“It’s the ‘vinyl’ Countdown...”

As we all look forward to a little more normality now that this version of lockdown has come to an end and we all pin hope on the vaccines', I consider the things that have kept me occupied.

Obviously, family has been a big part of many peoples’ coping mechanism through Lockdown’s 1, 2 and 3; the use of Zoom, FaceTime, Messenger and all manner of other video chat systems has meant widely distributed families (and friends) have been able to maintain close contact. The likes of which would have been impossible only a short time ago. Technology advancement is generally a great thing. Clearly, also a little technology focused, is my blogging which I have really enjoyed reliving some of those dad experiences and sharing a few of my thoughts with you.

However, I thought I would share another couple of things that have helped me switch off from work or simply pass the time through this very strange period. After my amazing family, another is my garage! As I mentioned in the blog ‘Dad’s Space’, this is an escape-hatch from normality where you can remove yourself from work, home jobs, news, media and all aspects of lockdown life and just disappear for a few minutes. The simple aspect of staring at storage boxes, scattered tools, sports gear (going mouldy through lack of use) and piles of cardboard from all the home deliveries; waiting for the scheduled booking at the tip is a perfect escapism. It also holds other gems - which I will elaborate on further below.

The next ‘helper‘ is to do with music and interestingly probably more to the point, a bit 'lesser' technology!

According to my wife and children, I have a terrible taste in music (the title to this blog maybe giving a little too much away) but one thing the lockdowns have made me appreciate is the more traditional (for my age) forms of listening to music, especially vinyl. I blame my brother who purchased an updated turntable for his HiFi separates and started me thinking.... Eventually I took the step to venture into the storage boxes within the garage, loft and shed and discovered a few old vinyl records and a tonne of CD's. I didn’t find any cassette tapes!! As a teenager, I thought I had a decent number of vinyl records but on finding my measly dozen, I realised, that at that time, as a young teenager, my brother’s record collection had ‘sort of been considered my own too’ in my own head that is. A big mistake as I looked at some of the pretty sorry examples left behind... sadly the one’s that had actually been mine! Mind you, worse still, the few that were my wife’s! How dare she say I have bad taste in music as I sift through her 1980’s trashy singles!!!

As for the CD's, things looked better and in pretty good shape. Over the years, the volume had become significantly higher. We have nearly 300!!! I guess this has been the mainstay for music and great for gifts at Christmas and birthday time from the mid eighties through to very recent times when we all stopped buying them and started streaming.

This is when the fun really started. Believe it or not... I decided to bring all these back into the house and made the slightly unusual decision to catalogue what we had. That shows what lockdown has done to me in that short sentence alone!!!! Not an easy or quick task either - but oddly good fun!! Once fully catalogued and it was clear what we had; what was good and what was bad. I ordered two shelving cabinets to hold the CD’s and vinyl. Sadly on reflection, probably a mistake as these had not been particularly sensible decisions very well thought through.... mainly because for some reason, I no longer had a CD player or turntable in the house on which to play any! Oops, this is gonna cost me!

That’s when I decided to get really back to basics. I bought a retro styled turntable, cassette player and CD system all-in-one and got listening!!! This was my second mistake. Sadly, my wife said the system was “too bulky and completely hideous” to be in the main rooms of the house so I was banished to the home office. And to make things worse, when I say listening, this was a bit of an exaggeration as I discovered the sound quality was appalling...it was more like the songs being thrown at me rather than listening to them, especially as the CD player had a nasty grinding sound as it spun - so that went back to the shop for a refund!!

I then did the sensible thing and bought a separate turntable. I connected this to the TV sound bar and ‘got listening’ - to my bad records again! All good. Also, because it was a lot more stylish, I was given permission that it could stay in the main living room too - result. However, still no CD player.

This acquisition task didn’t go that well either... Apparently, due to Coronavirus and Brexit - probably made even worse now by a slightly errant container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal, you can’t buy CD separates anywhere!!! So I took the step to get a temporary fix with a cheaper mini HiFi CD player. A good idea but with the first one, although a decent sound and a great fit for the new shelving cabinet.... the display broke! I decided to buy a more expensive one. Only to get that back home and find the sound quality was terrible. My wife’s comment was “does that sound rubbish to you”. On checking, we noticed one review left by another unhappy customer said “sounds like my phone, in a box, inside a shoe box”. Pretty good description we reckon. So that went back too and we purchased another one of the first system!!! You’ll be pleased to know the display is still working.

So why am I rambling on about this? It’s mainly because I’ve now regressed further still!! Although streaming is available for pretty much anything you want, I’ve now started to reminisce about all those lost songs that you don’t play anymore because you don’t see the CD on the shelf or an LP by the record player. A scroll down a playlist or having to remember and search for each one just doesn’t work for my old brain anymore. To the point where, I’ve now started to re-buy all those albums you have only ever streamed. Plus to make it worse also double buying some of the albums you have on CD on vinyl too!!! That’s just bonkers!! It’s the sound of the vinyl though, it is just such a great thing. You can’t quite explain why something that, seemingly doesn’t sound as good, sounds so much better. The kids will say to me “Dad, there’s somethings wrong with that” just because you can hear a crackle or two on the playback or “err how do you forward to the next song?” I’m a little surprised they haven’t asked “what are all those grooves for? or "what does the stick thing do?”.

Whether it’s a cheap 80’s pop and rock LP, a funny little 7” single I get for 99p plus postage on ebay or a classic that costs you more than the digitally remastered version, it’s been a blast to get bidding and searching for those memories. How cool are some vinyl covers too? They are like masterpieces on their own. So much better than an image on your phone.

I even think that as my collection grows, I feel the level of my normality stabilises a little more with each purchase. Cheers goes to my brother - great idea.

Oh, don’t worry I’ve not completely lost the plot, I’ve not gone looking for the VHS storage...yet! When it comes to lockdowns, it could be that this was the ’vinyl’ straw for me..

Enjoy being out of lockdown but stay safe and be careful out there.

As the great song The Final Countdown goes, with both apocalyptic and optimistic references, seeming quite apt for the ‘new normal’......... “We’re leavin together“ “And maybe we’ll come back” “Will things ever be the same again....”. I’m sure you know the rest!!! Ideal for vinyl. But it has to be played at full volume...

I’m now off to get my first vaccine jab!!