THE RECORD DECK
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream… but bring a wallet for the UK’s water-based music vendor.
Wander slightly off-grid from Fairport Convention’s yearly Cropredy festival and you might find yourself on the Grand Union Canal, amid boaters and traders making the most of the atmosphere. One trader is, erm, making waves: Luke Guilford, with his floating music shop The Record Deck. After four years’ trading, the 40-foot narrowboat named Tashtar is Guilford’s home and business, and an essential stop-off for proggers.
“I come from the boating side anyway,” says Guilford, who’s lived on board for 20 years. “My mum’s got a boat and she used to take it to Cropredy. I saw other traders there and it sowed the seed.”
A kid in the 90s, Guilford admits that he and his friend “had the biggest paper round in Northamptonshire purely to fund our record buying habits” as they visited record fairs and built up their collection and knowledge. Later, Guilford worked in a library in Hackney for a number of years but “never really enjoyed the regular nine to five,” so decided to take his record collecting nous and try and to make a living from it.
“I had the boat as a home, so
I built shelves, made a hatch in the side and built a sofa bed that fits eight crates of vinyl under it,” he says. “This is the most stock that I can carry. I’m looking at the place now, it’s full of records!”
Cropredy isn’t his only stop-off; Guilford books in a year of canal-side events across the Midlands, home counties, and London with a regular mooring in Hackney on the river Lea. He looks out for new releases and even hosts ‘on-store’ gigs.
Stock comes from markets, private collections or other boaters selling up and moving on. Guilford’s preference is “old Fairport, Pentangle and folk crossover stuff from ’68 to ’72,” but today he’s handling a bundle that features Hatfield & The North,
Henry Cow and Matching Mole to file alongside rare items such as Fruupp, an original Joy Of A Toy, and The Madcap Laughs.
The fun part of the business is meeting people. “Every day’s an education,” he says. “You learn something from every customer.” JK
See www.facebook.com/therecorddeckuk for more.
“I’m looking at the place now, it’s full of records!”