When VoxBox opened in 2011 somebody said that it reminded them of Bruce’s in the 1960s. That’s a compliment and a half! I don’t think we’re always there in terms of new releases and we’re not importing exotic beasts but I think we do have the widest range of Scottish independently made records available in Edinburgh. However, I don’t think we or any shop these days can even touch Bruce’s in it’s heyday.
In case you don’t already know, Bruce Findlay opened a chain of record shops in the late 60s and 70s. His older brother was already working in the family record shop but young Bruce was perhaps just a little more charismatic and ambitious and he pushed to expand into other towns and finally became ruler of a small chain of sensibly sized record shops. In fact, by specialising in American rock imports and underground music, they sold the best records in every town they were in. They took on the major high street record shops, had adverts in NME, their own fanzine, promoted gigs and basically took over central Scotland… And they had the best slogan too.
Owners Brian Findlay and Bruce Findlay with the distinctive red carrier bag ‘I Found It At Bruce’s’ outside Bruce’s record shop in Rose Street Edinburgh in November 1972
Bruce’s record shop bags were famous in themselves: Red bags with “I found it at Bruce’s” on them. He also personalised their clear PVC record sleeves. When we buy in collections, there are usually some records bought at Bruce’s Record Shop that still have the lovely “Bruce’s Record Shop” in fancy script on the top right corner of the PVC cover. The pride he had in the shop was obvious.
Bruce’s classic red singles bag
A side effect of having the record shops was that he found out about the talented local bands in need of exposure and he created a wee label called Zoom! In racy italics of course. Zoom! sIgned some of the best local bands in Edinburgh in the post-punk rush and even signed a wee band from Glasgow called Simple Minds. And Zoom! they went… Simple Minds became the biggest band in the world for a while and Bruce was the tinted glasses wearing, hard partying, fast talking, deal making manager. Meanwhile, other shops had copied his business model and finally the shops were sold as he focussed his energy on the band. The is a great wee feature on Bruce’s career here that you can read later. https://stevomusicman.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/qas-bruce-findlay/
Bruce shares his 5 point plan on Razzmatazz. Still holds to this day I think.
Fast forward a decade or two and I first met Bruce at the VoxBox opening party back in 2011 and we have gone on to have some hearty chats from time to time so I’d asked him if he’d like to come to The Holy Ghosts gig for their EP launch last year. The good time rock and roll band’s last release was on our own VoxBox shop label. The support band was Miracle Glass Company and it was the first time I’d seen them. I was manning the merch stall on the night and I sold a lot of Miracle Glass Company’s CD EPs there. A lot of CDs… More in fact, than I’ve ever seen sold at a local band’s gig -and by a long stretch.
Bruce told me he thought Miracle Glass Company were fantastic and asked me if they were signed to the shop label too.
I said “No, but I’m hoping to speak to their manager.” I was a bit coy and said “I suspect they will soon get signed to a proper label”.
“You are a proper label!” he said.
And that stopped me in my tracks.
Coming from Bruce, I was a totally dumbfounded as my idea of “proper labels” are the biggies of the old days like Island, Decca, RCA, Columbia, Parlophone, EMI, Pye, Atlantic, Stax, Motown and the great indie labels, ROUGH TRADE, Stiff, Postcard or indeed Bruce’s own Zoom! label itself. I went away and had a think because to me it sounded a bit too much. The Holy Ghosts’ EP was only our 3rd release and our only one on vinyl. Our first 2 being on cassette tape compilations.
I mulled it over a bit.
To be a label these days all you actually need is a website and a release to plug but I’ve never found that entirely satisfactory.
It takes a while to build up a reputation. VoxBox is into its 6th year of business. 5 Record Store Days. 3 Cassette Store Days. Loads of in-stores. An ear to the ground on what’s going on in the Scottish Music scene. A vote for the Scottish Album of the Year Award. Over the years, VoxBox has been featured in Music Week, The NME, BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland. We’ve had a double page spread in The Scotsman newspaper and a few articles in the Edinburgh Evening News, as well as coverage in the excellent Skinny magazine and The List magazine who also help publicise and often attend our events. On top we have friends and acquaintances among the local and national music bloggers, labels, fanzines, music distributors, venues, artists, industry professionals, band managers, festival organisers, fellow record shops and glossy music magazines. We’ve also now to date released 7 albums, one EP and a single. It may sound like blowing one’s own trumpet but I’m very proud of this wee shop.
As a label, What we have isn’t even exactly a website with a release to sell- I think it is different from that. The overall ambition is to politely yet enthusiastically kick doors down and to really help an Edinburgh band break out and draw attention to the finest musicians in our city. The fact that there aren’t any major label offices up here is sad as there is so much talent. But while that is the case, with a shoestring budget and a sprinkling of what money can’t buy, we’ll try our damnedest to help.
So thank you to Bruce! A little while after our chat, I had realised that the shop label is as proper as a small label can be these days and I won’t ever talk it down again. And to top off this tale and to make everything a bit weirder and a bit more perfect. We have signed the best guitar band in Britain.
Thanks to the filmmakers Studio Canal, we are excited to have two tickets to give away for the premiere showing at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema on September 15th. It is for one night only and will be followed by 30 minutes of newly re-mastered Beatles Live at Shea Stadium footage.
Everybody knows that The Beatles were a phenomenon in their day, but having split such a long time ago, in 1970, a tattooed and bearded barista today may well find it difficult to know what all the fuss was about and the context in which the Beatles arrived and then adapted and changed pop music forever. And they bloody did! They weren’t just lazing about in the sunshine…
The film uses live footage and interviews and it begins in Hamburg then takes us from 1962 with the release of their debut single Love Me Do to around the time of the Revolver album in 1966 when they stopped touring. -Someone had thrown a firecracker onto the stage during their last American tour and they were spooked. They were also sick and tired of being unable to hear themselves play due to the screaming.
In the four years following their first single, the band would release seven groundshifting albums, a tonne more singles and starred in 2 films. They wrote their own songs, they wrote other bands’ songs, they boxed Muhammed Ali, they electrified Dylan. Judas! Got stoned with Dylan and then experimented with the jewels and binoculars of songwriting. To paraphrase Bill Hicks: They got so high that you had to scrape the band from the ceiling with a rake… and they even let Ringo sing some songs! Then there was their personal lives in which they were shagging like Austin Powers. One was already married, two others went on to marry and another one threatened to maybe get engaged yeah, and led the world on for ages. In the UK it created careers for everyone that could either sing a wee bit or hold a guitar. It spawned the greatest mass uptake of instruments the world had seen since the zither phenomenon of 1949 (See end of post) and wouldn’t be seen again until the advent of Punk in the late 70s.
To say they were busy during this time is an epic understatement and to put this whole shebang in context, a popular band now will spend over 2 years recording an album and touring it -and so for the Fab Four to write, record and release seven albums of original material in four years is totally phenominal (Unless you are a 1960s jazz musician). They were also busy busy busy touring when they weren’t recording and perhaps didn’t have time to take it all in. I think that they were just getting on with it thinking that this was what you were supposed to do. So they saw the world and the world in return saw them in their fully fledged spunkiness; cheeky, funny and charming.
It is all before John met Yoko Ono; before Apple records and Allen Klein; before India and Transcendental Meditation; manager Brian Epstein is still alive and dealing with the finances. George and Ringo still were still ok with their publishing royalties. They also weren’t yet giving the Rolling Stones a cold every time they sneezed and with Revolver out of the way and a lot more available time for the studio; the stage was set for the experimentation of Sgt. Pepper which was becoming a little bit more than just a twinkle seen on the outside of their increasingly large pupils.
Ron Howard’s film captures the fab four in the midst of their unguarded early stardom. This is made more poignant knowing the darkness to come. It’s a must see film if only to hear John Lennon say “I’m Eric” to an interviewer that asks him which one of the band he is. It makes me want to be Eric too. Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the film preview:
“February 9th, 1964, 8:12pm EST – after a brief commercial break, four young men from Liverpool step onto the Ed Sullivan stage, changing culture forever.
Seventy-three million people watched The Beatles perform that night, the largest audience in television history. But it is what the band did next that would introduce them to the entire world, permanently transforming the music industry and forever engraining them into the fabric of popular culture… They went on tour. By the time the band quit touring in August of 1966, they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world. The cultural phenomenon their touring helped create, known as “Beatlemania,” was something the world had never seen before or since.”
This is the not-to-be-missed story of the band’s exceptional touring years – an intimate portrait of the band, and a behind-the-scenes look at The Beatles on tour. Exploring the effect it had on their relationships, as well as their musical evolution, and looking at how they transformed the world of music, the film features interviews, unheard music and exclusive concert footage from the biggest band of all time.
Stay in your seat after the film to experience 30 minutes of footage from the legendary 1965 Shea Stadium performance, presented for the first time in a digitally restored 4k transfer with remastered sound.
The Shea concert footage includes audio remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Giles Martin and Sam Okell. This has allowed the performance to be heard more clearly over the other background noise including the screaming fans. For the first time ever the viewer is able to experience the concert as it was meant to be seen and heard and to appreciate how extraordinary this band was live given the challenging technical conditions under which they were expected to play.”
AND NOW THE COMPETITION QUESTION…
Which Beatle complained of working ‘Eight Days A Week’ inspiring the song of that name to be written?
When a collection of 45s from the 1960s comes in my pulse begins to race. Boom boody boom. I love singles you see. But there is a problem in that all too often they come in all higgldy-piggledy in a box and worse still they are nearly always in the wrong sleeves. It happens naturally when you’re listening to singles and I do it myself often during a listening session. The discs get taken out of their sleeves to be played and to save time when you change records, you don’t immediately re-sleeve the record you have just taken off. At the end there are records everywhere and you just want to protect them before going to bed so you stick them into the nearest sleeve. This was much more likely to happen when six at a time could be stacked on a Dansette multi-changer or when swingers were bringing them to parties in the 1960s. They rarely come in looking neat and tidy like this:
When you’ve been around singles for a while you start to notice the major differences with the company sleeves. And then there are the minor differences which is why you shouldn’t do what I have started to do. The Rare Record Price Guide has long informed collectors on the particular Parlophone sleeve variation that each Beatles single belongs in. -The Beatles are a well-documented special case. Unfortunately, I have since found a website that documents virtually all of the UK company singles sleeves and when they were used. If you collect singles, for your sanity, don’t look at it.
With a collection of 100 records I can easily force VoxBox Andy to spend a tedious half an hour reuniting artists with their label sleeves. The Beatles with Parlophone sleeves and the Rolling Stones with Decca Sleeves and Cliff and the Shadows with Columbia. The Pye sleeves with Donovan and so on. The blue Pye ones are particularly fragile and had a tendency to hold onto grime. You don’t usually end up with a complete match either. Although a self-contained collection should in theory have the right records and sleeves somewhere among them, it is not always that simple; you can easily end up with a stack of 45s without sleeves and a bunch of spares leaving you wondering what the real story behind the collection is. It can seem that if your records weren’t stolen or ruined in the 1960s , you weren’t there. (The last box of 60s singles to come in arrived in a suitcase and had no sleeves at all!)
And then, if indeed they are in the right company sleeve; if say a 1963 Cilla Black single is there in a collection with a 1964 Billy J. Kramer one and both are of course on the Parlophone label and they each should have a different sleeve variation. Then I could look at the website and check what is probably right –which single belongs where. Or I could simply sod them both, put them in plain white sleeves for the Backroom and harvest the Parlophone sleeves so that two divorced or bereaved (and more valuable) Beatles singles can be happily re-married to the matching pair. Some sleeves will be even be worth more than the record inside them and no doubt, many a Mint condition Adam Faith single sleeve has run away with an original copy of The Beatles’ Love Me Do. Another cruel blow as his successful ballading career was effectively destroyed by the Fab Four’s arrival.
Adam Faith -Love Me Don’t?
For some bands, it matters a lot less… Firing The Shadows’ singles into random different styles of Columbia sleeve for the Backroom I can totally accept but for the front shop records it presents a quandry. I like them to be perfect you see. For some sleeves I don’t yet know the company that made it, let alone the band that it belongs to but armed with the knowledge of what is and is not right, it is becoming much more difficult to unite a nice company sleeve with an otherwise naked single. To knowingly put a record into the wrong sleeve feels like being an accomplice to infidelity. Especially so if it is a rarity.
Admittedly, some of the sleeve differences are so subtle as to be utterly tedious. For instance I draw the line at making a distinction between the seven CBS variations between 1972 and 1979 but would still like the records before 1972 (eg. Dylan, The Byrds, The Tremeloes) and after 1979 (Blue Oyster Cult) to be in their right, more distinctive sleeves. It’s not an exact science at all as sleeves and records weren’t produced in equal numbers so you do get overlap. Also the companies at the time didn’t know people would be bothered by this so the record keeping is not great. In fact, some differences can be as subtle as the way the sleeve is glued or if the paper at the top is wavy or straight and the site can’t actually tell you which records went into Columbia sleeves 9 and 10…
Spot the difference, sleeve 9 on the left
It seems that if you were a band in the 1960s then in order for your records to still look good sixty years later in the VoxBox record shop, it will help to have been on a record label that had some very popular artists that have since become unfashionable. For example, there is no excuse for any Animals record to have an untidy sleeve as shops will tend to throw out the Cliff Richard records (sorry Cliff) and keep his Columbia sleeves for… basically the Animals or the Yardbirds or the impossibly rare Vashti Bunyan Train Song single that virtually no one bought. (Red wavy top hairdryer Columbia in case you’re checking)
Labels that had a greater proportion of artists with kudos longevity have sleeves that are harder to come by, especially in Excellent condition. Favourites include the Ex-Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label with the wonderful typeface and cheeky “at better record shops everywhere” tagline (Humble Pie, Small Faces), Vertigo has a swirl that makes my dealer friends incredibly excited (Black Sabbath, Juicy Lucy) and Harvest (Deep Purple) with its Roger Dean designed logo. Trojan and Chess don’t turn up very often either. So many have become iconic (if only to a select group) and can even now be found on T-shirts.
(Still available?) at better record shops everywhere
So, keep an eye out for a nice sleeve but please don’t do what I do. – It takes ages. Some super purists will buy their record an appropriate company sleeve but still want to keep the original one even if it is tatty to the extent that it’s falling apart. They’re crazy right? They themselves are probably single but as so often is the case, I’m sure if we look hard enough, there will be a match for them somewhere.
* Praise to Erling Mehl (a Scandinavian!) who did a phenominal amount of research and created the website. Sadly, Erling died last year so the archive is not yet complete. Could it ever be? Lucky for us it is kept ongoing by BigBoppa, a company specialising in selling sleeves.
I just opened what I thought was an ordinary ‘record request’ email a couple of days ago. They are often from Europeans looking for pretty rare items and I imagine they must contact a lot of shops and only get a handful of replies to say no, sorry, that record is indeed incredibly rare. So I was chuffed to read that this Swede was in search of something else.
“Hello,
I collect 45 rpm record adapters.
I wonder if you happen to have some that I can buy?
I attach some photos of what I am looking for.
All colour variation are welcome.
Please send a photo if possible.
Many thanks & Best regards“
This was a ‘do you have’ request that got me thinking a bit and rummaging around in drawers. A bit like watching Antiques Roadshow and thinking you recognise the line drawings of a Lowrie and are positive you have one in your loft. I’ve definitely got one of those somewhere!
He (for it is almost always thus) was after those odd inner plastic bits that fit into the centre of singles. American singles were made with a large centre hole so Jukebox records could find the spindle more easily (among other reasons) and so these adaptors were made by various companies so that us Europeans could play American singles on our record players. In return, UK singles were made with centres that could be popped out for play on US turntables. Numerous companies patented their own design and some have become design classics in their own right. Many are incredibly elegant. Some are chunky. Some also have sticky-out bits that will ruin any records you store them beside and they usually come in black but can be found in all colours. You can appreciate their appeal.
I had a really good look for one of the ones he was after. Not because I thought I could be in for a fortune but because I had actually started a very wee collection of my own a little while back without really realising it. A good record shop will tend to pop these things out to protect the record sleeves from sticky-out-bit damage as I mentioned -and we keep a bag of them under the VoxBox counter for giving away- but the more interesting ones we come across, I put in my inners box at home.
On close inspection, I was surprised to have 5 different types of a certain style of record inner when I had previously thought they were all the same. To imagine Dara O’Brien’s response if he cared enough: “I was shacked to foind dat dey were all different!”. Sorry, I think Mock the Week must have been on in the background when I started typing this.
My modest inner adaptor collection
So to cut a long story short, I didn’t actually have any of the inner adaptors that the Swede was after but you can see the photos of his wanted inners at the bottom of the post. If you have any of them or come across them and are willing to help a collector out, let me know. If you have a massive collection or some unusual ones and aren’t selling to anyone please let me know too – I’m genuinely interested! I was elated to find out there was someone else with a collection. It makes me feel a bit more normal or, ahem… well-centred.
Here are the inners he is appealing for. Some have names/manufacturers marks on them: Viny Guru, Riccardo, Raydor, Centratore…
Sought after inner adaptors for 45s
PS Some people call them/sell them as “spiders” but I’ve never heard them called that.
PPS In the next post, in the theme of the nuances of collecting, I’ll show you something that a collector of old singles should never ever see for it will drive them crazy. Be afraid…
I was just asked if we could do some more listening events like we did with the new Prodigy album, The Day Is My Enemy last year. It was quite a lovely event but due to a last minute date change it wasn’t too well attended. The label had sent 30 tote bags, loads of stickers and posters… And 100 cans of lager. Not the usual tipple of Prodigy fans but very good of them all the same. So a small Voxbox shop full of people enjoyed a beer and we all heard the new record which was classic and pure Prodigy. It was a brilliant day and I’m grateful that we had it.
I’ve been working away from Edinburgh for long spells over the last year doing my other job (I’m a Medical Doctor/Geriatrician) which is why Canadian Mike is lookng after things at VoxBox on the weekends. I’ve been working in the Isle of Man for a bit this year and it is a nice place with a bit of strangeness. The TT Racing has just finished and working in the hospital during it is quite exciting although I don’t do any A&E or front door medicine anymore so it didn’t really affect my workload. Saying that, getting routine scans during the TT is more difficult as the scanners are kept free during practice sessions and the races in-case major trauma gets helicoptered in.
The hospital brings in a refrigeration van during the TT Racing to store the extra bodies when the mortuary has filled up.
According to a colleague, there were at least 12 deaths this year. Five Professional riders which get documented in the race stats. The non-professional riders, race marshals and other odds and sods don’t get added to the official TT related death lists. It’s also hard to keep track of the riders that are sent to Liverpool for specialist care that end up dying. The paralysed aren’t really counted nor the simple leg or pelvis fractures. But the TT racing offers freedom and speed for so many and the Island economy does ok from it. The average speed around the island track is about 135mph but they get to over 200mph in places through the mountain road and village streets. I was here last year too and then the riders were asking that spectators be reminded that selfie sticks projected onto the track are a bad idea as the riders were almost hitting them.
Formula 1 has focussed on safety for a long time and lives have been saved by introducing certain measures. On the other side, people have a right to risk their lives. One taxi driver actually said that without fatalities the race wouldn’t attract the same crowd! Something I don’t believe. I’m not wanting an argument with bikers or TT fans as I appreciate the need for speed and personal freedom. Fair enough – if you carry Donor Cards I have certainly no objection. The riders are modern day superheroes as are the A&E doctors. The speeds and reflexes are phenominal. Watch a bit… It’s amazing!
Anyway, I saw Keith of the Prodigy at Isle of Man airport 2 weeks ago (He actually owns a successful motorracing and TT team called Traction Control) and I wanted to say thanks for the beers and stuff but decided I didn’t want to bother him. (It was the label/distributor that sorted it out) So I just killed time in the airport shop but then saw a Q magazine on the shelf had a “modern classic albums” feature. I flicked through as the Prodigy were bound to be in. They are a modern classic after all. I flicked through and finally… 1997… Fat of the Land was there with a full page spread actually dedicated to The Prodigy with an interview with Keith and a large photo so I went to buy it so I could maybe get it signed or something. As an Aberdeenshire Scotsman, before I bought it, I checked the waiting area first and saw Keith had already left to board his flight. He was gone. The magazine in my hand was £5.50 and full of articles on music I had grown up with. Great stuff but I lived through this music… So I put it back on the shelf, sat down for a bit and waited for boarding.
A brilliant medical lecture by motorcycling doctor and anaesthetist John Hinds…
I have had a good look at the Edinburgh International Book Festival listings and there are a fair few events that will interest the muso in you. Some will sell out in a day so I would like folk that read this to have a head start. Tickets are on sale at 0830 on Tuesday 21st June. There are too many good events to see and as much as I would like to plug one of my childhood hero’s new book (Chris Packham of The Really Wild Show and Springwatch), I’ll try to stick to music based events.
August
14th Chris Packham, ‘My Love for a Kestrel’. Ach well, he seems like a really nice chap. He has a memoir called Fingers in the Sparkle Jar that does look worth a read.
14th Billy Bragg, The Milkman of Human Kindness. An annotated collection of his best loved songs. A chat with the BBC’s Vic Galloway.
14th Alexei Sayle Surreal Socialist Stand-Up. Plugging his second memoir Thatcher Stole My Trousers. He’s calmed down a bit – I actually just heard him on Just a Minute on Radio 4! Music Folk may remember him from Ullo John Got a New Motah!
16th Pilgrimer- Joni’s Journeys Reimagined. This was performed at Celtic Connections and is a collaboration between author James Robertson and musicians Karine and Steven Polwart with Donald Shaw. A Scottish take on Joni Mitchell’s 1976 album Hejira exploring the themes of migration, freedom and loneliness.
16th Ian Rankin, Rebus Gets Up to His Old Tricks. The famous Edinburgh crime writer, record collector, rock fan and friend of the shop talks about his new bestseller Even Dogs In The Wild.
17th Sing-Along with Nick Cope (The Candyskins) Acoustic folk-pop for children.
18th Neu! Reekie! Present #UntitledTwo, a double album of collected music and poetry. 30+ tracks. Neu! Reekie! has become an Edinburgh underground cultural institution and is always well curated. 10 acts/poets will perform. Some musicians are poets right? If anything like Untitled One, this will be super.
18th David Moody, The Deluded Idealism of Ezra Pound. There’s no music here but Dylanologists might want to learn a bit more about Ezra Pound. From Dylan’s song Desolation Row “Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot are fighting in the captain’s tower, while calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers”. Whaaaat? Yep. You need to go.
18th Tim Burgess with Ian Rankin. More Tales of a Charlatan These two are good friends and they will have a discussion/chat on Tim’s new book (Tim Book 2) about the joy of records and their passion for music. Tim shares vinyl recommendations from friends including Iggy Pop and Paul Weller that he has tracked down from across the world.
20th Brix Start Smith From Fall Guitarist to Fashion Expert I know, I know, we’ve all been in the Fall at one time or another (I was in the band in 1990 playing bongos on The Infotainment Scan*) but Brix was actually married Mark E. Smith. So there’s a tale to tell here.
20th Gregor Fisher & Melanie Reid Tough Childhood of a Comedy Hero. Title is pretty blunt but the memoir of the man who played Rab C Nesbitt is worth a mention.
20th Daniel Rachel In Praise of Protest Songs Political protest seems to happen more in other countries nowadays, but in the 70s and 80s Britain was awash with activism, both on the streets and on the musical stage. In this event, Daniel Rachel discusses the golden era of Rock Against Racism, Red Wedge and 2 Tone with Vic Galloway.
21st James Kelman, A Road Trip Through America. I found James Kelman as a teenager and have been buying his books since. He won the Booker Prize a long time ago for his novel How Late It Was, How Late. There’s not much ‘music’ in the books (other than fine dialects) but the language and humanity is beautiful and authentic.
22nd Open Book on the Short Stories of James Kelman. See above. The short stories are great snapshots of the Scottish working class. I love his paragraph of a story, Acid. In fact as it is so very short, here it is:
In this factory in the north of England acid was essential. It was contained in large vats. Gangways were laid above them. Before these gangways were completely safe a young man fell into a vat feet first. His screams of agony were heard all over the department. Except for one old fellow the large body of men was so horrified that for a time not one of them could move. In an instant this old fellow who was also the young man’s father had clambered up and along the gangway carrying a big pole. Sorry Hughie, he said. And then he ducked the young man below the surface. Obviously the old fellow had had to do this because only the head and shoulders – in fact, that which had been seen above the acid – was all that remained of the young man.
Now that’s a short story! Copyright James Kelman. You can hear Kelman himself reading it here.
23rd Susan Calman, Depression and how to Laugh It Off. The brilliantly funny lady has a book called Cheer up Love. which reminds me on the time I met Peter Hook at his autobiography signing a few years ago. A friend of mine was a fan but couldn’t make it so I had a book signed for him. I said he was having a hard time with depression. Hooky wrote “To_______, chin up”. I’ll leave that there. Dum de dum de dum…
23rd Wilko Johnson Defying the Doctors. Ian Dury cohort and Dr Feelgood guitarist discusses his life with and without cancer. He had been given 10 months to live in 2013 due to pancreatic cancer. After a farewell tour and album with Roger Daltrey he still wasn’t dead. A doctor fan pointed this out and he recently went on to have a curative operation.
24th Ian Rankin, Rebus Gets Up to His Old Tricks. Another chance to see Ian talk about his new book. He should really have his own tent at the Book Festival this August. I just looked it up and bloody hell, a Rebus tent exists! Although it is for putting over bombs and IEDs rather than hosting book events.
REALLY get to know the author in the new bomb proof Rebus Tent
25th Paul Morley Bowie: Life of a Legend. Musician, critic and talking head on lots of TV shows, he also helped curate the Bowie exhibition in the Victoria & Albert. He talks to the BBC’s Vic Galloway about his new book Age of Bowie.
26th Kevin Barry John Lennon’s Bad Trip. An imagined John Lennon in 1978 trying to pay a visit to an isle off the coast of Ireland that the real life Lennon bought in the 1960s.
26th Don Paterson Sonnets and Songs. Multi-prize winning poet has a collection of 40 Sonnets out. Some will be performed with his band.
26th Stuart Cosgrove Why the Northern Soul Beat Goes On. The broadcaster and author is promoting his new book, Young Soul Rebels. Part personal musical journey and part Northern Soul biography. He also compares Northern Soul with later underground music movements (Mod, Punk, Rave etc)
27th Irvine Welsh Begbie: Scarier than Ever. The Trainspotting author returns to Edinburgh to talk about his new novel about Begbie, The Blade Artist. This will sell out really quickly. Trainspotting 2 is coming out soon. The last film’s soundtrack became iconic so I’d love to hear an Edinburgh band on the new one… Otherwise I’ll have to put out Tramspotting, The Alternative Trainspotting Soundtrack…
28th Tom Lanoye and James Yorkston, Bittersweet Tales. 2 authors present their new work. Three Craws is James Yorkston’s debut novel. A gorgeously atmospheric quirky story of broken dreams and longing. An early Fence Records Fifer, we keep a steady supply of his records in the shop.
29th Zoe Howe A Punk and a Gentleman With R&B punk band Dr Feelgood returning to public consciousness thanks to the story of co-founder Wilko Johnson’s battle with cancer, writer Zoë Howe believes it’s a good time for recognition to be given to the band’s other co-founder who died aged 41. In Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’Roll Gentleman, she argues for a long overdue appreciation of his legacy.
29th Fraser Doherty The 48 Hour Start Up This isn’t musical but I was intrigued. At the age of 14 Fraser set up a jam business and became very jammy having sold the business to Waitrose. He attempts to create a business in 48 hours and he shares successes and mistakes. Could be rubbish, but worth a punt.
Also look out for Unbound! Every Day from 2100-2300 at the Speigeltent is a feature of words and music from the finest talent that has come to Edinburgh. At the time of writing, the line-up is still TBC but they usually feature a free dram and some live music from the best Scottish, local and touring musicians.
Also worth a mention as they will be popular are Scottish poet Liz Lochead, authors Val McDermid, Ali Smith, Kate Tempest, Erica Jong, Ray Mears, Alex Schaffer & Julia Donaldson (of Gruffalo fame) and Frederick Forsyth (with Ian Rankin of course) who all have events that will sell out quickly. The Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series is important too. But have a look at the website and brochure for the full listings. If there is anything I missed please get in touch.
Vic Galloway is hosting a good few events so it is worth mentioning that he authoured a book called Songs in the Key of Fife a couple of years ago that documents some of the important musicians and bands to come out of Fife including King Creosote, James Yorkstone, Pictish Trail, The Beta Band and KT Tunstall. It’s a great read! Vic was also kind enough to host a Q&A with Graeme Thomson, the Edinburgh based author of Phil Lynott biography Cowboy Song for Record Store Day this year.
Photo by Trevor Pake
So there you go. Plenty to do but be sure to have a look through the brochure as the website is a bit tricky to browse and if you fancy something be sure to get a ticket quickly as the big to medium events sell out very quickly.
Also glad to finish a blog post featuring Irvine Welsh and James Kelman that has avoided using a word rhyming with luck- showing the kind of restraint that those two in particular are not known for. Tsk tsk.
Have fun.
A friend of mine, Rich Ferguson came to film The Gramophone Emporium and its customers during the final days. This was the last shop of its kind as far as I can tell, anywhere. Who knows, with a bit more notice, a campaign to save the shop could maybe have been arranged backed by an appearance on the One Show or even some Lottery funding. It ever a shop was a working museum it was The Gramophone Emporium. It was run on the love of the music and the machines. Ah! Antiques and curios in oak and mahogany and in all shapes and sizes… but enough about their customers! With it now closed, the hub of knowledge and the wonderful club for vintage men is gone and I still miss looking out the VoxBox window towards the shop across the road. Being open 3 half days a week was never really financially viable but they made a go of it for decades and had something that money can’t buy. A customer in the film says that the shops closure will create a haggard void. Perfect words.
Bill, the shop’s owner had a humungous stock of 78s. However, not all records are worth anything and I was told that one time he disposed of 250 000 hard to shift records that were taking up storage space. A quarter of a million shellac discs were used to help create a breakwater for a harbour somewhere. It’s nice to think that this could give some future Time Team a glorious headscratcher. The shop had a decent trade but ultimately the bills were paid by the most valuable records being sold online. Good records would sometimes come in from people’s boxes from the attic but more and more often the better records would come from whole collections that would become available as elderly collectors died. Some were friends and customers. There’s a creeping similarity with vinyl there.
Two men, Ken and Billy ran the shop essentially for free as I don’t think they ever were paid or asked for money for their time and were both supposed to be retired. They were and remain true enthusiasts with unsurpassed knowledge. Like any experts, they were snobs in their own way, but nice with it. Billy would chuckle to himself if you played a record with the wrong size needle or brought in a machine that had the wrong horn. As a boy, Billy told me he had played the same record once every day for a year just to see if the sound quality would deteriorate. Played with a fresh needle every time, it didn’t! Their love of the format was certainly contagious. Saying that, they could also be brutal when it came to worthless records. Jimmy Shand records would be smashed before being disposed of. Otherwise, very often the very boxes that they had thrown out would be rescued from the bin by a kind soul and be brought back to the shop for a valuation.
Mark and Ken inspect a vintage Edison style cylinder player.
I do miss the stories. Mark, who appears in the film but sadly doesn’t say much (he is a wonderful talker) is a retired teacher and a part-time clock restorer that accidentally became the shop’s Gramophone repair man. He had walked past the shop when it was located where VoxBox is now, something like 20 years ago and heard a gramophone playing. He thought it sounded terrible and came in only to let the owner know about it. “That sounds awful. The sound-box has really seen better days.” And as an afterthought… “I could fix that.” So he was allowed to take it away. When he brought it back spick and span the following week there was a large box of knackered sound-boxes waiting for him.
As Billy says in the film, the earliest records were recorded live. This is pure analogue and if played through the right machine, you can actually feel the air around you vibrate and for a few spine-tingling minutes you will be in the room with Caruso himself. Rich never managed to spend as much time in the shop as he would have liked as the stress of the impending closure was taking its toll on the team. However, in this short film he has managed to capture a wee glimpse of a wonderful place the like of which may never be seen again.
His short film will be shown in late August as part of the Nightpiece Film Festival but you can watch it here:
A few afterthoughts:
Billy still curates Oxfam’s 78s on Raeburn Place. That’s a good place to bring your 78s from the loft.
I set up The Gramophone Emporium Facebook page when we opened and posted a few photos but I never really had time to do much with it. It was taken over and has been kept alive and thriving by Graeme; A Gramophone Emporium customer and gramophone DJ. Have a look here! There are lots of photos and also links to the new Scottish Gramophone Group that meets regularly. There is an old shop blog post from 2012 about The Gramophone Emporium called The Last Shop Standing. He DJs under the name Lord Holyrude and is available for events and weddings and the odd Torture Garden appearance… His contact details are here.
We only really deal in Jazz and Rock and Roll but I’m always happy to look at a collection. As a general rule, Scottish and religious records are usually worthless. Pre-war British pop are also hard to sell as is Bing Crosby and even Frank Sinatra. Cliff Richard 78s are still very collectable despite his bad press and there are some Indian Beatles records that are sought after as are many foreign records. Classical 78s are usually not worth much but unfortunately, some are worth a fortune so don’t throw anything out. Look out for odd things. One sided 78s are earlier and usually sellable and a record with the title scratched out could be a Jamaican DJs floorfiller. Some people managed to record their voices on privately pressed discs so you can have one of a kind unique items that are nevertheless worth little but have great historical value and should never be thrown away. But mainly, if you get the chance, do try to play them. You could quite easily be the first person to have listened to that recording in over 50 years and that is a lovely and special feeling. I might do a wee piece on shellac in the future if I have the time.
Beatles on Beetles
The Shellac that the 78rpm records were made from is a product of the Lac beetle. They create a resin that they secrete on tree branches that protects their young. This is scraped off the tree and put in a pot before being melted, purified with added ingredients and turned into a record. The beetle is found in India among other places. As Britain had its Empire back then, we had access to the best Indian shellac and therefore made the best quality records. The vinyl 45rpm disc was at least in part invented in America due to a shortage of shellac during WWII. In India, 78s were made well into the 1960s so keep an eye out for the Beatles on Beetles.
Finally, here’s a clip from the RCA vaults showing the complex process of how records were made.
The orders have been confirmed on Tuesday and then paid for, often without an itemised invoice. The boxes have been arriving thick and fast on Wednesday and more are expected. Here are the majority of the records that were ordered. I’ll top it up on Thursday evening and Friday. Printouts will be available on the day but if you want to know rough numbers of each title, please get in touch by email, twitter or facebook. With 250 shops taking part and some titles limited to 500 copies, the numbers of the most sought after titles are quite limited.
13th Floor Elevators You’re Gonna Miss Me
808 State Pacific
Adam Beyer Selected Drumcode Works 96-00
The Adverts Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts
The Adverts Cast of Thousands
A-Ha Hits South America
AIR Casanova 70
Alanis Morisette The Demos
Alan Partridge Knowing Me Knowing You
The Alarm Spirit of ’86
Albert King/Butterfield SXS –Born Under a Bad Sign
Allen Toussaint Live in Philidelphia 1975
Allen Toussaint Whipped Cream and Other Delights
Amebix Monolith The Power Remains
The Anchress Popular
Andy Summers Metal Dog
The Animals We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Anti Flag Live
Architects Lost Forever
Arena Arena
Armand Sciascia Impressions in Rhythm and Sound
Arthur Beatrice Every Cell
The Associates Party Fears Two/Australia
Bardo Pond Acid Guru Pond
Bastille Hangin’
Bee Gees/Faith No More I Started a Joke
Bert Jansch with Loren Auerbach Colours Are Fading Fast
Bert Jansch Black Birds Of Brittany / Cuckoo
Best Coast S/T
Bill Evans Some Other Time
Billy Cobham Stratus Part 1
Birdy Lost it All
Bis / Big Zero Boredom Could Be …. / Tear It Up And …
Bitty McLean/Bunny Rugs Taxi Records
Bixiga 70 The Copan Connection
Black Tambourines Chica E.P
Blossoms You Pulled a Gun on Me
Bluesology Come Back Baby
Bram Stoker Heavy Rock Spectacular
Breakbot Get Lost Remix
Bryan Ferry The Island Singles Box
Buddy Guy and Jr Wells The Criteria Sessions
Buzzcocks
Cachao Gonna Make You Dance
Cadillac Three Tennessee Mojo
Candlemass Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Carina Round Carina Round
Cassius Action
Cat’s Eyes Chameleon Queen
Chase and Status London Bars
Cheap Trick Found New Parts
Cheap Trick At Budokan
Chelsea
Chills Pyramid / When The Poor Can Reach The Moon
Christopher Lee Charlemagne: By The Sword & The Cross
Christopher Lee Charlemagne: The Omens of Death
Christy Moore Paddy on the Road
Circa Waves Something Like You
Clean Cut Kid Pick Me Up
Clint Mansell & Kronos Q Requiem For a Dream
Clutch Mad Sidewinder
Cosmic Machine 2 S/T EP
Dave Clarke Charcoal Eyes
David Bowie The Man Who Sold The World
David Bowie TVC15
DEATH Vivus:Dividium
Death Cab For Cutie Tractor Rape Chain
Dee Edwards Deal With That
Deep City You Flexi Thing
Def Leppard S/T
Deftones B Sides and Rarities
Del Amitri Sense Sickness
Departure Lounge Jetlag Dreams
Derek and Clive Punk Song
Desmond Dekker Rude Boy Ska
Deviants You’ve Got To Hold On
Dirty Three Sad and Dangerous
Disturbed The Sound of Silence
Django Django Unreleased Versions
Doors Live at Aquarious Theatre
Doors France/America
Dr Who Genesis of the Daleks
Dr Who Dr Who and the Daleks
Elton John The Thom Bell Sessions
Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball
ESB Mos Eisley
Eternal Tapestry Beyond the Fourth Door
Europe The Final Countdown
Ezra Furman Songs by Others
Fabio Fabor Infini
The Fall Bingo Masters at The Witch Trials
The Fall The Classical
The Fall
Fatnotronic Onde Anda
Fela Kuti I Go Shout Plenty
Field Music Field Music
First Class Rock Steady S/T
Five Finger Death Punch The Wrong Side of Heaven
Flaming Lips Lightning Strikes the Postman CD
Fleetwood Mac Alternative Tusk
Florence and the Machine Delilah
Foals Rain/Daffodils
Focus Hocus Pocus
Frankie Goes to Hollywood Rage Hard
Frank Turner Positive Songs
Frank Zappa Joe’s Garage
Frank Zappa Dog Breath
Funkadelic One Nation Under a Groove
Future Sound of London Accelerator
Gerhard Heinz Schamlos
Gerard Way Pinkish
Giant Sand The Sun Set Volume 1
Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas
Glen Campbell See You There
Glen Campbell Wichita Lineman
Glen Hansard A Season on the Line
Goblin Suspira/Blind Concert
Goblin La Via Della Droga
Gorgon City Saving My Life
The Go! Team Thunder Lightning Strike
Grace Jones Private Life/She’s Lost Control
Graham Nash This Path Tonight
Grapefruit Lullaby
Guy Garvey Unwind
Half Japanese Volume 4 1997-2001
Hawkwind Hassan I Sahba
Heaven 17 (We don’t need this) Fascist Groove Thing
Hello Kitty Hello World S/T
Herman Brood Shpritsz
Higher Authorities Neptune
Hooverphonic The Magnificent Tree
Hozier Take Me To Church
Ian Brown Solarized
Ibrahim Ferrer Buena Vista Social Club Presents
The Idle Race Idle Race
Iggy Pop Fire Engine
Iggy and the Stooges Metallic KO
Incredible Bongo Band Box Set
The In Crowd That’s How Strong My Love Is
Interpol El Pintor –Remixes
The Interrupters S/T
I-Robots Present Psychodisco
Iron Maiden Empire of the Clouds
Isley Brothers This Old Heart of Mine
Jack Off Jill Clear Hearts Grey Flowers
Jack Off Jill Sexless Demons & Scars
Jackie Brenston Rocket 88
Jah Screechy Walk and Skank
James Greenpeace Palace Concert
James Bay Chaos and the Calm
James Brown Revue Live At The Apollo 1972
Jason Molina The Townes Van Zandt Covers
Jay Reatard Blood Visions
J Dilla The Diary
Jethro Tull Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll
Jimmy Page She Just Satisfies
Jochen Arbeit Tse Tse
Joe Bataan Chick A Boom
John Coltrane The Roulette Sides
John Cooper Clarke Ou Est Le Maison De Fromage
John Frusciante Fosegrow
Johnny Clarke Natty Roots Sessions
Johnny Thunders 1978
Johnny Thunders/Heartbreakers Vive La Revolution
John Renbourn The Attic Tapes
John Williams Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion That’s It Baby Right Now…
Junior Kimbrough/Daft Punk I Gotta Try You Girl
Justin Bieber
Katastrophy Wife Dysrhythmia
Killing Joke Pylon
Killswitch Engage Define Love
Kings of Convenience Quiet/Riot/Versus
K’s Choice Extra Cocoon
La Dispute Tint Dots
The Lafontaines
Laura Cantrell
Left Lane Cruiser Beck In Black
Libertines Box Set
Liminanas Garden’s of Love
Linkin Park Road to Revolution Live
Locust Morning Light
Low/S. Carey Not A Word/I Won’t Let You
LUSH Origami Box
Lydia Lunch & Marc Hurtado My Lover The Killer
Madonna Like a Virgin and Other Hits
Magazine Once At The Academy
Malcolm Middleton You & I
Marc Bolan & T Rex Born to Boogie Soundtrack
Martin Simpson and Friends Green Onions/Willie Taylor
Marylin Manson Antichrist Superstar tape
Matthew Sweet Goodfriend
Matt Wills Lost and Found
Max Jury Numb/Standing on my Own
Max Romeo Give Thanks EP
Medlar WOLFPROMO001
Mercury Re/Lost Horizons Rainy Day Record/Life Inside A Paradox
Metallica CD
METZ/Mission of Burma Good, Not Great/Get Off
Mew And The Glass Handed Kites
Michael Chapman Savage Amusement
Mike Cooper & Derek hall Out of the Shades
Mike Oldfield Nuclear
The Mickey Finn Garden of my Mind
Mike Stuart Span Children of Tomorrow
Mmoths Deu
Molecule EP
Motorhead Bad Magic (3 versions)
The Move Something Else From the Move
Muddy Waters Hoochie Coochie Man
Mumford and Sons There Will Be Time
Mungo Jerry In The Summertime/Baby Jump
Muse Reapers
Mystery Single
Neneh Cherry Buffalo Stance
Neon Indian Psychic Chasms + Mind CTRL
Neon Indian ERA EXTRANA + ERRATA ANEX
Nick Harper The Wilderness Years Vol 1-3
Nikki Sudden Treasure Island
Ninth Gate OST
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds El Mexicano
Nosferatu OST
Nothing ACD
Nurse With Wound/Band Of Pain Noinge
Ocean Colour Scene Moseley Shoals
Ol Dirty Bastard Brooklyn Zoo/Shimmy Shimmy Ya
Oumou Sangare Moussolou
Orb Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Parkway Drive Horizons
Pere Ubu 30 Seconds Over Tokyo B/W Heart Of Darkness
Phill Pratt Star Wars Dub
Pinact Stand Still and Rot
Pinkshinyultrablast Happy Songs For Happy Zombies
PINS Trouble
Primal Scream Mantra for a State of Mind
Private jones/Corduroy I Got By in Time
Psychic TV The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
Psychic TV Fishscales Falling: A Smorgasbord Ov Delights – Mixtape
Public Service Broadcasting The Other Side
Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch
Regina Spektor Begin to Hope
Residents Please Do Not Steal It
Reverend Horton Heat Hardscrabble Woman
Richmond Fontaine You Can’t Go Back…
Rob Zombie Well, Everybody’s…
Rockin’ Vickers Dandy
Rodrigo Y Gabriella Live
Roger Van Otterloo Turks Fruit
Roots Manuva Switching Sides
Roots Radics World Cup –Extra Time
Runaways Right Now
Screaming Blue Messiahs Sweet Water Pools
Section 25 Alfresco
Self Defense Family The Power Does Not Work In the Presence…
Shaggs Sweet Maria
Shirley Collins English Songs Vol 2
Shura Touch
Simple Minds Big Music Tour 2015
Six by Seven Six by Seven
Skrillex & Diplo Where Are You Now?
Slits I Heard it Through The Grapevine
Small Faces The Autumn Stone
Soft Cell Sex Dwarf
Son Volt Live
Sonics Live
Soulfuledge & Romina Johnson Standing on Top of the World
Spencer Morales ft Randy Without Your Love
Squeeze Goodbye Girl
Status Quo Rockin’ All Over The World
Staves Are You Satisfied
Sublime Jah Won’t Pay the Bills tape x2 and vinyl x1
Summer Hits Beaches and Canyons
Sun Ra Jazz by Sun Ra Vol 1
Superchunk Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91)
Superpitcher So Far So Super
Sven Libaek To Ride a White Horse
Sweet Charles/Glen Jones Yes It’s You/ I am Somebody
Syndicats On the Horizon
Talking Heads/Echosmith SXS
Teddy Douglas Retro Soul sampler
Them The Broadcast EP
Third Power Believe
Tiger Joanie Scott Baby I Need Your Lovin’
Todd Rundgren ad Utopia Disco Jets
Tom Hingley Band Beggar’s Hand
Tom Petty Kiss My Amps Vol 2
Traffic Traffic
Trembling Bells Who Call The Law?
Twenty One Pilots A Few Older Ones
Ukranians Vorony
Urban Dance Squad The Singles Collection
VANT Fly By Alien
Various The Birth of the Beat
Various Brighton’s Finest
Various C86
Various Cambodian Cassette Archives
Various Communion 10
Various Diggin’
Various Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s
Various Genius of Time Larry Levan
Various Instrumentals Soul-Style
Various JOY OST
Various Nuggets: Hallucinations
Various Other Side of Sun Records
Various Psyche France Vol 2
Various Sensible Record Labels
Various Soho Scene 64 (Jazz Goes Mod)
Various Soul-In (Mods Out On The Floor)
Various Soul Jazz Presents New Orleans Funk
Various Soul Jazz Presents Ska Sounds
Various Texas Soul 65
Various This is Trojan Box Set
Various Wake Up You The Rise & Fall Of Nigerian Roc
Various West Coast Soul 65
Weeknd The Hills Remixes
Ginger Wildheart From G*A*S*S With Love
Virginia Wing Rhonda
Warren Zevon/Flaming Groovies Werewolves of London
Wedding Present The Hit Parade
Willie Nelson/Uncle Tupelo Truck Drivin’ Man
Wishbone Ash Bonafide
Xiu Xiu Twin Peaks
The Record Store Day list is now out. Thankfully it’s only around 550 releases to get through. It was 650 vinyl releases two years ago and it cost VoxBox a small fortune to buy in copies of around 400 different titles. It’s safe to say that not all sold on the day… There is actually still a box of unsold LPs and singles in the shop. Some have gone up in value -hooray! And some are heading to the Backroom soon. -boo! In fact we’ll have a sale including them and various new records that we have a few too many of on Saturday 16th April.
The RSD list is ok. It’s overwhelming to begin with. But when you have a good look, there are a good amount of records that are already incredibly rare and have been out of print for too long- So they are very welcome. I’d have liked to see more contemporary artists with exclusive releases but that’s the way it goes. The 5 Seconds of Summer cassette tape in 2014 was my favourite release of the day as it created such excitement. The tape was gifted to shops by the label to give away free to fans that queued up and knew the password. The 16 year old female fans didn’t buy anything at all on the day but it was really good fun and generous of the (major) label.
The best RSD release 2014 ?
I’m keen to not have many unsold records this year so I’ll be ordering fewer copies of the bands that have a smaller fanbase. I’m also not going to order any records that I think are insanely overpriced or that are not particularly limited in terms of worldwide availability. Any records I think will quickly depreciate in value won’t be ordered in either. Most of the records are expensive for shops to buy in. So complaints should be addressed to the labels concerned rather than the shops or even RSD as an event.
Please get in touch soon if you have any specific wants. The shops only got the list yesterday at the same time as everyone else and there is only between 2 and 3 weeks for us to get our orders in. Obviously I’ll be asking for as many Bowie records we can get in but gauging the demand for the smaller bands is difficult. We can’t take pre-orders and can’t save you a copy of anything but I’ll order extra copies of smaller band releases if there is interest.
Remember that although the queue can be long, there are so many releases that a queue of 50 people can actually all be after different records.
Mainly, the day is a celebration of record shops and the added income helps pay the wages and for us, it’s also a platform and celebration of the local talent we have and our wonderful Street. Saying that, we’ll be using most of any profit from this RSD to help fund the shop’s own record label. There are 3 album release this year. Jargo At Night When The Wind Calms Down -out on RSD. The best guitar band in the UK’s debut album (seriously) around June – more announced soon. And Edinburgh’s Delta Mainline’s sublime second album towards the end of the year.
We’ll have an afternoon of free live music in nearby venues as usual, courtesy of some of the best established and up and coming bands from Edinburgh and further afield. The bands are paid by the shop and venue and normally have a new release to sell too that will certainly be worth checking out.
I should also mention that this particular Record Store Day is being celebrated by us as the VoxBox Music 5th birthday party. I’m ironing out a few details just now and there are a few council/licensing hoops to jump through but I think we will have the best celebration in the UK. We’ll all be smiling like Little Stevie Wonder.
Records are records are records right? Circular things with grooves that contain music that you need to look after? No. Not if you’re a youngster. (By that I mean sub 30) The Record Collector types and the Mojo Man are getting on a bit -keepin’ on keepin’ on… I like the new vinyl buyers a lot as they are more vibrant and healthy than my bretheren, but there is one thing I’d like to talk about:
These healthy record buying youngsters call records “vinyls”… All of them do! And it has become contagious; even old bands are calling them vinyls and folk even older than them are emailing me about their vinyls for sale. So with the realisation that even people that grew up with records are calling them vinyls, I capitulated last year and became tongue in cheek @VoxBoxVinyls for a while on Twitter and put up a sign saying “Vinyls for sale”. Was that an apostrophe away from being correct?
I’ve actually grown to like the term vinyls. It makes me feel young and want to throw my walking stick away. Ah let’s go shopping for some vinyls! I bought a great vinyl the other day! I love my vinyl player! I’m building up a great collection of vinyls! I can’t wait for Vinyl Store Day! I love shopping at VoxBox Vinyls! Harry has said something! If you can’t be bothered to try to beat them and can’t bring yourself to join them AND have a vinyls shop, still at least be glad of these youngsters. For this is the future. -You may not like it much but you will have to live in it.
The old guard; the record collectors and dance DJs that kept the format alive through the 1990s onward don’t like the word vinyls. To them, it like calling a flock of sheep “sheeps”. The plural of vinyl is vinyl they say; or more accurately, when they overhear you youngsters call records “vinyls” it is as if you asked them to close their eyes and then simulated the cracking of an egg over their head by clapping your hands together and then used your fingers to trickle pretend egg down and all over their face.
As I’m of a certain age and have been in among records for a long time, the term vinyls does also annoy me a bit but I can’t see things changing and I do get a wee bit of pleasure seeing the 1990s house music purist get all Basil Fawlty about it.
It’s on those trays…cuatro!
The term vinyls is generally used to describe new albums released as records on vinyl but it is a shame as it makes the description clunky as for example people are looking for “vinyl records” rather than records or vinyl and there is a difference. There has certainly been a lot adaptation of the terminology. – Lady Gaga will call a single only available as a download a record. Maybe that’s were the need to specify comes from. The kids say duh! Everyone knows a record is a download. A “vinyl record” is when you get a vinyl with it.
It’s the shops that have to change but also be at the leading edge of informing new artists and labels about what it is that they are putting out. Meanwhile… In these transitional times, VoxBox has developed a ready reckoner for the budding connoisseur. (An old fashioned app)
The VoxBox Vinyls App:
Record: Round flat disc played with a stylus.
Single: As above. A normal single has one song on each side and is known as “a 45” or a “seven inch” record. They are seven inches in diameter and usually play at 45rpm. Simple.
12 inch single: A single can also be released as a 12 inch record. Often have extended dance version with remixes. These are known as “12 inchers” or “twelves” and usually play at 45rpm.
EPs: Some seven inch records have more than 2 tracks. These are EPs – Extended Play singles. Having 3 tracks is actually a grey area –they could still be called a single with a bonus track- but one with 4 tracks is definitely an EP. These can be 7 inch, 10 inch or 12 inch and can play at 45 or 33 1/3rpm.
Album: An album is usually 12 inches in diameter but they aren’t ever called 12 inch records or 12 inchers. They are only ever called albums or LPs (Long Players). They play at 33 1/3 rpm.
It can get a bit confusing.
So albums play at 33 1/3rpm? Yes. Unless they play at 45 rpm… Some single albums are re-released as double albums to be played a bit faster. The faster a record goes, the more information the needle can gather every second so the sound quality should be better. Unfortunately you have to get up and turn the record over more often. So life quality goes down.
Some albums are released as 10 inch records. There is absolutely no reason for a band to do this and it makes organising your record collection a lot more difficult. 10 inch records are usually EPs and although they can often contain enough songs to be called albums they are never called LPs. If your favourite band release an album on 10 inch vinyl or even worse, double 10 inch vinyl (I’m looking at you Radiohead) please write in to complain. Not to me.
So, in summary, 7 inch singles that are longer are sometimes played at 33 1/3 rpm rather than 45rpm but are still called 45s. Short 7 inch EPs are often played at 45rpm but are never called 45s. 12 inch records are albums unless they are singles or Eps. Some 10 inchers are albums but not LPs. Albums are on 10 or 12 inch vinyl and are never called a 12 inch or incher but they can be called a 10 inch but not a 10 incher. Some Eps are 10 inchers. Some 10 inchers are 78s -but they definitely aren’t called 10 inchers (see below). Some 7 inchers are Eps and play at 45rpm but they are not called 45s. A 10 inch that plays at 45rpm is not a 45. No Eps are albums unless they are mini-albums or a double EP. And CDs are 3 inchers but no-one has or will ever called them that.
IS THAT CLEAR!
But there’s more:
Can we now at least all agree that records are made of vinyl?
Well, maybe yes. That is, some are not. Test pressings were originally made of a metal plate coated in a waxy substance called acetone (These are known as acetates) and the first records were made of shellac, an ooze harvested from the underappreciated Lac Beetle. In which case they are still called records or maybe 78s, or your “BIG ten inch” if you have that wonderful Bullmoose Jackson record, but never shellacs or singles although they are technically singles, having a single song on each side. They are usually 10 inches in diameter and these will normally play at 78rpm… unless they play at somewhere between 76 and 80rpm or as low as 16rpm. To get a full album of songs or more likely, to fit in a whole symphony, they would come with their sleeves bound together like a book. –much like a photo album.
And that’s where the term album comes from.
So now you know.
Coming next week: Kiss my Acetates… Me and my wax.
Meanwile listen to this and contemplate a well labelled record.
* The original CD 3-incher was designed to hold 74 minutes. Enough to fit in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
VoxBox Music became the newest record shop in the world on May 21st 2011. We buy and sell vinyl and other formats of music. We are independent and sell mostly pre-owned records although we are slowly branching into new vinyl too.
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