An Introduction

For years now I've been listening to, and collecting, music. It all started when I was in primary school, I'd watch MTV before I went off to school and note down the artists that I liked. Then on the weekends I'd hunt down their cassette tapes. Around the end of 2001 my friend gave me a mix tape of various punk bands, and that is what set me down my musical path.
Since then I've built up a collection of around 1000 CDs of a variety of genres, but I'm giving it all up. I'm switching over to vinyl. I no longer see the point in owning a CD copy of an album, the large majority of my collection has been listened to once before being copied to my PC and the disc filed away to collect dust.
With a vinyl you get so much more of a complete package. For a start, the artwork is around four times as big - for artists such as Derek Riggs (creator of many of Iron Maidens iconic images) it really shows off the level of talent and detail in their creation. Not only that, but listening to the music is much more of an experience. I know, I know, having to get up and flip a record over may seem archaic in this digital age, but it allows you to appreciate the music more. It forces you to pay attention half way through, instead of it just becoming background noise. And those truly great artists know how to truly make an album flow from side a to side b.
So the point of this blog is mainly to document my journey into the madness of vinyl collecting, I aim to introduce you to bands, review their music and spotlight those records that go the extra mile to create a package by throwing in posters/inserts etc with their albums. I won't be restricting myself to only that - I'll be throwing my opinions around on other formats and going on in the musical world too. And of course, it's a two way thing - if you know of any artists I should check out or some particularly interesting release then just drop me a line!

Thanks.