Vinylmania engulfs Britain as black is the new black.
Thirty new record shops are set to open across Birmingham in the next week alone as vinylmania sweeps the UK. The once dormant format has enjoyed a stunning revival in fortunes in recent times, leading to chaotic scenes, pandemonium and stampedes during Saturday’s annual Record Store Day extravaganza.
One Birmingham record retailer reported long queues of frenzied musos desperate to get their hands on his shiny new platters: “We opened up and it was like a swarm of locusts, but air guitar playing locusts knowledgeable enough to discuss the minutiae of Bob Dylan B-side outtakes.” says Anna Logue and Rick Hoarding, owners of the city’s Swordfight Records: “We had the sold out signs up by 10:30, new stock, old stock, second hand, mint or badly scratched, it flew off the shelves just the same.”
Vinyl records, long believed virtually extinct, have been enjoying a resurgence in recent years amongst the cognoscenti, but since the rest of us heard about it during features on ITV, BBC 1 or Sky News, sales have rocketed, with the claiming that last week purchases of vinyl outstripped those of CD, digital download and streaming combined for the first time.
In West Bromwich’s Retrosexuals store manager Al Baum says that they offer to transfer customer’s MP3 digital downloads onto vinyl, a service similar to that already available for those wanting rid of their tired old CDs: “We’ve even installed recording booths in the shop where people can make their own records, which bald headed men in white coats then cut on enormous machines behind the counter, as waiting customers look on.”
So what are people buying, is it just the nostalgia of hardy perennial best sellers Dylan, Bowie, Hendrix, Led Zep and the Beatles? “Far from it” says Rick Hoarding, “Sure they want the classic recordings from the gold standard artists if you like, but such is the clamour for anything on black plastic that even traditionally less collectable acts such as Val Doonican, the Brotherhood of Man Pan’s People, Pinky and Perky, Daniel O’Donnell and Phil Collins are fetching vast sums.
And it’s not just music on vinyl, but other artefacts such as clothing; vinyl jackets, shoes, even ties and trousers are being fashioned from old 45s and EPs and worn to trendy clubs with replicas of the labels for northern soul classics such as I’m In With The In Crowd sewn into the fabric of the coolest gear. Meanwhile HMV-style dogs are being snapped up as pets and taken to the venues where they are often admitted free and eligible for half price drinks.
Over in Cradley Heath, butcher Anthony (“but everyone calls me Tone”) Armes has decorated the entire front of his house in black vinyl: “It’s caused quite a stir but I think I’ve caught the zeitgeist”, he admits, “Plus, as I live in Abbey Road it seemed appropriate, and anyway it makes a change from the 25,000 Christmas lights I put on the house every November.”
And to celebrate the opening of Rippoff Records in Moseley next weekend, the owners will be hosting a bonfire of MP3 files. Proprietor Vi Narll promises: “We’re saying to people, bring all of your old MP3s and we’ll stack them up on the pavement outside the shop and then put a match to them. Then come on inside and get replacements for them at just £16 a throw, or £25 if it was a double album. You just gotta love vinyl ain’t you!”