RARE RECORDS IN THE REAL WORLD?

Much as I hate to denigrate Ian Shirley’s life work, am I alone in finding the 200 Rarest Records list (RC 382) almost completely irrelevant and insanely divorced from us run-of-the-mill more humble collectors. So humble a collector that I’ve never been in the financial position where I could spend more than £50 on an item and often in the financial position where I’ve had to sell chunks of my collection to pay the bills.

So, thrilling as it is to read of one-sided acetates that no has ever laid eyes on or three privately pressed copies given away by The Thankfully Forgotten at their gig at the Tiddley-cum-Nowhere Village Hall in the Spring of ‘64, is there any chance of a rarest lists that has it feet firmly grounded in the real world? A list that only includes nationally distributed records that had a reasonably sized pressing run (5,000 copies? 10,000?), which any 16 year old could have bought in their local emporium (almost certainly not a dedicated record shop) in 1967 or whenever. And if not bought, at least ordered. This would probably still allow for Bowie’s early records but eliminate all the demos and test pressings off your list.

While I am wearing my curmudgeon’s hat, can I also gently suggest that not every record released in the 60s was a masterpiece; that when matrix numbers get more important than the music then something has gone badly wrong; and that just because the world was wrong about The Velvet Underground doesn’t necessarily mean that a failure to sell records is a sign of undiscovered genius – sometimes the public knows what it’s doing. It may surprise you but Record Collector has been the highlight of my month for many a long year, but it I just wish you’d realise that I suspect you have more readers like me than you realise.

Ian Shirley, editor of Rare Record Price Guide, and compiler of our Top 200, says: “We try to cater for all collectors, whether they are spending £5 on a Cliff Richard single or over £600 on a Mint copy of the hideously rare LP by Czar from 1970. As for the 200 Rarest Records, whenever we publish a new price guide we always run a feature that covers the rarest records as it fascinates our readers and we always receive a number of letters from collectors delighted to discover that they actually own one of the records featured and had no idea of its value.

Even in this 24-hour internet age with all manner of records coming out of the woodwork to be sold online there are some rarities like the Wil Malone album that just hardly ever crop up. Ironically, back in 1970 a 16 year old could have bought this record just as they could have bought David Bowie or Marc Bolan’s early singles when they were first released in the 60s. The same applies to rarities from the 50s right through to the present day.

As for the matrix number obsession, this is just part and parcel of record collecting these days, especially when collectors are paying vast sums for rare first pressings and want to be 100 per cent sure that they have the right record inside the right sleeve and that it is a first release.

Saying that, RC makes every effort to feature all manner of artists and genres with discographies, where records range in value from a few to hundreds of pounds. Regular features like Value Added Facts and Diggin’ For Gold cover the whole collecting spectrum. Finally, the most important thing about collecting vinyl is the pleasure not only in tracking down records but actually playing them at home whether they cost £5 or £500.

by Matthew Rosedon
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