asset, only to discover they had been thrown out. So out of humanitarian duty we rescued the boxes, also because my wife had fond memories of some of the records. So when brother-in-law finally decides that the time is right to fetch his old records he will still be able to have them. So these boxes joined my own collection of vinyl lps. I have about 600 of my own, yes I’m that old. I haven’t actually had a turntable for close to 10 years, but have kept everything I’ve ever bought. I’ve never understood people who are able to trade or give away records. Each purchase is a memory and almost a living testament to my past. I can remember where I bought each one, who my girlfriend at the time was (if I had one) and each record evokes a clear memory. Even if sometimes I can’t now understand what possessed me to buy the record in the first place! My lack of turntable was caused by my desire to build an awesome set of hi-fi separates. I started with the amp and CD player. Then came the expensive speakers (VERY expensive, I had a promotion and lots of back pay), with gold bi-wiring, on stone plinths.The final addition pre-children was a kick-ass tape deck, given my extensive collection of tapes: over 1,000 of the little guys. My intention was always to add a turntable, but then the children started to happen and priorities changed. Looking back now, I guess you could argue I wasted a lot of money on hi-fi equipment. Still I figure that it still brings me enormous pleasure, music has always been important to me, and I would have only wasted the money on something else. So at the weekend I purchased a turntable, not in keeping with the rest of my system, but then I figured it was only to play vinyl occasionally. The spur of fresh vinyl coupled with memories of my own collection was the driving factor. The generation gap became very apparent – actually finding a reasonable deck wasn’t that easy. Heir no.1 managed to make me feel about 100 when he asked what it was for and why people used such large plastic discs to play music. He was even less happy last night, when he was told in no uncertain terms not to jump around the room because he was making the record jump too. I’d forgotten the almost ceremonious feel of playing vinyl. The way you unsheathe them from the cover, lay them gently on the rubber mat and start the turntable. The click and slight boom as the needle hits, then the rumble and hiss before the record starts. Fantastic sounds that transported me back a decade. It brought all the magic back to me – the memories of buying an lp, then getting it home to discover the treasures on the inner sleeve. The packaging and feel of vinyl is so much better than CDs. Even the lack of skip to next track still had a precious quality, the skill required to find the groove between tracks not lost yet.