Vinyl Stories - Vinyl 2024

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 1 / 2 / 2025

Once again the vinyl expenditure has been prominent in 2024, not just with me but with my fellow writers also. I have been heartened to see one of Nottingham’s old record shops re-open again. Fopp used to be in another part of the city but has re-opened across the other side of the market square. It has been great to wander around the aisles isles again, but I am really saddened to hear from one of the assistants there that they have a massive issue with theft. They have to do weekly, sometimes daily stock takes, just to find out how much has been stolen in any one day. On a brighter note, here are some of the purchases made this year by our intrepid vinyl hunters and where better to start than with the gaffer himself, our editor John Clarkson. JOHN CLARKSON: I have bought and acquired a lot of vinyl but here are the four that have meant the most. Autumn 1904/Tales of Innocence: The John Peel Session and Collected Recordings 1984-2023 My favourite album of the last year. There is a great story behind this one. Autumn 1904 was a short-lived, early 1980's Edinburgh-based post-punk band, who recorded in its lifetime just one Peek Session plus one other song, which appeared on a tape given away free with a local fanzine. They reformed a couple of years ago after their keyboardist Allan Dumbreck found some old demos while clearing out a cupboard, This LP went into the Top 20 album charts in Scotland, and features the Peel Session and fanzine track, as well as spruced up, re-recorded versions of the demos. There is a limited CD edition of this, but the vinyl version is the one to go for. With its extensive sleeve notes, photos of the band back in the 1980s and details about the songs, it both takes us and Autumn 1904 back in time and firmly into the 21st century. DAVE GOODWIN: The album cover looks just like something Joy Division would have done with the backing of design crew Garood and Lofthouse. I have to admit I has never heard this band before. I have now. Big sounding 80’s vibe with jangly guitars and anthemic vocals and backing. Marvellous! Sukie Smith/The Glass Dress and a Ringing Bell JC: When former Madam frontwoman Sukie Smith self-released this album on pink vinyl in March, she apparently had to buy a record player so that she could listen to it. It is a very personal and dark-themed record, telling of an emotionally-abusive former boyfriend and a near death experience, but its overall tone is redemptive, capturing Sukie’s euphoria and triumph at having got through and survived these experiences. I have had a difficult year, and more than any other record it has stood as a testament that there are good days as well as bad ones, and there are hopefully better times ahead. DG: Another new one to me this. It Reminds me in places of Sharon Van Etten. I think a lot of folk that ditched the vinyl when the CD appeared also got rid of the turntable so this doesn’t surprise me. Now that vinyl has established itself as the premium format turntables are on the rise again. The Affection Place/Smouldering Fire JC: I got into this French band, based around father and son Peter and Tim Petersen, after reading a review written for Penny Black by yourself, Dave, of a Nottingham show they played in April on a short UK tour. I was so intrigued that I watched a concert of theirs on Yo Tube and ordered the album later that day. They include Magazine’s Howard Devoto on keyboards in their current line-up and there is a strong component of that band in ‘Smouldering Fire’ but they carry much of their own in their bracing and intense post-punk sound. This would have been one of my albums of this year except it came out in 2023. DG: I really enjoyed the stuff these guys did, and as John says I was lucky enough to get some music to review and discover a little more. The black watch/The Morning Papers Have Given Us The Vapours JC: Penny Black brought over the Los Angeles cult indie rock band the black watch and their charismatic frontman John Andrew Fredrick over for two gigs, one in Edinburgh and one in London, in March of 2023. John spent a lot of time at the London gig talking to a fellow called Guy Sirman, who runs a label called Dell’Orso, and who he had already struck a deal with to do a rare UK release. Guy shortly after that fell suddenly and seriously ill in Spain, and was hospitalised there for a long time before being allowed home to London. The result of this was that album, ‘The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours’, came out many months late. I nothing else, 2024 was a golden year for black watch fans as there were two new albums. The other ‘Weird Rooms’ is currently only available on import from their American label ATOM Records. ‘The Morning Papers’ is a vinyl only release with a limited edition of 200 copies, and it is to Guy and John’s credit that it has come out at all. DG: I confess to giving this lot a listen when I heard that they were doing the gigs. Having written for Penny Black for a while now, I had also heard of the Dell’Orso label but am not entirely sure where I heard of it. Before discovering the black watch in thie magazine this was another unheard for me. Maarten Schiethart has not only bought some more vinyl for his collection, but has gone the extra mile in buying the shelves to put them on! He says….. MAARTEN SCHIETHART: Oh yes, vinyl! Incurably addicted vinyl junkie me. Record pressing plants were working overtime throughout 2024 and in particular with the major label releases, prices went through the roof. This year I bought six large shelving units and I'll be busy in winter time sorting out the thousands of unfiled vinyl records that I own. The Waaghals store inmy native Nijmegen is one of the greatest on earth. Alas, even there you'll find LP's as expensive as 40 quid. Yet, ‘The Neon Gate’ LP by Nap Eyes was just 16,90 euro. The cheapest brand new 2024 LP I bought was Gablé's ‘Pick The Wea’k so I bought an extra copy. It must be the VAT that makes vinyl so affordable in France. I bought a couple of LPs on Glitterbeat that sell for 27 Euros in the Netherlands and Germany, I got them from France for just over 18E Seven inches are relatively expensive. The happy memories of buying brand new 99p singles are slowly fading away. Local products sometimes prove a great treat, like 'Tanz Minimal' by Zona Utopica Garantita. DG: I remember when I could buy ex Juke box records from Woolworth’s for 75p. Those were the days. Another regular vinyl nut Eoghan Lyng has also been buying but, as he says… EOGHAN LYNG: Much like last year, I only had to pick up one record this year, and fittingly for December, it was ‘A Christmas Gift for You’ from Phil Spector. Whatever else you might say about Spector, this man truly knew how to assemble sound together: a sound painting of brass, string and voice. Every minute detail comes to life on the record player, from the sleighbells to the gaspy harmonies; all stellar. And in keeping with the recording sessions, I bought mine in the summertime, to prepare myself for the season ahead. Christmas isn’t for everyone, but I doubt Ebenezer Scrooge could have resisted this musical bundle. DG: Gosh, I have a small collection of original US Philles 7” that I play regularly. I love the whole wall of sound. You don’t realise how big the back catalogue is until you start to delve into it. The sounds were just something else. Me? I’ve not actually been that busy with New Stuff or adding to my Northern Soul collection this year. I think work has taken over as I was made redundant just after Christmas, so I have had to watch what I have been spending but…… Newer Stuff ; Humanist - On the Edge of a Lost and Lonely World - Bella Union Berwyn - Who Am I? - Sony The Cure - Songs of a Lost World – Fiction Soul Stuff; all US original 7” Mill Evans – I’ve Got to Have Your Love – Constellation Bobby Wells – Lets Copp a Groove – Romur The Herbs – Question / Never, Never, Will I fall in love – Smoke Jackie Edwards – Feel So Bad – Island Test Press …this was a UK only release so I bought a test press to try and blend it in to the collection because I just love this track I couldn’t go without it. Darell Banks – Our Love Is in the Pocket /Open the Door to Your Heart – Revilot The Supremes – Everybody’s Got the Right to Love – Motown During this next year I am hoping the work front will calm down a little and I can get back to hunting some more Northern and rare soul and other more recent or new releases that catch the eye. Let’s keep it to ourselves though and try not to let the wife know, eh. Have a wonderful New Year and ill see you all on the other side.

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