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Vinyl is expected to be the next area of collectables to be targeted by savers looking at ‘alternative investments’ such as wine, stamps or art, some auctioneers believe, because Chinese and Russian investors have started to buy into the market.
Record Collector magazine has drawn up a list of 51 singles or albums which aspiring investors should hunt down, with an especially rare Sex Pistols single topping the chart of ‘vinyl inflation’. The original single for God Save the Queen, the irreverent and angrily sung tribute to the monarchy during Silver Jubilee Year, was published by A&M Records, but soon after the company dropped the band and destroyed most of the copies, making any existing versions worth £8,000 today.
The band was soon picked up by a young Richard Branson and his Virgin label, which re-released the single.
The second-most valuable record is a first pressing of The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, worth £3,500 if found in mint condition.
Ian McCann, editor of Record Collector magazine, which drew up the list, said: There is something of an investment market in mint-condition copies of iconic albums.
1. Beatles White Album 19,201
2. Velvet Underground 25,200 US
3. Sex Pistols God Save the Queen 7 inch acetate 14,600
4. Sex Pistols Gave Save the Queen A&M 12,675
5. Beatles Please, Please Me 11,600. Telegraph online article Harry Wallop 21 April 2011
Record Collector magazine have compiled a list of the 51 most collectible vinyl records. Top of the list is the rare Sex Pistols’ single. The second-most valuable record is a first pressing of The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, worth about $5,500 if found in mint condition. Ian McCann, editor of Record Collector magazine said, ‘There is something of an investment in mint-condition copies of iconic albums. The problem is people love them and play them to death, making it increasingly rare to find them in mint condition.’ Steffie Stones online article 23 April 2011
There are a lot of musicians who are still desperately trying to pretend that it’s 1998 and by having a huge marketing campaign, they somehow believe that they can sell 10 million records. That’s delusional. No one sells 10 million records. The days of musicians getting rich off of selling records are done. Moby
I don’t release records to be anything but enjoyable. John Lydon
When I die just keep on playing the records. Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child
Belfast: Some people did call it a revolution. And some people called it the Troubles – an equally useless word. Good Vibrations, BBC 2015
We’ve got reggae; what have they got? ibid.
I’ll put that record out. I dunno. How hard could it be? ibid.
The revolutionary power of the seven-inch single. ibid.
There were no winning sides back then. ibid.
Spinning records ain’t paying none of the bills around here. Straight Outta Compton 2015 starring O’Shea Jackson & Corey Hawkins & Jason Mitchell & Aldis Hodge & Neil Brown & Paul Giamatti & Marlon Yates & Corey Reynolds & Tate Ellington & Alesandro Shipp & Angela Elayne Gibbs & Bruce Beatty et al, director F Gary Gray, mother to son
I don’t think you could do it any better. Ray Donovan s4e7: Norman Saves the World, record producer, Showtime 2016
Ted, do you mind if I put on my record? I’ve got Eurosong fever, Ted. Father Ted s2e5: A Song for Europe, Dougal, Channel 4 1996
Spitting Image presents 20 great ice-cream van jingles. Spitting Image s13e6, ITV 1992
Me and my musical chums dressed up to play a track about the Arthurian legends: grandiose music, a heroic subject, outlandish costumes. This could only be the ’70s – heyday of that much maligned creature, the concept album. When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album, Rick Wakeman, BBC 2018
The concept album didn’t stop with the ’70s. ibid.
The concept album in its most ambitious form yet – the rock opera. ibid.
Tommy was released in May 1969 as a double album. ibid.
Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On is not a question, it’s a statement. ibid.
No-one did it better than David Bowie … Ziggie didn’t just exist on the album cover. ibid.
1973 Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon … The biggest selling concept album ever. ibid.
The concept as total theatre was now a hot ticket. ibid.
A funk universe every bit as creative as Prog Rock. ibid.
Along came Punk and burst our bubble. ibid.
1979: The Wall was one of Pink Floyd’s best selling albums. ibid.
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. ibid.
Sony own over 80 different record labels. Wolvoman80, Fuck the System I, Youtube 1.53.27
Video killed the radio star. Now has the internet killed the record industry? The 2000s: The Platinum Age of Television VIII, Fox News, CNN 2018
Boy bands were selling so many albums. ibid. bird
At the centre of their dispute is a music-sharing internet server known as Napster. ibid. Brant Gumbel, The Early Show
‘The seeds for what we take for granted – this multicultural society that we live in now – they were really formed on the dancefloor back in the day in the late ’60s and early ’70s.’ Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, Sky Arts 2019
Chapter 1: The Trojan: Let’s go to Jamaica: one of the bigger islands … ‘Kingston was, was fun, ya know, much lovin’ in Jamaica. Then till them start migrating to England, here.’ ibid.
Between 1955 and 1963 over 100,000 people emigrated from Jamaica to Great Britain. ibid. caption
David Betteridge: Island & Trojan Records: ‘We were a Jamaican music company.’ ibid.
Millie: My Boy Lollipop … Dandy: Rudy, A Message to You … The Maytals: 54-46 Was My Number … Derek Morgan: Seven Letters … Desmond Decker and the Aces: 007 … The Harry J All Stars: Liquidator … Untouchables: Tighten Up … Lee Perry … ibid.
In 1968 the same year Trojan Records is founded, MP Enoch Powell reacts to rising levels of Immigration and addresses the nation. ibid.
A new vibration is emerging in Jamaica and Trojan begins importing records to sell to a growing market in the UK. ibid.
While mainstream radio will not play Trojan records, pirate radio begins broadcasting Jamaican music. ibid.
Trojan skinhead culture is sweeping through the UK and a new market for Jamaican music is emerging. ibid.
Between March and June 1969 Desmond Decker’s The Israelites sells over a million records. ibid.
The unsung hero in popular music’s epic history is not a performer or a band or even a song – it’s this: the long-playing album. When Albums Ruled the World, BBC 2013
Bob Dylan: Freewheelin’: here were thirteen songs that tackled love, war, peace and race. ibid.
Sergeant Pepper: the world’s first concept album. ibid.
This album music was becoming a category of its own. ibid.
Led Zeppelin were the biggest grossing act in the world. ibid.
Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On …. Motown’s biggest selling LP. ibid.
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust. ibid.