Mat Bradshaw on Nostr: TL:DR Mat listened to vinyl records as a kid, likes music, buys (cough) a few vinyl ...

TL:DR Mat listened to vinyl records as a kid, likes music, buys (cough) a few vinyl records.

I'm a lifelong vinyl record lover. There are arguments for and against the format, not interested in that debate here so if you're thinking of replying with audiophile pros or cons, that's not what this post is about, so please don't.

As a child, 6/7 years old (late 1970's), I'd wake up early, as kids do. I'd go downstairs and play my parents records on their turntable. As long as it wasn't loud enough to wake them they didn't care. It was a stacked record player, meaning the spindle in the middle was long and you could pre-load about 5 records on it. It had a mechanism that would reset the arm, release the next disc in the stack and place the needle at the start of each disc automatically after the last one finished. Pure Magic.

(Note, fucking terrible way to treat vinyl records, rubbing up against each other piled up when playing)

My folks weren't particularly musically adventurous, 60s hangovers and 70s/80s popular records. The Stones, Beatles, Kinks, sat alongside ABBA and Cliff Richard. I played and loved it all at that age. Those mornings, on my own, in control of the "technology", are still some of the happiest times of my life. The mixture of freedom and a glimpse into worlds I could never imagine, like nothing I was taught elsewhere and didn't really understand, but were intoxicating and intriguing because of the music surrounding them.

At age 8 I inherited that record player and had it in my bedroom. My first record was Adam and the Ants, Stand and Deliver. I have always had a record player in my room (laterly, my home) since 1981. Every new place I've ever moved into, the stereo is the 2nd thing that gets plugged in/set up. It's become a ritual (the first is the kettle, because, I'm British/Tea).

I've stuck with the format through thick and thin. During the 90s it was mainly dance music, most other releases were CD for a good while so I didn't buy them. It's expensive now because it's trendy, retro, hipster or whatever. Charity shops try and sell fucked up copies for £40 because on Discogs (eBay for vinyl) that's it's top price for mint condition copies. Record store day has poisoned the well, records getting pressed that sell as ornaments or investments, delaying or preventing artists putting out music to people who will actually play the fucking things and enjoy them.

I'll wrap up now, but I could go on (endlessly because although I think I'm not a vinyl bore, clearly I am). Personally I think the sound is better. Yes it can/will degrade. Pops, clicks and crackles. There is a sense of time and wear that comes with the imperfections. Worn because it is so precious and well loved, it is an artifact of me and my history, my love for this particular record.

Lastly, back to the magic. That a plastic disc, with a single groove with tiny bumps and indents on its surface that can accurately recreate, with amazing clarity, the sound of an orchestra, or any other recorded sound you can imagine, is still as mind blowing to me as it was as a small child.

You're free to go now, if you made it all the way to the bottom x

#Vinyl #VinylRecords