Goodbye, vinyl, goodbye.

The first single that was ever bought for me was The Archies' 'Sugar, Sugar'. And the first one I ever bought for myself, maybe ten years later, was Tubeway Army's 'Are 'Friends' Electric?'. The latter was released in May 1979. 

The first album I ever bought was 'The Best of Eddie Cochran', probably in 1976 or '77, at the Matilda Hospital Fair, when I lived in Hong Kong. It was second hand and cost 50 cents (about 5p). However, my album buying started in earnest in 1979 when I bought Madness' 'One Step Beyond'. The brief flirtation with Ska burned brightly but quickly and it was the electronic trail signposted by 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' that I opted to follow.

Indeed, I can remember when my entire album collection consisted of records by Tubeway Army/Gary Numan, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and Ultravox. I relied on David 'Kid' Jensen's radio show and the music press to discover new bands and, for a brief period, I thought I'd pretty much exhausted the genre. And then I discovered Kraftwerk.

When I worked in the 'wash up' at British Home Stores on Saturdays I earned £10 per week and I would spend this at the record shop in Sutton during my lunch hour. Singles were 99p, 12"s were £1.99 and albums were £3.99. After work, I'd travel home on the bus, scouring the covers and inner sleeves. Sometimes there would be a phrase scratched into the vinyl, just around the central label.

As I got older and earned a bit more money, I bought more records. Sometimes, on a Sunday, I would drive to a record fair. Fairs were held all over the place: I remember the ones at the Dog and Fox in Wimbledon Village but also the ones at the Russell Hotel in Russell Square in London. (In those far off days, I could drive from Kingston to central London in half an hour on a Sunday and park for free!) 

Even during my most impecunious days at university in Liverpool, I would still manage to find the money to buy vinyl from Backtracks and Probe,or from the bootleg stalls in the union (although these were mostly tapes). It was while I was at university that my good friend, Bob, acquired a CD player, although I wouldn't switch to CD until I left in 1988.

I pretty much said goodbye to my vinyl, yesterday, as the kids loaded it into the boot of the car and I don't think I gave it a thought as I drove all the way down to Chiswick where I was meeting my friend, Chris, for lunch and to entrust him with my record collection. After we'd eaten and caught up, we went back to the car to transfer the vinyl. As I opened the boot, a few records fell out onto the ground and I was, in that moment, quite sure that it was better off in his hands than my own.