Dusting Off the Old Collection

I made my first trip to Christchurch in almost a year this last weekend.  It was good to catch up with friends and family. 

When we left Christchurch just over six years ago in terms of listening I was focussed more on CDs and the portability that my iPod provided.  New releases weren’t generally available on vinyl and what was available was very expensive and hard to find.  My turntable also needed an upgrade.  Doing that wasn’t the thing to do before heading off overseas and carting 600 lps across the globe did not seem a sensible thing to do either.

I couldn't part with them either suspecting it would be large regret.  So I bundled them away in boxes and put them in storage - for a time when I felt retrieving them would be worthwhile. 

So having rediscovered the glory of vinyl while in Singapore it was good to get back and be able to browse through the collection.  This time I had time to sift through and I was able to pick out a few (OK a lot) of my old favourites and bring them back home to Fiji.  

So after buying a few new ones as well I loaded up my suitcase to a carefully planned 23.2 kg and headed home - forgoing Jan's customary two bottles of wine.

So the collection in Fiji just got a bit larger with albums by Bowie, Dylan, Warren Zevon, Tom Verlaine, Steve Forbet, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Chuck E Weiss, Alberta Hunter, Dirk Hamilton, Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Django Rheinhardt, Talking Heads, The Clash, Hank Williams Junior, Otis Redding, Van Morrison and Toy Love.  

I stopped after sorting through two of the boxes and I know there are more treasures to unearth on future trips. So I am looking forward to getting back and breaking out some John  Hiatt, Drs of Madness, Microdisney, more Bowie, Dylan and other highlights.

I have started playing through them - it will take a while - and have been delighted with the condition they are in.  I must have looked after them in the past!

I am sure they will be the subject of a number of blogs in the coming weeks.