40 18 APRIL 2024 THE REVIVAL OF Weekending VINYL To celebrate Record Store Day, Stuart Maconie reflects on the resurgence of the physical album In the early 90s, American comedian Rita Rudner had a great line in her routine: “I’m not going to buy a CD player until they assure me it’s positively the last thing they are going to invent,” she said. Of course, we all succumbed to the lure of the shiny little coaster and our vinyls went into boxes and thence to the loft – surely these impractical, outdated artefacts would never be needed again. Fast forward to 2024 and the other futuristic advances that we were assured would prevail – the original cassette tapes, MiniDiscs, iPods and the like – have gone. Vinyl is not only still here, but it’s in rude health. Along with air fryers, vinyl albums have just been included in the basket of items used to calculate inflation by the O ce for National Statistics. And the joy of vinyl is lionized annually by Record Store Day (RSD) – the international initiative which celebrates and promotes independent record shops and the revival of interest in albums – which falls on Saturday (20 April) this year. RSD began in 2007, when record shop owners convened to shine a spotlight on albums and the distinctive culture of record stores. If you’ve seen the scenes at Championship Vinyl, the store in the movie High Fidelity (or if you visited Russ and Richard’s northern soul shop in Wigan as a teenager, as I did), you’ll know they can be intimidatingly cool and also joyous places of communion. The first o cial Record Store Day was on 19 April 2008 and it’s now celebrated by thousands of record shops globally. This year, in what is a real coup, RSD’s UK ambassador is Kate Bush. “What a huge honour to have been asked,” she says. “The added bonus of vinyl is that it encourages people to listen to albums – an art form that I’ve always thought can be treasured in a unique way.” Previous ambassadors include Noel Gallagher, Taylor Swift and The 1975. More than 260 independent UK shops will be involved, with queues predicted for exclusive reissues and limited editions, including Eat The Music, originally due to be Kate Bush’s first single from her 1993 album The Red Shoes, but subsequently cancelled in favour of Rubberband Girl. My personal treasure is the beautiful and intimate 2006 acoustic guitar version of Prefab Sprout’s critically acclaimed 1985 album Steve McQueen. In 2022, an analysis by the British Phonographic Industry based on O cial Charts data found that vinyl record sales outstripped CDs for the first time. Last year, sales of vinyl records rose for a 16th consecutive year to nearly six million – their highest this century. Rock and pop devotees tend towards vinyl, while hip-hop fans stream. In the US, Taylor Swift dominates vinyl sales – nine of the 10 bestselling vinyl albums were hers, the exception being Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. In terms of the kit to play the records on, the choice can be bewildering. You could splash out £60,000 on a state-of-theart SME Model 60 Flagship Turntable or pick up a suitcase-style one for around £30 in high street discount stores, while John Lewis has a range of excellent, reasonably priced turntables from big names such as Pioneer, Audio-Technica and Sony starting from £150. Yet a report published last year revealed that 50% of people who purchase vinyl records don’t even own a record RETRO SOUNDS Vinyl record sales rose for a 16th consecutive year in 2023 to the highest this century STUART’S TOP FIVE INDIE STORES SPILLERS RECORDS, CARDIFF The world’s oldest record shop, tucked away in Morgan Arcade in the city centre, is always busy VINYL EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER Based in the northern quarter, with knowledgeable sta and a trove of secondhand treasures SWORDFISH RECORDS, BIRMINGHAM This groovy city centre hang-out is very good for jazz, prog and more obscure stu PIE & VINYL, PORTSMOUTH Southsea record café o ering tunes and delicious pies! What, as they say, is not to like? MONORAIL MUSIC, GLASGOW Well stocked and sta ed by some of the city’s indie band legends. They host gigs too
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