But why go to the bother of selecting eight discs, if you are able to slip a lifetime’s worth of music onto the island anyway? I vividly recall Nick Hornby appearing on Desert Island Discs in about 2001 and requesting an iPod as his luxury and thinking that undermined the whole point of the show. I was struck by how quickly we had all got used to having so much more music, more easily, to hand. It was something I began to think about writing around the time the iPod first took off. TE: "Though it might not seem it, the book had quite a long gestation period. In my own case, while I was working on the book, I certainly felt able to justify virtually any record purchase - to myself, if perhaps not as convincingly to Emily - on the grounds that it was for ‘research.’"īusman's Holiday: Emily and Travis on the decksĪpart from buying loads of albums, what other research did you do before embarking on writing The Long-Player Goodbye? It’s a bit like why do you need to drink four bottles of wine a night? Oh, I am oenophile. Don’t you think we also dignify the whole thing with that word ‘collector’? It's a great way to justify the expenditure, isn’t it? Why do you have all these records? Oh, I collect them. Or hit someone over the head with, at very least. And bam, there I am, a pool of Flashback, Haggle Vinyl and Help the Aged carrier bags at my feet and a sinking feeling that at least the ancestors might have dragged something back to the cave they could eat. But there’s always that moment when I first get through the front door with that day’s haul and catch myself in the mirror in the hall. I am not especially convinced by a lot of the stuff put forward by biological determinists. "But, yes, I think you are right, record collecting certainly is a disease - or at least some kind of genetic malfunction. Because what I cherish about that LP now is simply knowing that there is a ‘thank you’ to the Wandsworth branch of the NatWest for lending him the money to record it, on the back cover. I could just wander over to the rack and dig it out, of course, but that would spoil things. Though I have a suspicion there may well be one called the ‘King of Ska’. I am buggered if I can recall any of the songs on it. I’ve got a Desmond Dekker LP from the late 1980s called the King of Ska, I think. There are some albums where I can hardly remember anything about the record itself but the acknowledgement remains lodged in my brain. I also try to do the same with LP sleeve notes. Travis Elborough: "I am so glad you start there, it’s also something of a ritual of mine too. It is more of a disease than a pastime isn't it? My girlfriend is a record collector herself but has still had to put me on a strict one-in, one-out policy regarding vinyl recently, due to excessive browsing of the car boots.
This made me wonder how much tolerance friends, loved ones and family members need to have towards you if you're a record collector. And of course a beautiful dedication to your better half (and occasional Quietus scribe) Emily. In The Long-Player Goodbye, I noticed a lot of thank yous to record shops including my own favourite, Flashback on Essex Road in Islington. When I'm reading a book, it's my custom to turn to the acknowledgements first.
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