Ipod generation getting back in the old groove

The city’s vinyl revival is on. Reporter Alex Claridge finds

It starts with a crackle as the needle lands in the groove of the 12-inch black disc spinning on a turntable.

A barely audible hiss follows and then the music bursts into life. That, in a few words, is the joy, the genius of vinyl.

Like, I suppose, almost everyone who likes a bit of music, records were a teenage discovery.

This was the 1980s and CDS hadn’t made their appearance yet. Everything I owned was on vinyl – or was vinyl recorded onto a casette tape to be played on my Walkman.

CDS, ipods and downloads straight to a device all meant that by 2007 vinyl sales had dropped to 0.1% of all music sold.

But vinyl is here again – and in a big way. A whole new generation is rediscovering it.

Meeting the new demand in Canterbury is Soundz ‘n’ Sitez in St Peter’s Street, which occupies what was formerly Whatever Comics.

The comics and collectibles have now made way for hundreds of records.

“Vinyl has never really gone away and there has always been a hardcore of collectors,” explains manager Paul Denbry.

“But the real thing that has changed is that younger people are getting into it. We’ve had kids as young as 12 asking for a Sex Pistols record.

“This is the post-download generation. The new buyers are attracted by the physicality of it all. It’s about the tactility of it.”

At just 17, Jake Molloy, from Beaconsfield Road, is one of the new generation finding its way into vinyl.

He tells me: “I’ve only got a few records, but my dad has got loads, everything from reggae to blues. He either buys them off other people or goes into Canterbury record shops and gets them.

“My particular interest is UK hip hop, which I’m able to get on vinyl. The good thing about vinyl is that unlike illegally downloading, the money goes to the artist and that’s important.

“But the real thing is that you get the crackle and then the music. You get that special analogue sound rather than the digital one.”

Canterbury used to boast a healthy record trade.

You could walk in a straight line from Canterbury Rock at the bottom of Whitstable Road to Lower Bridge Street, where Parrot Records used to be, and pass numerous record emporia.

There was long-haired Dave at

‘Vinyl has never really gone away and there has always been a hardcore of collectors’

Paul Denbry and Joe Hills at the former Whatever Comics shop which is now called Soundz ‘n’ Sitez