THINK (^) | BELONGINGS
T
hey’re a funny thing, records
(always vinyl, never v inyls); in a
modern digital era they sometimes
seem hugely inconvenient – heavy,
cumbersome, expensive. I remember, aged
seven, buying my first (‘I.O.U.’ by Freeez)
with a token from Woolworths. I chose it
with my brother, looking at the covers,
t r y ing to remember t it les f rom song s we’d
heard on the radio last Sunday on the Top
- We brought it home and carefully added
it to the queue on my parents old Dansette
that they let us use. My brother and I argued
over who got to play it first, jumping around
t he liv ing room to t he t in ny, wa r m sound.
Over the years I dallied with cassettes,
making pause button mix-tapes from radio
shows, had brief f lings with CDs, but around
16 – drawn into a record shop in Oxford by
the thud of the bass, and the jangle of guitars
- I realised I’d found true love.
I started gently at first, with my limited
funds, slowly choosing one or two platters to
ta ke home a f ter spending a good hour w it h
a stack of potentials, all listened to on the
headphones in the corner of the shop. Later,
deeply smitten, I’d gorge myself on music,
sometimes spending an entire week’s pay on
records. I’d stay up all night listening to
What means a lot to you? Tell us in 500 words;
[email protected].them, making bad mixes for friends. I once
invited someone back to help, and they sat
on one of my most recent acquisitions,
breaking it clean in half; I nearly cried.
I’d drag them to parties with me; I dropped
them on beer soaked f loors, and had to take
them home and wash them, drying them
carefully with a tea towel.
They ’ve come w it h me on jaunt s to
Cornish fields and Welsh hillsides;
soundtracked sunsets and sunrises. I like to
think I’m past the excitable bright-eyed
acquisition of youth now – I have earnest
conversations with other middle-aged geeks
about limited editions and hand-drawn
covers – but, secretly, the thrill is there still;
the needle goes into the groove and my
pulse quickens.
I keep getting told that vinyl is now hip
again, and making a comeback. But for me it
never went away. Every one of my collection
is a tangible, physical memory of a time,
person or place, and when I’m dreaming
of the future, the soundtrack is always
provided by a record spinning on a turntable
in the corner of my mind.My records
by Guy Foreman*
WHAT I TREASURE
* Guy, our commercial director and co-founder, leaves The Simple Things this is s ue. We sent him of f with a vinyl
subscription and a smile on his face at the pleasure to come. Enjoy your next adventure, Guy, we’ll miss you.