vinyl

[drakula63]

I find it very interesting that despite its obvious drawbacks - scratches, crackles etc... - vinyl definitely seems to be making a comeback.

Go into ANY record shop today (OK, there aren't that many of them left!) and the amount of vinyl being stocked is quite extraordinary. We have a local independent shop here called Fopp and I would be willing to estimate that the amount of vinyl LPs on display probably approaches that of the CDs. This is quite incredible and certainly wasn't the case five years ago when the humble LP seemed to be dead. I note that it is now customary for most rock bands to release their latest album (or back catalogue classic) on 180 gram heavy vinyl - and this, of course, includes the recent Shadows re-releases from Italy.

I grew up during the age of vinyl, as did most of us here I suspect, and I have always felt very attached to this format. I remember it beginning to die out in the early 1990s, becoming as good as extinct by the end of the decade. But now it's coming back and I for one am very pleased!

Still, I do find it quite remarkable that this apparent resurrection is happening in this day and age, when the mp3 seems to rule. Maybe it's just the nostalgia thing, or maybe people really are finally accepting that music does somehow sound better if it's not just reduced to a stream of 1s and 0s. Either way, I still play my old Shadows LPs far more often than I play the CDs and would hope that EMI see sense and re-release at least some of their back-catalogue on vinyl in the not too distant future.

Chris

[hbmartin]

EMI is no more now Chris. It got sold to Universal and the Shads recordings all transferred to Parlophone label which is owned now I believe by Warner Music. All very confusing.

[Iain Purdon]

Whoever owns the rights to release back-catalogue, they're only going to do it if they can make money. I wonder if that's possible. There's plenty about the resurgence of vinyl on the internet. Here's a taster: