{"id":33,"date":"2013-01-22T12:11:47","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T12:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2013-01-22T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T12:11:47","slug":"the-allure-of-vinyl-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/01\/the-allure-of-vinyl-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The allure of vinyl (Part 2)…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hadn’t intended to write a follow-up to my last blog, ‘The allure of vinyl’ (now a ‘Part one’, I suppose), but due to reading a paperback\u00a0by\u00a0the late great DJ, John Peel, ‘The Olivetti<\/strong> Chronicles’ (published by Corgi Books)<\/strong>, there was a chapter, amongst others,\u00a0that really resonated with me – & it was too much of a coincidence of interweaving facts within that chapter\u00a0not<\/em> to write a ‘Part 2’. What was it\/were they? Read on to find out………….<\/p>\n

Just this morning (it won’t be by the time I finish writing this, of course), I was reading\u00a0the chapter entitled ‘Record Shops’ from the\u00a0absorbing afore-mentioned\u00a0book, . The particular piece was written back in 1980 for Punch magazine, & concerned John Peel’s earliest forays into his local record shop(s). Apparently, & it was something I’d forgotten about, most record shops were merely ‘departments’ within bigger stores. He bought a Columbia 78rpm in ‘Crane’s of Liverpool’ – a furniture & musical instrument shop. It was by Ray Martin & His Orchestra, & called ‘Blue Tango’. I was born much later than Mr. Peel, but I do remember quite well (& we’re talking late 60’s, early 70’s) the location of these ‘record depts.’ in furniture shops (why furniture shops?), large department stores & musical instrument shops – a bit more of that later….<\/p>\n

Record departments were places where you could get lost in, browsing through records of bands\u00a0with names no-one\u00a0had heard of (& in some cases, were never, ever, heard of again). They were social areas that felt like ‘our world’, another world of sound & wonderful album covers. It somehow made you feel special. That’s all gone now, apart from a few, dwindling, independent, & second-hand\u00a0record shops (see previous blog). It seems that this situation\u00a0had already started\u00a0back in 1980, according to the learned\u00a0J. Peel Esq.\u00a0He mentioned the lack of choice in W.H.Smith stores, which of course now, has nothing whatsoever to do with music, CDs or otherwise. However, back to the plot…<\/p>\n

I also have a 78rpm in my collection by Ray Martin & his Orchestra,\u00a0but this\u00a0is called ‘Tango Waltz’ (I wonder if it was pre, or post, Blue Tango?). I bought it years ago when living in London, I think, from a jumble sale.\u00a0Whenever I play it (as I am at this moment in time……You’ll have to believe me here),\u00a0I get transported back to\u00a0my early days of listening to the valve radio – which I, incidentally, have as well………& it still works! – hearing various dance bands\/groups\/solo artistes\u00a0of the era. God, I’m beginning to sound old! The 78 is nothing to write home about, but it’s pleasant, & although I can’t associate it with any particular moment in time, or event, it does evoke the sound &\u00a0warmth coming out of the radio\u00a0& the coziness of life at home in my earlier days. It’s comforting – nothing wrong with that, I think?<\/p>\n

\"Tango<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, further to connecting records & memories (once again, please see previous blog), there are three LPs that I can clearly remember buying. First up is\/was:<\/p>\n

– ‘Parachute’ by The Pretty Things<\/strong>. It’s\u00a0a wonderful, melodic, tuneful, raucous & experimental ‘concept’ album. Bought during a lunch break from my school holiday job (in Marks & Spencer), from Wolsey & Wolsey’s electrical shop – they sold everything from televisions, transistor radios & record players – it was a revelation hearing\u00a0the music\u00a0in the listening booth (I really\u00a0do miss those booths), with the stereo effects coming out of the tiny speakers located just above my head.\u00a0I listened\u00a0in wonder to side one, all the way through, & proceeded to march (in non-military style) to the counter with my hard-earned money. It all felt very subversive, & buying it made me feel soooooooo good! At last, I thought to myself, an album that filled that underground\/progressive\u00a0gap that was missing in my very, very\u00a0minimal record collection at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Pretty<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up was……<\/p>\n

– Savoy Brown’s ‘Looking In’<\/strong>. Once again, this was yet another purchase made during a lunch break from my school holiday job. I found this LP in the section marked ‘Underground’. My two\u00a0friends (both working in the same shop), & myself, settled into the dark,\u00a0curtained listening booth, which was much more luxurious than Wolsey & Wolsey’s, in the basement\u00a0(household & hardware items) of Arnauld’s Dept. Store. I remember there being a small sofa in there. We all agreed, crammed on that sofa, that there was\u00a0something special about this album, even though it\u00a0seemed ‘very bluesey’, & was certainly far better, to our progessive ears,\u00a0than The Moody Blues album we’d all listened to on a previous lunchtime outing. Incidentally, I once copied the cover artwork, & entered it into an all-schools exhibition at the local library…..& it won first prize! I also managed to sell it, for a mere \u00a35.00, which boosted my pocket money no end.<\/p>\n

\"Savoy<\/a><\/p>\n

& finally….<\/p>\n

– Frank Zappa’s ‘The Grand Wazoo’<\/strong>. It was a couple of years later, when I walked from\u00a0my art college, on a\u00a0(you guessed it!) lunchtime break, but with my girlfriend of the time, into Allen’s Music Shop, through the highly-polished upright pianos &\u00a0acoustic guitars hanging from the peg board-covered walls. I can’t remember\u00a0how I knew about this album,\u00a0although I do remember borrowing ‘Hot Rats’ from a friend at school, & was very impressed with it. So, maybe I thought it was in\u00a0a similar vein. Anyway, I asked the assistant to play the record for me. Now, if you were listening to anything in Allen’s, the whole shop also heard it,\u00a0as it was played through the main shop speakers (they didn’t have any separate\u00a0booths for this purpose). We both listened to all of side one, as\u00a0I stood amongst the pianos in the window to get the whole ‘stereo effect’. Customers, staff & my girlfriend all flinched during the first track, ‘For Calvin (& His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)’, & the shop was emptying fast for the next long track, ‘The Grand Wazoo’. When it finished, you could see everyone was\u00a0feeling relieved & the atmosphere in the shop\u00a0went back to normal. I was laughingly asked by the member of staff if I wanted to buy it, & my girlfriend also said something like, ‘Of course you don’t, do you?’. All present were totally surprised when I said, ‘Yes!’\u00a0When I got back to art college, the LP was the talk of my studio. My girlfriend didn’t talk to me\u00a0for a couple of\u00a0days………<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/a><\/p>\n

If anyone’s interested, & I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seats with this one, the other side of\u00a0Ray Martin’s ‘Tango Waltz’ is called, ‘Carnavalito (Festival Of Flowers)’.\u00a0Now, that’s something to remember if it ever cropped-up in a pub trivia quiz!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hadn’t intended to write a follow-up to my last blog, ‘The allure of vinyl’ (now a ‘Part one’, I suppose), but due to reading a paperback\u00a0by\u00a0the late great DJ, John Peel, ‘The Olivetti Chronicles’ (published by Corgi Books), there … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graham-graham-beck.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}