Bury St Edmunds business Vinyl Hunter explores vinyl’s surge in popularity
Vinyl records once looked set to go the way of wind-up gramophones … spinning slowly but surely into the musical history books
Cassette tapes, CDs, then the digital download revolution did their best to bury the iconic format.
But just like some of the stars whose vinyl albums are now prized by collectors, it was not destined to trudge wearily off the stage.
Vinyl never went away and the comeback is now stronger than ever with devotees driving a growing surge in popularity.
Vintage records as well as new issues are in demand … and not just with those who loved them in their youth.
Whole new generations are learning to appreciate the sound and feel of the 12” disc and value the experience of getting their music from something tangible.
They also get to own a work of art, with some historical covers now almost as iconic as the music inside.
Bury St Edmunds, Clare and Diss are among the towns in Suffolk and Norfolk with shops specialising in vinyl.
Will Hunter was in his teens when he realised that getting his music on vinyl added whole new dimensions to the experience.
“It’s all of it, the artwork, the sound quality, everything,” said Will who comes from a family of music lovers.
But when he started buying records he found he had to go to London to get the albums he wanted. “I thought there must be lots of other people around here who wanted to buy records,” he recalls.
So, aged only 19, he opened his own shop,Vinyl Hunter, in Bury St Edmunds.
“We’ve been here nearly eight years. My mum Rosie has owned this building for over 30 years, and used to have a curtain exchange here. She is now a partner in the business.”
Although there was a time when almost nobody would dream of buying vinyl there was always a hardcore of fans who still loved it.
“The nice thing is people never stopped buying records, but it was mostly saved by underground things,” says Will. “Without that it would have died.”
But now it is not just the classics from bygone days. Megastars like Beyonce and Ed Sheeran are among the artists who put their albums on vinyl,
“We do the current things as well as vintage. There are 30 to 50 new vinyl releases every week. All the top major artists do it,” said Will. “We sell about 50/50 vintage and new.
“People love that sound quality when listening, it’s almost guaranteed better quality.
“It’s an experience you don’t get with digital. When you can hold a record in your hand you have a different level of appreciation.
“Kids of 10 and 11 are buying records, and people of 90. A lot of young people are buying classics like Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles.
“Teenagers are wanting to spend their small amount of money on something that they love.
“This generation has grown up wth so much that’s artificial in their lives. It shows they care about it. It’s something tangible, physical and it’s really cool to see that.”
Will has always been around music. “My uncle was a DJ in the 1980s and my mum is a huge music fan. So I’d been taken to gigs all my life, people like Prince and Bowie,” he said.
The current craze for vinyl is moving so fast that pressing plants worldwide - most of which closed down during the slump in popularity - are struggling to keep up with demand,
But even with renewed interest it can be hard for the shops that sell it, and Will admits he would find it difficult if he had a family to support.
“It’s nigh impossible to earn a decent living doing this. We just about survive all the time.
“It got a lot harder after the pandemic. Small businesses have had a really tough time.
“If it was someone who needed to support a family they wouldn’t be able to do this.
“Production costs of new stuff went up quite a lot during the pandemic, and retail prices went up 25 percent.
“People can afford less than they did before. We’ve got to keep ticking along, and are very grateful that we have a lot of locals that want to support us.
“We are completely reliant on our regulars, those are the people we have to look after,” said Will who also sells cassette tapes.
Vinyl Hunter, which had a major refurbishment last year, now also has an alcohol licence. “We are getting into getting regular music events. We’re going to have bands coming to play in store, and DJs coming in. So we’re saying come and have a cocktail.”
Dan Reville opened Your Vinyl Answer in Clare a year ago. Before that he sold online.
“I was always interested in music since I was a teenager. In 2015 I started to have to have operations on my eyes due to diabetes, and began to think what might I be able to do if I lost my sight, which was a possibility.
“I had always done boot sales locally and I had people who knew what I did. But since we opened it has been far far better than we anticipated. I’m living the dream to a degree. We get people bringing in records all the time.”
He deals not only in records, but also in other nostalgic items like CDs, cassettes, action figures, VHS videos, and old video games like Nintendo. “There is a huge market for retro games,” says Dan, who runs the business with his partner Cara Langley.
He buys across all genres for the shop and also has 78rpm records including one more than 100 years old - a 1913 recording called ‘Come into the Garden, John’ by Billy Williams.
The shop is a nostalgia-fest for older generations, and a window onto a bygone world for youngsters increasingly fascinated by what passed for technology when their mums and dads were young.
“I have had kids of 12 or 13 coming in with Sony Walkmans and wanting cassette tapes,” he adds.
Wildflower Records in Diss is run by lifelong music fan Will Porteous, who opened it just over a year ago after moving out from London during lockdown.. “My wife bought me a record player and I thought I love records … maybe Diss would benefit from something like this.
The shop is open Thursdays to Saturdays. Records on sale are 95 percent vintage. “It’s all the classic stuff from across the genres. The most popular album of all is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. I’ve had a few rare records in, real gems. That’s very exciting,” he says.
