SOME readers will remember the pleasure of flicking through a stack of LPs at their local record store, finding the one they saved for and bringing it home. Cover art, sound quality, inserts like posters in the sleeves, pesky scratches and rituals of cleaning records all played a part of our love affair with vinyl.
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Saturday celebrates that old feeling with International Record Store Day. Orpheus Bookshop owner and vinyl enthusiast Garry Newley plans to observe the day with a marquee, turntable on the pavement and some of the shop’s records marked down.
Record Store day was founded in 2007. There are now special releases by artists to coincide with the day, and only available at real record stores.
Many audiophiles insist that there is nothing like the sound from a vinyl record.
“What I know is, and this is from Neil Young and several other people who are very much down on digital sound, is that a huge amount of data is recorded in the studio, and three quarters of it s lost when it’s converted to MP3, so a whole heap of sound just disappears,” Garry said.
“Good vinyl, it has a lot of information on it. And it’s just a warm sound because there’s never a total silence, like there is with digital. There’s always something there.”
He said when it comes to hearing music in stereo, many young people don’t know what they’re missing.
“Plus the great thing about vinyl is they last, as is proven, and you’ve got a wonderful cover to look at as well,” Garry said.
“You got all that visual stuff, which the CDs don’t have and downloaded music, there’s nothing really.”
Garry said more people are rediscovering the resilient source of sound and music on vinyl with sales doubling worldwide every year. He has out-of-town regulars who stop in specifically to browse his LPs for sale, and some devoted locals who stop in weekly.
You can find out more about World Record Store Day on www.recordstoreday.com.