Forever young - Vinyl lives on in the heart of the collector

 Erin Hansen, Gleaner Writer

The musical medium has evolved significantly over the last 50 years. Spanning from the phonograph to the present day MP3, the medium that has retained the most cult-like following since recorded music's inception is the record.

The Vinyl Record Collectors' Association cherishes the significance of vinyl to the art form, celebrating their dedication every year as record collectors with the Annual Memorial Day Collectors' Sit In.

While the association has been organising formally since 2006, the original gathering was hosted by collector Michael 'Mikey' Neysmith, at the home of David and Velma Hobson, in Philadelphia over Memorial Day Weekend in 1998. What began as a celebration of those collectors, who had passed on and left an empire of musical greatness behind, has grown into a transcontinental membership of avid music lovers who share their stories and sounds over, what is now a three-day event.

Lifetime achievements

Last year's festivities were hosted in New York and acknowledged the lifetime achievements of Jamaican collecting pioneers such as Carl Percy and Gersham 'Doc' White. Next year's conference, held the last next weekend in May, will be hosted here in Jamaica and bring in members from Canada, New York, Florida and Atlanta.

The weekend's activities include a meet and greet, where collectors can get together and talk vinyl, while the Saturday and Sunday events include musical performances and the annual lifetime achievement awards.

Louis Owen from the Jamaican chapter spoke with The Gleaner about the organisation's members. "Most of us have always loved music. If you check around you might see who the record collector is. he might not be visible out there on a commercial circuit plane, but he's had his collection dating back to the sixties."

A dying medium

Owen reminisced about his own first purchase. "I started in '71 or '72. The first album I bought was Marvin Gaye's What's Going On." He laughed, "I had to save up all my lunch money just to buy it."

Despite assumptions that vinyl is a dying medium, vinyl collectors retain a solid support system.

"If you are a collector, you will meet collectors," says Owen, "we try to share information and you will find that most of us tend to gravitate around the same circles."

The most striking feature that sustains the association is the collector's love for music. When the rest of his young friends were lingering at dances to catch a girl, the vinyl collector was listening with open ears. For that, quality and not quantity, is paramount to the association's members.

"We have a different level of appreciation for the music," Owen explained. "If you lock yourself into a genre, you can't be a part of this group."

Owen, who is an avid collector of ska and soul records, acknowledged that members do have their bias, but, "most of us tend to have a cross section, and can play records from multiple genres".

This year, Owen expects the membership to grow as more and more unknown collectors are starting to emerge from their vinyl dens. Despite the ever-evolving technology of music mediums, the non-profit association is inspiring people to just "bring their records and share", and for music lovers, that practice never gets old.