'Trying to recapture their glory days' - Why vinyl still spins us round and round

There's just something about vinyl records - whether it's the hiss and crackle as the needle drops or that rich, warm analogue sound, it's the music format that just refuses to die.

Brian Wafer co-ordinates record fairs around the North Island selling a mix of second-hand, reissues, collectibles and brand-new pressings.

He reckoned you could tell what time of day it was by who was coming through the door at a record fair.

"Metal heads generally get up late in the afternoon and always come in during the last hour, the same as DJs to be honest.

"DJs are normally the guys coming in hungover an hour before you close the door because they've been up at night doing their DJ thing."

During the 1980s, Wafer ran the independent music store and label Imahit Records in New Plymouth, but tastes and formats changed and it folded.

Now he's co-ordinating record fairs as what he described a "productive hobby".

Wafer explained the enduring attraction of vinyl.

"I think because you can read the things, not like CDs, especially as you're getting older and I think a lot of people are trying to recapture their glory days - which never were their glory days, but you know - so they're reliving the past, reliving it through a physical format they can hang on the wall in a frame, play the record while they are drinking that over-priced bourbon or whatever, you know."

Wafer was constantly on the search for records via online marketplaces, garage sales and even estate clearances.

"Clearing out, that's a big one lately, there's so many people trying to find money to pay their mortgages and so on, so it's like 'I'm going to have let these go'.

"I get messages like that every day, so I just pick and choose and if I'm in the right location I say 'I'll see you in a couple of days and if not in a couple of weeks' and it's good fun."

At the New Plymouth Record Fair held last Saturday, Wafer's crates were filled solely with seven-inch singles.

But fellow stallholder Peter White was on a different trip all together - music with a tie to New Zealand, the obscurer the better.

"So, these are all lathe cuts in here. So, here's one Das Untermench that Brian released. He also released this one here, Merlene and the Freeloaders.

"Extremely expensive, they only made a couple of hundred of them and how many of them exist today, you know, 30 or 40 years later?"

For the uninitiated, White explained what a lathe cut actually was.

"Have a little look at this it's clear and it's plastic and it's an etching. So, that's a lathe cut as opposed to on vinyl where the grooves are yeah, cut, not like this is, plastic and it's hard. It's brittle and they don't last and the sound's rough. But they're extremely rare."

He also had a lathe cut single legendary New York hip-hop trio the Beastie Boys got made while touring New Zealand.

It was number six in a run of only 30 and could be yours for $1000.

White said economics always suggested vinyl recordings could one day become collectable.

"CDs, how many were made? Thousands, there's no sort of number on it. But I knew with records and cassettes there was a limited print run and 40 years later not a lot of them survived and these are all in fairly mint condition and people pay a premium for that."

And then there was the nostalgia effect.

"We want what we had when we were younger and a lot of people in our age now have disposable income and they are prepared to pay for bringing back that past.

"It's kind of like Matchbox cars. It's that collectables thing. You like what you had and it's nostalgic as well."

Allan Day was certainly on that a nostalgia trip.

"I've been an avid collector of vinyl since probably the early 1970s when I could first afford to buy vinyl.

"I've still got the very first album that I ever bought, The Moody Blues' Days of Future Past. So, I've been collecting vinyl and listening to vinyl ever since."

He had a theory for why vinyl had made a comeback.

"I love opening up the liner notes really and reading lyrics and about the artists and you certainly don't get that when you download stuff off the net."

Sarah Sampson had found something.

"Yeah I've bought AK79. It's actually a gift and I've just had to have a quick video call with my brother in London to ask him if he thinks my other brother in Auckland already has it because that's who I'm buying for. So, that's really exciting actually."

A teacher, she was buying for New Zealand rock royalty - brother Nick was in the Netherworld Dancing Toys.

"Obviously he's got a real interest in the New Zealand music scene and really enjoys this sort of punk scene as well and he's got a vinyl collection, so it's a gift for him."

At 26, Lou McNally was one of the younger crate diggers.

She was into the whole record fair vibe.

"Nostalgia, for sure, like I think it's a real thing with my generation, you know, reflecting on the past and enjoying things from the past."

Lou had scored something too.

"I have got a record by China Crisis. So, my family are from Liverpool and it was my dad's favourite band when he was a young lad in Liverpool. That's my Christmas present for him."

Meanwhile, Wafer said all the effort of putting on a record fair was worth it.

"I was talking to a bloke in Auckland a while ago at a record fair he had put on and he says 'gee I don't know how you can do this, there's so much bloody work involved,' and I says 'cause it's not work, mate'. It's just fun, you know.

"You don't want to be sitting home in front of the TV. This is good fun."

The self-declared vinyl addict was in his happy place.