A Poetic Tribute to Vinyl by thr Bard of Bicton Heath

This was a review posted on Amazon for my book 'The Vinyl Revival and The Shops That Made it Happen' ending with this wonderful poem.

T. Satchwell
5.0 out of 5 stars Review in Words a Tribute in Rhyme
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2019
Another gem from Graham Jones...I have enjoyed his previous works no end...
This one follows a slightly similar path in listing and reviewing the Last (Vinyl) Shops standing, some old friends and some new. There is a pattern emerging in the new....get yourself a coffee shop ..with room for records. Interesting to see that some have diversified into other areas ..clothing I suppose a more obvious choice...but craft beers..I never saw that one coming. But I guess as with independent records stores, the small indie brewery is fighting the good fight.

So you get your regional breakdown of the stores and their specialties....and I must say..I'll be tucking this book into my bag if I'm off anywhere else in the country....The Michelin Vinyl Guide. Almost impossible to keep this up to date...Black Barn records in Cambridge just closed their doors one day, and they didn't open again. There was tons of second hand stock in there..I'm assuming the Lottery Winning Millionaire Owner has stashed it in another Black Barn elsewhere.

For me the really interesting part is the first few chapters which cover a bit of background to the shall we say sorry state (Compared to the golden years that I experienced) we find ourselves in today. A nice chapter on HMV (the now or possibly shortly departing last chain standing. I have mixed feelings about the demise of the chains. Yes they used their buying muscle to get cheaper product and take away the business from the Indies....they manipulated the market in many ways...but they also took a hammering from the supermarkets, downloads and online sales. I read a few scathing remarks about HMV going....but if you look through Grahams book..you will find a lot of now owners/managers of stores who cut their teeth in HMV and others. So...I guess they had their uses. I gained experience in both indies and chains ..so I can see sides to all this. The music industry seemed to consistently shoot itself in the foot time after time...home taping is killing music?? so why do your parent companies make the hardware to allow people to do it, ditto videos, mindiscs etc. I can't believe that nobody in the bizz couldn't see mp3/download/file share coming...but it seemed that there were lots of heads buried in lots of sand. Perhaps they thought they could continue running the same business model and hope it would all go away.

Looking back over what I've done ..I kind of regret not sticking with music industry in some way....but I think I saw a lot of the issues coming and didn't fancy being unemployed or unemployable! I guess a record shop with music books...and maybe coffee is where I'd like to get to...but time is moving fast.
So..I fear despite some interest from the "Younger generation" in vinyl and record shops...I/we are a dying breed who witnessed the wonderful times/hours spent in record shops in pursuit of that song.

I leave this review with a poem for you out there

Final Vinyl
Out of the dark and in to the light
Feel the weight of the Vinyl
Check out the sleeve from front to back
Song Title, band and liner

Ease it over the centre spindle
Careful as it drops
Lift the arm, but check the speed
No unnecessary knocks

Plop the needle at the start
Hit that run in groove
Crackle pop the song begins
Your feet begin to move

Track by Track the magic flows
Stylus in the groove
Side one ends, the arm extends
Lift it up real smooth

Good exercise this getting up
Changing to side two
Round and round again it goes
Back into the groove

That's it, it's done the albums through
That 25 Mins of pleasure
Back in to the dark from light
To play with at your leisure

Wait a sec, the run off groove
Was Porky cutting prime
What cryptic message did he leave
Until the end of time

The Bard of Bicton Heath 
 
 

 

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