I Dreamed A Dream...

I had my first Record Player anxiety dream last night. I was on my way to the show, with a bunch of albums for the evening in a beautiful 1970’s mauve record case. As I walked down Northumberland Street I saw, coming towards me, a man in a hurry. The strange thing was, he was carrying an identical record case.

He clattered into me and we both tumbled to the ground.

It’s alright, I wasn’t hurt.

We picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down, shook hands like gentlemen and continued on our separate ways.

There was a very lovely crowd of people in the Digital Lounge, which was very heartening, as they had all obviously booked their tickets early, they booked their tickets early, book your ticket now.

I welcomed everyone in and began my little introduction, a very witty, pithy and informative piece about The Dark Side Of The Moon. It was very well received and the audience clubbed together to buy me a bottle of wine to enjoy during the playback.

Then the nightmare began.

I opened my record case and pulled out, not the Pink Floyd classic, but Private Dancer by Tina Turner. Someone laughed. My stomach flipped. No Jacket Required by Phil Collins appeared next, followed by Men At Work, Adele, The Spice Girls, Savage Garden and Westlife. I had taken the wrong record case.

The gathered throng, once happy and welcoming, became restless and aggressive . A Latte flew out of the darkness, followed by some expensive crisps. I awoke screaming, my wife holding me down, soothing me with a gentle caress, a damp flannel calming my fever. As I drifted back to sleep, I reminded myself to put the albums in turquoise record case.

Well that's nice.

There has been a great response to The Record Player from friends and strangers alike.

Why, only yesterday a blind tramp, his clothing hanging in rags, his breath fetid, took hold of my arm and coughed 'Thankyou for bringing back the music Mr. Drayton" into my face.  He then pressed a gold coin into my palm.

I took this gold coin,  I purchased a brand new copy, on vinyl, of 'For Emma, For Ever Ago'. This will be opened on the night. If it scratched, we're buggered. But now, thanks to that shabby, beautiful tramp, we do have all the albums on vinyl.

And in other news, There is one of the four that I have two of, so there'll be one up for a competition prize.

How exciting!

Hello and welcome.

A few weeks ago I went and bought myself a replica Dansette record player. In doing so I unleashed lots of records that had been kept in captivity on a shelf.

After some serious old bloke organising, I took an album and played it, from start to finish every night for a week. It was great. For far to long I'd been doing the ipod shuffle, little musical snacks, in place of great big meal. Taking myself off with a different album each night was a treat at the end of the day.

I then thought it would be great to be able to invite everyone round to have a feast, but was thwarted by space restrictions. I asked the good people of the Tyneside if I could have some people round at theirs, and they said it was no problem, they'd even open a bar.

http://www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/whats-on/mr-draytons-record-player

I've chosen the first four albums in this season, I'd be delighted if you suggested something, but beware, I'm a right nazi when it comes to music, so no Jethro Tull or Leona Lewis if you don't mind. Unless you can persuade me otherwise.

I'm also putting a fanzine for the event, should you want to contribute, please do so, keep it short, anything about music, also your thoughts about the featured albums, anything will be considered. If you get a piece in you get a free copy, it'll come with a badge as well, so that's good.

I will be posting more about  the evenings as they draw closer so do drop by again, feel free to post here, or email therecordplayer@yahoo.co.uk.

Thanks,
Mr. Drayton.