I’m 58 and a half and I have been collecting records since I had a wage which started in 1977.

It all began with the crazy world of Northern Soul which is now even crazier and has moved back and forth through various genres of music and is still going way too strong for my tiny bear brain or the storage space in the house or the time I have left on this planet to listen to music and that’s before thinking about the rest of my life and all the digital music out there these days .

So I was chatting to my much better half the other day after she had made a point of telling me that three large parcels had arrived and confessed my anxieties about this hobby , almost certainly a place she arrived at about 25 years ago but welcome to my world all of you folk who live with a partner who is always right can I’m sure empathise there .

She suggested why don’t you write stuff down about what you buy sell and why , just to monitor the good and bad purchases and to track all the albums that remain unopened or the things you find you already had , so here I am and will be scribbling about records that appear and leave my life and no doubt other things and the joys and pains of this addiction ( if it is one of course !!)

Finally I do have to say that music and vinyl has brought great joy to my life , helped me to find many good friends and is often the one place my anxious mind can get lost at least apart from those times where I cant find a record or trip over a pile of them or some similar mishap that may occur .