Vinyl revolution

Our region is home to some of the finest independent record shops, whose passion for music and building a community around vinyl and other physical formats will be highlighted nationally during this month’s Record Store Day. By Yusef Sayed.

Now in its 18th year, Record Store Day aims to support independent businesses through the promotion of limited vinyl releases available on a first come, first served basis in-store only. Fans and collectors are now familiar with the ritual of queuing long before opening, in order to tick off those reissues and special editions on their wish lists. This year’s releases, which will hit shops on 12th April, include titles by Fleetwood Mac, Thin Lizzy, Adam Ant as well as BRIT nominees Fred again.., Charli XCX and Sam Fender along with many more.

With a number of shops in Lincolnshire and just over the border taking part, we spoke to business owners to learn how the area is a great draw for those looking to discover a new favourite artist, meet like-minded enthusiasts and make the most of their collections.

Long players
In Louth, Off the Beaten Tracks is celebrating 21 years in business in 2025, maintaining premises along Aswell Street since first opening to the public. In that time, owners Mark Merrifield and Lee Conybeare have found a supportive community and seen the unanticipated resurgence in physical formats, especially vinyl. They share a common background with most of the region’s record shop owners, having started out by selling at local markets, or fairs.

“When we moved to Louth in 2003, we loved the fact that the town supported lots of independent businesses but there wasn’t a record shop,” says Lee.

“Since we are big music fans, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go. After testing the water with a stall on the market, we opened our first premises in Aswell Street in March 2004.

“We are delighted that vinyl has made such a comeback and that a whole new generation are enjoying the look, feel and sound of records. We have also seen a rise in the sale of secondhand CDs, especially to the younger generation. And it’s really great on Record Store Day to see parents and their children queuing up together. It’s a fantastic list this year. Being big Beatles fans, it’s great to see George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and a John & Yoko live album. There’s nostalgic ’80s titles as well as brand new music from Beabadoobee and English Teacher.”

Mark and Lee will also be showing their support for the wider music culture and Lincolnshire’s independents, hosting not only live music by local acts but also a pop-up demonstration area by hi-fi specialist, Expressive Audio, based in Boston, where you can try your new vinyl.

Lee says: “We have a tradition that Experimental Sonic Machines plays for us every Record Store Day. You won’t see anything like it anywhere else! We also like to end the day with live music from a local band.”

Sounds of the city
Back to Mono in Guildhall Street in Lincoln’s city centre is run by Jim Penistan, who is well-known for his dedication to record selling and monthly music nights. Having established a customer base at the location across many years through his previous shop Sonic Sounds. Jim moved into a unit on the high street in 2009 under a new name, Back to Mono, before relocating back to Guildhall Street three years later, where he has been since.

Jim recalls: “In 1989 we started doing record fairs around the country and then about a year or two later we opened our first shop. Around 2006-2007 things went very quiet, as people were just downloading after Napster, the iPod and all these things came along.”

With the return of vinyl to the forefront, is there any differences between the way in which discs are enjoyed between different age groups?

“I think sometimes people just like to collect the current vinyl edition, but the people we speak to like to play them, listen to them, sit down with them. I think what people like with a vinyl record is that you tend to listen to it in its entirety – whereas if you listen to Spotify, you tend to shuffle songs. And also, if you’re playing a David Bowie album, say, it’s got the gatefold sleeve, it’s got all the lyrics on the inside…”

During times when the footfall has dipped, especially during the pandemic, Jim has found, like his fellow shop owners, that online selling alongside the shop experience has helped business to thrive.

“Absolutely yes, that helps. Certainly during lockdown, when you only had that one choice, it was a bonus having already been set up with our mail order.”

Vintage and new
While the digital experience of music, through streaming and shopping online, is now firmly a part of the culture, the opportunity to visit a unique independent shop staffed by passionate fans and experts offers the chance to browse, happen across something unexpected and get into conversation about recommendations and shared likes.

Further bridging any perceived age divides, Rocka-Buy Records in Oakham just over the border in Rutland, has been building a large audience online by embracing social media platforms and creating humorous and insightful videos featuring owner Dean Poole and his sons, Chris and Dan. This will be the first time they are taking part in Record Store Day.

Dean says: “I think we’re going to have about 200 people queuing outside, the way people have been talking, because we’re the only ones around here that are doing it. There’s nobody in Peterborough, there’s one in Leicester, I think. I had a guy come in from Milton Keynes earlier who said, ‘I’m going to come and see you’.”

Dean opened the shop as a way of channelling a lifelong love of music following a particularly difficult period working in care. He remembers: “I was working with the NHS and in the middle of lockdown I was having a few really bad days and was coming home crying every night. My son said, ‘Dad we’re opening a record shop’. I went, ‘Okay, what stock are we going to use?’. He said, ‘Well you’ve got enough stock in the garage to start with, a bit of my collection, a bit of your collection, let’s do it’.

“So we opened up a shop with about 1,200 records and we’ve been here four years now and it’s gone from strength to strength. I would say we’re about 50/50, over 40s and under 40s. I think the kids now, they just want something tangible in their hands, to look at and feel. I know when I was young I couldn’t wait to get a record in my hands and play it. And I think they want to change the rules a little bit.”

Famous faces to have visited the shop include Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who unexpectedly dropped in when the legendary band were in the country for the Download Festival. “He came in to buy a couple of records and have a chat with us.”

The father-and-sons collaboration also underlines the cross-generational appeal of many bands and genres, as well as the physical record buying experience – with the shop sticking to a vinyl-only ethos.

For those looking to learn more about various pressings and what collectables they might not know they already own, Dean is open and enthusiastic about sharing what he has learned.

Aside from the more obvious ’60s and ’70s albums and singles fetching ever higher prices, even titles from the ’90s are sought out for their scarcity, having been released at a time when the CD was predominant.

“Early pressings of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin are always going to be sought after,” says Dean.

“A lot of people have got a lot of punk and post-punk stuff in their collections. A classic one would be Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures: sold thousands upon thousands, but if you hold it up to the light and it’s got this translucent purple look to it, it could add an extra £150 to the value. People don’t know that.

“There’s a George Michael album called Older, it came out in 1996 when everybody was buying CDs. So anything of that era, say 1994-1999, there were very few albums being pressed. I bought a copy of Older off a guy for £550. And the funny thing was they had a sticker of £10.99 on it, then a sticker over the top of that, £6.99, and then it had Reduced to £3.99!”

Off the charts
Alan Barnsdale’s knowledge extends ever wider to encompass everything from rock and reggae, to country and western and classical. The owner of Uptown Vinyl Records, which is based at Baytree Garden Centre in Spalding, Alan believes his shop to be the largest independent vinyl shop in the UK.

“I used to do record fairs on the weekends. When I retired from the world of business, I decided I’d got so much stock in a double garage that I wanted to open a record shop. I used to have a shop 25 years ago, and when CDs came along that killed that. I timed it to perfection as it all came back again and since then it’s grown and grown.”

Focusing on genuine vintage records, Alan is always on the lookout to buy collections, finding that demand is as high as it has ever been and trends continuing to develop.

“We are all learning and changing our tastes in a lot of ways. country and western is going to be enormous. Ringo Starr’s just brought a new album out of country music, Beyoncé’s gone country. You look at what’s happening on Radio 2 and everything, it’s country. Neil Young’s featuring at Glastonbury, so he’ll be popular again.”

Since relocating to the garden centre, Alan has been pleased with the volume of customers taking the time out to search through the racks and leaving with new sounds to enjoy at home. The shop, which opens Tuesday to Sunday, stocks more than 200,000 LPs and around 25,000 CDs across four rooms.

“People do have to drive here, but we’re also on a bus route and we’re in one of the largest garden centres in the country, with a great footfall. It’s remarkable.”

Uptown Vinyl has maintained the look of traditional record shop with wooden racks that invite hours of enjoyment. Reflecting the connections between classic music and the county, Alan also commemorates a historic visit to the county by Jimi Hendrix in 1967, with a special display about the BBQ ’67 event on display for visitors – a landmark event almost lost to history and the one and only time that Hendrix, Cream and Pink Floyd shared a bill. This in turn attracted the interest of the BBC and the shop recently featured on an episode of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, which saw Quadrophenia stars Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash meet with Alan while on the hunt for prized discs.

“That’s done us an absolute world of good,” says Alan.

Alan is also delighted that Uptown Vinyl Records, which will mark its ten-year anniversary in April, was recently named among the greatest records shops in the world by the Financial Times.

All indications show that the county is fully in tune with the record-buying public and helping to shape an interest in music from the past among younger listeners.

Record Store Day – 12th April. Participating shops in our area: Back to Mono, Lincoln; Off the Beaten Tracks, Louth; Replay Records, Grimsby; Vinyl Attraction, Newark and Rocka-Buy Records in Oakham

Amazing sound and vision
If you enjoy excellent quality sound and superb cinema visuals in the comfort of your own home, the expert team at Expressive Audio, based in Boston, can help create your own tailored experience, making the most of your music and film collections.

To coincide with Record Store Day on 12th April, Expressive Audio will be at Off The Beaten Tracks in Louth to showcase their hi-fi equipment. You can also meet the team on their stand at the Woodhall Spa Show on Sunday 18th May.

The shop also hosts a regular free event, ‘Bring Your Own Music Night’, which this month takes place on Sunday 6th April between 7pm and 9pm at The Red Lion in Revesby – bring along some of your favourite music in vinyl, CD or digital form to share with fellow audiophiles in a great venue, on some fantastic audio systems.

For more information, call 01507 499047, visit the showroom at Moorby Yard on the Revesby Estate, or visit www.expressiveaudio.com

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