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Just for the record, vinyl still plays on in a digital age
WHEN compact discs arrived on the music scene in the 1980s, the death knell was sounded for the good old vinyl LP.
Records were dumped or consigned to the back of the cupboard, and then came computers, the download generation and the iPod, but none of these new-fangled products has managed to land the knock-out punch to the much-loved Long Player.
Glorious gatefold sleeves, coloured, limited-number pressings, lyric inserts and art prints designed by the musicians themselves, are just some of the reasons that enthusiasts will never call off the search and why new young fans and foreign buyers are joining the growing number of record collectors.
The decline of the high street record shop, the loss of that retro browsing experience, and a lack of places for like-minded music fans to meet, has led to the revival of the once-common record fair. And Yorkshire appears to be top of the pops, thanks to the regularity and selection of its fairs.
Japanese buyers frequently fly into the UK, loading trucks (yes, literally) and hiring flunkeys to push trolleys laden with treasure destined for their home market.
They can be seen at the larger Yorkshire fairs, like Sheffield, Skipton and Leeds, usually on five-day raids where they will have a meticulously planned route that takes in the stalls along with the last remaining record shops.
My fellow traders and I know most of the Japanese buyers and compete for their attention. They are big spenders and can easily fork out about 2,000 if we have their desired titles. They are particularly fond of the Beatles, along with '60s and '70s psychedelia.
We're also seeing more Russian and Eastern European buyers, and the latter are coming up with a few wild cards.
Bradford's 1970s pop group, Smokie, and strange '80s electronica, are the top of the shopping lists. One can only equate this to live gigging in far-flung territories long after their glory had faded in the UK.
To feed the new hunger for vinyl, major record labels have acknowledged demand and are delivering re-issues and new releases, which are selling in larger quantities than limited editions. So what's the attraction? For many older buyers, including me, it is nostalgia – the trip home on the bus after visiting my favourite record shop, reading the sleeve notes and maybe coffee in the Wimpy bar to investigate friends' acquisitions. I think those flashbacks keep the regular faces travelling miles to visit record fairs every weekend.
A healthy smattering of younger collectors are now joining the ranks and are a welcome sight. The tastes of the young vary. Those from the Leeds and Sheffield university art and music scenes are possibly the embryo of a second coming of the long-awaited British jazz boom. Not since the '50s and early 1960s have we seen waist-coated hipsters proudly displaying newly-acquired copies of Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman LPs. But the kids in Huddersfield seem to have a taste for grimecore and metal.
So what does the future hold for records? Well, I think we can at last be sure that they're not going to go away or be recycled into plant pots.
The vinyl revival looks set to become even stronger, thanks to the renaissance of record players.
Manufacturers selling technology that helps turn vinyl into CD and MP3 format have been disappointed. Instead, people want to play it on vintage decks with valve amps, or buy retro-style new versions. The performance of one's hi-fi is once again being debated at dinner parties and among well-heeled city types. Such is the strength of interest that I wouldn't be surprised to see the sort of adverts we see for gold: "Exchange your vinyl for cash any quantity, nothing refused."
Premier Record Fairs will be held at Huddersfield's George Hotel on October 10; Doncaster Dome on the October 11; The Showroom, Sheffield, October 17; Leeds Cosmopolitan Hotel, Lower Briggate, October 25; Northallerton Town Hall, October 31 and Skipton Town Hall, November 15. www.premierfairs.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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