Music / Interviews
“I’m obsessed with vinyl”
It’s been an integral part of St Nick’s Market for five years now and in many ways, it seems like much longer than that. But Wanted Records is still going strong much to the delight of owner John Stapleton.
He said: “We’ve been here for just over five years – though I’ve been obsessed with vinyl for a very long time, it seemed like a good idea. We don’t sell anything APART from vinyl – and we’re still here and busier all the time, so I’m pretty happy.”
With record sales up across the nation, there’s talk of a new wave of record buyers filling the aisles of Wanted and its peers, what says John of this?
“We’ve always had different types of customers,” he said. “Hardcore collectors, DJs looking for unusual things to play, producers looking for samples, just regular people who’ve always liked records – but we’ve definitely seen more young people who’ve recently got into vinyl over the last couple of years. People who’ve been given a record player from a relative, and are often buying music they have in digital form already.”
That said, there’s a core customer contingent which continues to prove loyal and important for Wanted Records. John said: “We do really well with reggae from ska to dancehall, and classic rock – The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and so on. Also really rare LPs always fly out, as collectors know they may not find them again for a while!”
But what is rarest item to pass through their doors? “Probably the first LP by jazz pianist Howard Riley,” said John. “There were only 99 made, in 1966; we bought two copies from one of the musicians earlier this year.”
From rare finds to everyday releases, people are shirking MP3s for this age-old format – is that inevitable in the retro roundabout that is life? Or symptomatic of something else? John said: “It’s a cliche, but I think it’s the tangibility of vinyl – records are pleasantly organic things, you can hold them, pass them round, lean on them, write on them, whatever. And it’s too easy to get overloaded with digital music – the way of listening to an LP is very different, it has a start and a finish, rather than an endless stream. And the sound, of course!”
He added: “For me, it’s the format that I grew up with – as a music lover, collector, DJ, and of course recently record dealer.”
More information on Wanted Records at www.wantedrecords.co.uk
(Photos by Joe Pymar)
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
