Let’s do this together
We have a tradition of giving turntables to teenagers in our family once they reach 16 and they’re old enough not to scratch records.
Then we start giving them old vinyl as gifts and introducing them to record player delights from Motown and disco to prog rock and punk to kickstart their musical education.
Although the age limit didn’t apply to my niece Leo who had to wait until she was 28 before she could be trusted after she broke several of my needles and thought vinyl was just a big CD.
I’m proud to say she has recovered from this poor start and has also started asking for random vinyl gifts for her new turntable.
And I spend many happy hours at vinyl stalls in markets, pulling out ancient relics with the odd wellknown track on them to liven up proceedings. Although Leo did admit Boney M’s Daddy Cool was possibly a bit more eclectic than she was expecting.
These days I’ve given away so much of my old vinyl to the kids, I’m down to the last big names.
Nobody’s getting the Bowie or Pink Floyd and, frankly, no-one wants ELO, Yes or my “misery” collection of Joni Mitchell.
I’m also getting low on Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush since the teenagers “discovered” Running Up That Hill in Stranger Things.
I have some obscure Kate Bush records, like her rubbish second album Lionheart, which makes you understand why people buy greatest hits collections.
Although saying that, I also own a double greatest hits album by Neil Diamond that would expect to raise as much as… ooooh £1.25 on eBay?
Which reminds me of when my little brother bought a birthday CD for grandpa back in the 90s, and got him a Neil Young album rather than Neil Diamond. Lovely old Gramps was a bit doddery by then and listened to it several times before realising it was the wrong Neil.
The Dark Lord’s not old enough for her own turntable yet, but she’s bought her first vinyl album, Whatever People Say I Am by Arctic Monkeys, in anticipation of being let loose on her dad’s old hi-fi.
I told her: “Rearrange this this well-known phrase. Over. Hell. Freeze. Will. Before that happens.”
“Rearrange this,” she replied rudely. “Loser. Too. Late. It’s.”
■ What’s in your old vinyl collection? Email siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk
Please note, if you send us photos of your grandchildren, we’ll also need permission of one of their parents to print them... Thanks!