Hello! Welcome to the first post on my blog. My name’s David and I’ve been a keen collector of vinyl records for many years now, starting with a copy of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds that I bought way back in 1978. My musical tastes have varied a lot since then, depending on what mood I was in at the time really.
Having been brought up in Coventry in the early 80’s, 2 Tone was a big part of the music scene and my life, hence where my internet name comes from. I was a bit too young (much too young..) to go to gigs or own a Harrington Jacket and DM’s , but I can remember going to school friends’ houses and hearing the sound of the Specials, The Beat, The Selector (especially the track, “Three Minute Hero”), UB40 etc booming out of their elder siblings bedrooms. Plenty of skinheads and mods were roaming the streets too, so probably not a scene my parents were keen on, so we moved out of Coventry to the suburbs in 1981.
The mid 80’s were spent listening to Jean Michel Jarre, Fun Boy Three, Abba, Kraftwerk and some classical stuff on the family stereo. I can remember buying the Frankie Goes to Hollywood album, but having seen the gatefold I took it back to Woolworths as I did not want my Mum to see it, plus it was a bad pressing. I did listen to the pop music of the time (Duran Duran, A-Ha, Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears etc), mostly on cassette copies of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series, plus I watched Top of the Pops every week. While I liked the music, I was not convinced enough to go out and buy the records. Then, in 1986, I heard the Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley track, “Jack Your Body” on the radio and was entranced by it, which started in earnest my interest in electronic music. I can remember we were all off school due to heavy snow, and being glued to Radio 1 waiting for them to play the track, as it was heading to number one at the time. I was also an avid listener of Jeff Young’s Big Beat too, as well as Franklyn Hughes who played some good, soulful dance stuff such as Prince, Alexander O’Neill and Luther Vandross on a local station Mercia Sound.
During my time at University I was a bit of a raver, so was well into Chicago House, Techno, Acid etc. I could just about pick up the signal for Wear FM and listened to DJ Huey’s show, who was playing some cool dance stuff, like Joey Beltram’s “Energy Flash”, that was not being played often on the commercial stations. I liked Hip Hop and Rap as well, such as Public Enemy, Tone Loc, Rob Base and Eric B & Rakim. Alongside that, I also enjoyed African Music as well, especially from Senegal, and went to concerts and gigs by artists such as Baaba Maal, Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita. One of my flat mates was well into World Music, so I ended up being a regular at the Reggae Club at the Uni too. Energy Flash one minute, then chilling out with Bob Marley the next. All good fun.
I bought a lot of vinyl at Uni, and probably spent too much time in record shops when I should have been studying. After that, as I did a lot of travelling in my twenties and thirties, I did not buy much more vinyl. I guess CD’s were becoming more into fashion, plus I had other priorities for spending the pennies. Any concerts I went to were more to keep my now wife happy, such as David Grey, Take That and Westlife.
Now that I’m settled down, with a wife, two kids and a mortgage to pay, I’ve retreated to my man shed and my love on vinyl has been reignited. I did sell a lot of my earlier collection, so I am kicking myself about some I let go far too cheaply. However, I’ve picked up several boxes of vinyl from various sources, such as friends, house clearances, charity shops, plus some interesting job lots I’ve bought off ebay and gumtree. I must have well over 1000 records by now, plus loads of CD’s and cassettes, so will be listing as many as possible on discogs over the next few months. I will keep my favourites, or list them for a silly price, but the rest I will be aiming to sell in proper Trotters Independent Traders fashion.
If you are interested in buying some vinyl, please keep an eye on my site as I will be listing everything as accurately as possible. All my records will be cleaned and any sleeves repaired or glued, as I do not like to sell rubbish!
I’ll use this blog to list some of the more interesting stuff I have picked up, or to highlight something that has a personal connection to me. This post has already ended up being a lot longer than anticipated, so I’d better finish now and do some more cleaning. Bye for now!