Matt gives us another missive in his irregular series of musings on all things music:
THERE'S A RUMOUR GOING ROUND...
Picture Jumbo around the early 2000s, sales of CDs are higher than ever, yet vinyl sales, apart from cheap 7" singles (yep, even the debut releases by Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes were retailing at 99p to �1.99 at this time!) are struggling. Charity shops and second hand shops were heaving with piles of unwanted vinyl albums and singles so that rather than seeing the usual '50s and '60s common cast-offs such as James Last and Frank Sinatra LPs we started to see the heavy sellers of the '70s and '80s such as The Eagles' 'Hotel California' or Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' take up space in the 50p and �1 boxes.
In retrospect, I suppose it's always been like this, as when I started going to record fairs as a young kid, it was predominantly '50s rock and roll and '60s soul, which a decade later turned into rare '60s psych and jazz, and then years later I saw hip-hop and disco and early dance take up more and more space. Why is this the case? Well it's simple, as each generation of music-hungry teens (yes your Grandma was once a cool as heck teenager who dug acid house) makes room for real life, things like comics, records, CDs etc the majority of people make space for hardly ever used kitchen utensils and D.I.Y. tools and whole rooms full of records turn into nurseries or studies so out go all those records back out into the world to be rediscovered again. Ironically, the trend of the last 20 years seems to be that when people reach a later stage in life, when all those grown-up responsibilities have gone to the wayside, shelves of CDs & records, sometimes whole rooms are starting to reappear in their homes.
Anyhow, I'd noticed over a few weeks that some of our youngest customers in their early teens to early 20s were asking if we had any copies of Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' in stock. At first, I naively, and when you think about it, patronisingly, assumed it might be for their parents (or grandparents) rather than themselves. I mean in my eyes at the time 'Rumours' was such an easy album to find, practically every charity shop contained multiple copies, not because it was a rubbish album but because it sold MILLIONS at the time of release, ending up in nearly every household so logically when the clear-outs happened it was one that ended up in the out-going chazza pile with Rubik's cubes and multiple copies of Stephen King's horror novels (all, weirdly now quite collectable). After asking a few regulars about why they suddenly wanted 'Rumours' I'd pretty much sussed out its new popularity. Firstly, there was a documentary on about the band and the tense relationships within it, and secondly, this was the very early days of social media virality; it has soundtracked a few memes and been talked about by a few of the early influencers. I then decided to take the next step and find out whether or not it had been repressed and whether we could get it back in stock, frantically looking around scores of distributors and suppliers to see if I could score copies to sell in the shop.
You can watch the documentary here.
I hit the jackpot and decided to chat to my colleagues about getting it back in again only to see incredulous expressions appear, 'Rumours!?!' 'You can get that in every charity shop!' was the general response with a few disbelieving rounds of laughter thrown in (I tend to be known in the shop for my practical jokes and terrible puns). I held my ground, told them what I'd pieced together and very cautiously was told we'd get a copy in to see how it went. Once the morning delivery came, I put it at the front of the F section in Rock and Pop, and by late morning it had been snapped up by an eager young woman who told one of my doubting colleagues quite animatedly that 'she couldn't believe we had a copy'. I did suspect my workmates thought at first it was some rather elaborate practical joke I'd played on them, but they immediately ordered it back in and boom, it happened again. Next time it was a couple of copies, then a few more, and, if we fast-forward to the current day and though a few more TikTok-soundtracked posts, although not as desired as it first was, it still seems to cause that same reaction in a lot of customers who are caught up in the excitement of finally bagging a copy of their own...
Now I think we've all dropped our disbelief of the double-lifespan of these classic records and artists to hook young listeners in, from Phil Collins to Deftones, the new enthusiasm for these releases seems to go far beyond their original audiences, still generating the same excitement and reactions as they hoped for. For me, it's something great to see.
THERE'S A RUMOUR GOING ROUND...
Picture Jumbo around the early 2000s, sales of CDs are higher than ever, yet vinyl sales, apart from cheap 7" singles (yep, even the debut releases by Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes were retailing at 99p to �1.99 at this time!) are struggling. Charity shops and second hand shops were heaving with piles of unwanted vinyl albums and singles so that rather than seeing the usual '50s and '60s common cast-offs such as James Last and Frank Sinatra LPs we started to see the heavy sellers of the '70s and '80s such as The Eagles' 'Hotel California' or Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' take up space in the 50p and �1 boxes.
In retrospect, I suppose it's always been like this, as when I started going to record fairs as a young kid, it was predominantly '50s rock and roll and '60s soul, which a decade later turned into rare '60s psych and jazz, and then years later I saw hip-hop and disco and early dance take up more and more space. Why is this the case? Well it's simple, as each generation of music-hungry teens (yes your Grandma was once a cool as heck teenager who dug acid house) makes room for real life, things like comics, records, CDs etc the majority of people make space for hardly ever used kitchen utensils and D.I.Y. tools and whole rooms full of records turn into nurseries or studies so out go all those records back out into the world to be rediscovered again. Ironically, the trend of the last 20 years seems to be that when people reach a later stage in life, when all those grown-up responsibilities have gone to the wayside, shelves of CDs & records, sometimes whole rooms are starting to reappear in their homes.
Anyhow, I'd noticed over a few weeks that some of our youngest customers in their early teens to early 20s were asking if we had any copies of Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' in stock. At first, I naively, and when you think about it, patronisingly, assumed it might be for their parents (or grandparents) rather than themselves. I mean in my eyes at the time 'Rumours' was such an easy album to find, practically every charity shop contained multiple copies, not because it was a rubbish album but because it sold MILLIONS at the time of release, ending up in nearly every household so logically when the clear-outs happened it was one that ended up in the out-going chazza pile with Rubik's cubes and multiple copies of Stephen King's horror novels (all, weirdly now quite collectable). After asking a few regulars about why they suddenly wanted 'Rumours' I'd pretty much sussed out its new popularity. Firstly, there was a documentary on about the band and the tense relationships within it, and secondly, this was the very early days of social media virality; it has soundtracked a few memes and been talked about by a few of the early influencers. I then decided to take the next step and find out whether or not it had been repressed and whether we could get it back in stock, frantically looking around scores of distributors and suppliers to see if I could score copies to sell in the shop.
You can watch the documentary here.
I hit the jackpot and decided to chat to my colleagues about getting it back in again only to see incredulous expressions appear, 'Rumours!?!' 'You can get that in every charity shop!' was the general response with a few disbelieving rounds of laughter thrown in (I tend to be known in the shop for my practical jokes and terrible puns). I held my ground, told them what I'd pieced together and very cautiously was told we'd get a copy in to see how it went. Once the morning delivery came, I put it at the front of the F section in Rock and Pop, and by late morning it had been snapped up by an eager young woman who told one of my doubting colleagues quite animatedly that 'she couldn't believe we had a copy'. I did suspect my workmates thought at first it was some rather elaborate practical joke I'd played on them, but they immediately ordered it back in and boom, it happened again. Next time it was a couple of copies, then a few more, and, if we fast-forward to the current day and though a few more TikTok-soundtracked posts, although not as desired as it first was, it still seems to cause that same reaction in a lot of customers who are caught up in the excitement of finally bagging a copy of their own...
Now I think we've all dropped our disbelief of the double-lifespan of these classic records and artists to hook young listeners in, from Phil Collins to Deftones, the new enthusiasm for these releases seems to go far beyond their original audiences, still generating the same excitement and reactions as they hoped for. For me, it's something great to see.
