While visiting a rather delightful bohemian café in Ventnor, I saw an advert for a chap who would pay cash for old LP records.  For the past 35 years we’ve had stacks of them in our loft, sitting there in boxes and doing nothing.  I rang the number given and the chap seemed very keen, so I told Sam to bring the records with him when he returned on the ferry from taking the grandchildren home.  He thought it was a good idea to get some money for them, as practical as ever, he said that our sons would probably just chuck them in a skip after our deaths (yep, he is so right)!

Over to the Island came Sam on Thursday night with 3 large storage boxes of LPs – some of them 40 years old.  There were even duplicates, where we had each bought the same record before we met.  The album covers, especially the ones of Lynyrd Skynyrd,  Queen, Supertramp and Fleetwood Mac,  took me back to the time when Sam and I first got together.  Other ones such as my treasured Be Bop Deluxe LPs took me back even further to my early teenage years (remember Axe Victim?).  It was time for a nostalgia overload.

Some of the LPs my mother had cherished, and these took me back to being 8 or 9, especially Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade.  Dot would play the haunting music and tell me the story behind it.  I knew I couldn’t part with that one!  There was also a Blues from the Deep  South LP I always liked, and some Spanish guitar music.  He wasn’t having those…

Right on time came the chap to the van to sift through our records.  Apparently he prefers vinyl, as he is an evening DJ and he says the records sound better on his music system.  Not sure how 35 years in a loft has added any sound effects apart from scratches, but he seemed pleased with the records and parted with £75.  He left all the classical music, and Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond LPs to be dispatched to LP heaven.  Poor old Neil has had to retire due to ill health – I always liked his voice.  Perhaps I’ll save them from the rubbish tip and play his LPs again one day if I can find a shilling to put on the stylus!