Wednesday 30 September 2015

Ooh vinyl! Who'd have thought it?

It was about 1997 when I finally stopped taking vinyl to gigs and shows and relied on CD's instead. I stowed all the albums and 12" singles in the cellar and thought "someday I will sell them". Of course I never did, and with dust gathering on them they were a constant reminder of a time I never thought I'd see again. I also laid my Technics 1210's to rest, and discovered when I looked at the recently that the sylii had been modified so that one of them could play double groove 12" single (remember them?). Recently I dug out one of the 12" single boxes and picked out a few well worn favourites from the past- the Blue Note Rare Groove series featured strongly, but I also found a Benny Golson 12" single, "The brand new Killer Joe". Wonderful! I even decided to invest in a new headshell and stylus so that I could start playing them again.
  About two weeks ago I received the first "vinyl only" material that I'd received in over a decade, and in the same week got sent a copy of the brand new Tim Garland album "Return to the Fire". Luckily the studio at Phonic has a couple of Technics decks that are attached to a sub-mixer in the studio. We used to have headshells with them as well, but they kept disappearing at a rate of knots. So I bought another new one, and this week on the show played two tracks that were on vinyl. They were "Love me or leave me" by Nina Simone and "Round Midnight" by Sun Ra's Astro infinity Arkestra.*  As far as I know no-one noticed, and I had to relearn the skill of cueing up vinyl. So next week I'll be playing the aforementioned Tim Garland album, and since receiving that I've been sent another couple of vinyl only releases. Who'd have thought it?
*PS. The Sun Ra album was recorded in 1958, and is one of the 71 that he (allegedly?) recorded for the Saturn label. How I got it, I can't remember. but it must have been second hand when I bought it - and it's in remarkable condition for its age.

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