Wednesday 10 November 2010

Put A Record On...

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We've had this old (thrifted, naturally) record player in our family now for the best part of a year. Currently it sits on top of a book shelf in lieu of a real place to fit in (in the new room perhaps? oh yes please! That is, if I don't find the vintage record cabinet I'm keeping my eyes peeled for in the meantime).

When I was young I grew up with a vintage record player of my own until I was the grand old age of 12 when my parents bought me a new one - in stereo (and really I prefered the old mono player). It was large, but one thing I loved about it was the time it took between pulling the lever and watching the message-to-brain time-lapse before the arm decided it would indeed play your record, and the thrill when it touched down and those precious seconds of crackle before the music flooded out.

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To be honest, we don't listen to music. There are reasons for that, but suffice to say that I consider classical music an exception, and apparently Acker Bilk seems OK too. Very mellow and reminds me of my Nana (Acker Bilk was my Granddad's favourite, apparently). And once in a while we crack open the record player and have an afternoon of old-fashioned fun.

I think my children love watching the mechanism too. The smile of satisfaction when they see the needle hit it's target is poetry.

So, in the tradition of Acker Bilk - any recommendations for our record collection?

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4 comments:

  1. What a lovely record player. I wasn't able to find a second hand record player anywhere so recently bought Mr Thrifty a brand new one with MP3 attachment for his birthday.
    We now have a great weekend hobby; searching out records in charity shops.
    May I recommend the Abba's greatest hits? No? Should I run away now?

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  2. I love Abba, and we do have a couple of 7" singles (isn't that a great sentence? I love vinyl), but everytime we tried to play it the record player stopped! lol. We are only permitted to play things the record player approves of...

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  3. Haha! Your record player has limits dontcha know?

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  4. It's very choosy... and sometimes when it's had enough it takes a little rest... we love it anyway with quirks and all

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