Luckily I have been diagnosed early; there is some hope for me yet.
As for others I have met on this journey, I am not so sure. Some, like gallerist Warren Siebrits and ex-teacher Barney Stathakis, seem too far gone ever to recover really and truly.
Others such as DJs Mark Kretschmann and Steve East are developing raging habits that may eventually take control. You see, these people are all inflicted with the same disease: they’re vinyl junkies.
“I have a problem and admitting that has helped me, like therapy,” says Siebrits. “The thing about collecting is, it becomes a bit of a disease, especially when you’re at the point where I am with, 10 000 records and sometimes you have four or five copies of something. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Siebrits has made the journey to the monthly Chilli Vinyl Fair in Midrand to sell off doubles from his collection.
“I think it’s all about asking yourself the difficult questions like, ‘Where am I going with my collection?’,” says Siebrits. “I need to focus on this and let go of that and it’s making a lot of people really happy.”
I nod in agreement. Just half an hour earlier I was handing over R50 to Siebrits for a copy of New Order’s Blue Monday, the biggest- selling 12-inch vinyl of all time.
It was this record that allegedly cost Tony Wilson’s Factory Records money every time a copy was sold, because the die-cut sleeve by Peter Saville was so exquisite it made the single completely unprofitable.
An hour later and I am sitting outside the Chilli Vinyl store discussing the hunt for vinyl with Barney Stathakis, who has been collecting for almost four decades. “I have been dealing for many years,” says Stathakis. “I deal out of my home.” He adds: “I started dealing to feed my need. Like a junkie.”
“Do you know there is actually a store in the UK called Vinyl Junkie?” Stathakis asks. “Quite appropriate,” he says before I can respond. I ask him what the ultimate record in his collection is, the prized possession.
His answer is surprising. “The special album in my collection is The Beatles’ second album, With the Beatles,” he says. Surely not that hard to get your hands on, I think.
“If I have 20 copies of that album, it is too few; every time I see it I must buy it. I try not to see it now,” he says, chuckling to himself and fully aware that he is talking about very irrational behaviour.
“It was released when I was growing up in mid-1963. It was my impressionable years and it is a record that will stay with me forever,” says Stathakis. “I actually have a copy that was Barbara Barnard’s [Chris Barnard’s wife].”
You see, this is the realm of the vinyl junkies, men and women who remain obsessed about a music format some would argue went out the window with the introduction of CDs in the Eighties. Or did it? Seems vinyl is making a bit of a comeback. It is no longer just the playground of DJs and middle-aged music anoraks.
Young tight-jeaned indie kids with emo fringes are lining up at specialised vinyl importers around the country to take home the new Arcade Fire album or that third album by The Shins.
When I entered Chilli Vinyl for the first time I was disappointed when a young punk-looking teen beat me to a copy of The Clash’s London Calling.
“That kid has a kick-ass record player,” I am told by Chilli Vinyl’s owner and resident record collector Steve Strange.
Vinyl is back and, with the possibilities of the digital age, the record label can give you free access to MP3 downloads of the album, basically negating the entire need for the CD.
Stathakis says the whole package with vinyl is just better. “I think the CD is just disposable plastic and doesn’t demand attention like vinyl does. There has been a resurgence in vinyl. I see a lot of young kids who are beginning to collect vinyl.”
He says coupling the vinyl with a free digital download is a smart way of getting the kids hooked. He demonstrates by pulling out a copy of the new album by The Shins with the free digital download coupon.
DJs Kretschmann and East are examples of this younger generation of vinyl junkies; they buy brand-new albums released on vinyl and go bargain shopping in second-hand stores, charity shops and flea markets.
“Every time you go looking for vinyl there is always something you find that you are like ‘aah wicked’,” says Kretschmann. “I was quite amped to find this Transvision Vamp album. I have been looking for that for a while.”
East agrees the attraction of vinyl has a lot to do with the packaging. “The packaging with vinyl is just so much more. That’s exactly it; you buy the vinyl and you get the free digital download too, it’s great.”
“It’s cool to show of to somebody, like check this out,” he adds as a friend walks up with a brand-new copy of Aphex Twin’s ground-breaking 1992 album Selected Ambient Works 85-92.
“Like that?” I inquire. “Exactly,” he says as his mate dances around, vinyl in hand, taunting him like a child with a fancy new toy.
THE DETAILS
Chilli Vinyl can be found in the Value Fair Shopping Centre on Old Pretoria Road, Midrand. The Vinyl Fair takes place on the first Sunday of every month. Info: Tel: 011 312 4185.