Thursday, February 05, 2015

The Record Collector

The Man of The Place is a committed vinyl junkie.  He has a large and diverse record collection that is the work of a lifetime.

It was obvious a few years ago that the shelves that he built in 1992 were no longer enough.  We had small stacks of records on the floor leaning against the shelves as there was no more room.
There used to be room, but over the years, that shelf space shrank.  To prevent records from being squished, an annex to the shelves was made.

As you can see, to the left there was a bit of space for the shelves to stretch out.

Now the shelf annex is done and the records are off the floor.  Look!  There's space!
This means that there doesn't have to be a lull in the acquisition of more records.  Not that there ever was.

Yesterday we found ourselves in Stirling dropping Polly off to have her knee fixed.  After saying goodbye to our dog we trundled to the centre of town and Europa Music.
The front of the store looks like every music store that I've been to before. In addition to CDs there are Beatles mugs, band t-shirts, bongs, etc.  The USP that draws my husband is the back room.
This back room is not the place to go if you are hunting for a specific album.  It is a place to flick through stacks and stacks of cool but unsorted records to find one that you don't have and have always wanted.

Here are a few action shots.

The 45s under one of the tables - Notice there is somebody's old 45s carrying case that was exclusively for Status Quo singles.
Over in the back is the World Music...stretch!
He has a recurring dream in which he is in a record store just like this.  A bit of a jumble and there are boxes of records that are undiscovered gems.
In this dream,  The Man of the Place gets a dusty box down and discovers a single with a picture sleeve.  It is REM doing a cover version of The Crusher by The Cramps.  At this point he is woken and the thrill of discovery swiftly changes to sadness.  It was all a dream and REM never did a cover of The Crusher. 

I asked if he liked having somebody in there with him.  This way he could have somebody with him when he finds a brilliant album "Look at this!  I used to have it, but the first wife kept it during the divorce." or if he preferred to be by himself.  

He thanked me for my sensitivity but this flipping through records activity is really best done alone.  

I took the three that had already been selected up through to the front of the shop.  I told the staff that these were for the vinyl junkie in the back room and that if or when he surfaced, I wouldn't be far away having my lunch.  It felt like record collector day care.

8 comments:

Sarah said...

Hahaha! Record Collector Day Care :)

Peggy said...

He had such a good time in there. If I had stayed any longer, I would have been bored and spoiled his fun. It's best just to go do stuff I like to do and leave him where he'll be safe and happy. ;-)

Greig Stott (Wanderer Films) said...

Interesting read, thanks for sharing :) Have you guys ever visited Groucho's in Dundee? I am actually making a special documentary film profiling the shop and its origins. I shared this blog on the facebook page. All the best! https://www.facebook.com/GrouchosFilm

eweneuropa said...

Hello Ewen from Europa here,
Thank you for your visit and blog entry.A wee comment though.The vast majority of the LPs are sorted and there are quite a few not and this is in process.Our next challenge are the 30,000 7" singles to price and sort which will be ready by Record Store Day 18th April.It is a constant challenge to keep up with the amount of Vinyl coming in and going out to keep on top of things.We also have the problem of a small minority of customers who stash producy or leave piles of vinyl lying out and not returning them to the place where they were.
Once again thank you for your visit and we hope to see you soon and you are welcome to bring your dog .cheers Ewen

Peggy said...

Thanks Ewen! We're actually just getting ready to leave for Stirling in a few minutes. I think the plan is to stop by.
Forgive me for exaggerating for comic effect. There are sections that are sorted.
You have what seems to be a labour of Sisyphus on your hands. Polly is on bed rest at the moment but we'll bring her sometime.

eweneuropa said...

http://youtu.be/VFclpprR48c

Shammickite said...

Ah, lovely shelves full of LPs, but does he play them? or just hoard them?

Peggy said...

Hording implies that he just acquires for the sake of having as many as possible. He will disdain many and open sneer at Genesis albums. He does play them. Every day.