1st December 1996I've always been fascinated with records. Not the CD sort, the vinyl and shellac variety. CDs are rather distant and remote. You just put the disc in the tray, press the go button and do something else. They don't demand you sit there, admire the artwork and come back to turn them over.
My first introduction to records was with a wind up gramophone and a pile of old 78s. As I developed a taste for modern pop, I discarded the old groove grinder and got down to some serious record buying. So it continued until I heard a Les Paul and Mary Ford version of then current hit "How High The Moon". I asked my father about this who, wonder of wonders, and from one of his many rooms, produced a 78 of said version.
The thing about Les Paul is that he effectively invented the electric guitar (the legendary Humbucker pickup) and then went to terrorise the American record industry with multi-track recording. Which is why there is a Gibson Les Paul guitar in my local music shop (£1750) but not a Gibson/Fender Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix or Segovia.
You know the Americans put a man on the moon using computers about as powerful as a well spec'd Archimedes? Well, Mr Paul used recording technology about as advanced as your cassette recorder to produce the first examples of multi tracked multi speed recording, turning a good old tub thumper like "How High..." into an aural delight. Then he really got cracking on the B side, turning out all the tricks on "What Is This Thing Called Love?" to make a decidedly jazz driven synthesizer sounding joy. That particular disc really is the prime example of his multi track skill but there are plenty of other good pieces to be found.
OK, so what's this got to do with 78s. Simple. Having liberated that Les Paul record, I loved it for ten years until I broke it when moving. Shortly after that I put my trusty Garrard 401 record player in my father's attic and forgot about 78s altogether until I met a man in Lambourn who renovated Garrards. And doesn't he just. Back came the Garrard, refurbished a treat and ready to strut its stuff on 78, 45 and 33. (By the by, did you realise that in 1978 everyone who was born in '33 was 45?)
But Oh! Where were the 78s to play? I had a couple of rubbishy old ones, but nothing that really cooked. At about that time I took to going to our local auction rooms, and guess what? They regularly sold boxes of 78s for a couple of quid. So I bought some. I have to tell you now that there has been some dire music recorded this century, and Bing Crosby can take the blame for a lot of it. You might think Boyzone are awful, but they are the current end product of a long and faintly revolting evolutionary trail that predates Jess Conrad by several decades (Actually, if you look closely at Jess Conrad, and I'm afraid I have, you will see that he predates his face considerably, if you know what I mean).
With the above said, amongst the oceans of flotsam there have been a few absolute gems to make it all worthwhile. Louis Jordan brightened my life, and several others have been too good to pass on. I particularly like "Boogly Woogly Piggy" by the Ambrose Orchestra with Anne Shelton on throat, and any Phil Harris (Balloo) song is excellent. If you watched "Hello Girls" on BBC1, the original version of the theme song is by Rose Murphy and I found it and kept it on 78.
Very few 78s are worth any money at all. Those that are date from the late Fifties when 78s had to be specially ordered (The vinyl LP took about eight years to obliterate the 78) and are of the easily obtainable rock'n'roll stuff. But do stay awake because there is such a large and ready market for rock'n'roll 78s for juke boxes that the prices quoted for mint (means unplayed and doesn't happen) are astronomic. However the majority of old equipment for playing shellac chewed them up pretty badly and the consequent price reflects that. Yes, you could get £250 for an Elvis 78, but not if you've played it. Probably nearer a fiver in that case, still outlandish compared to most 78s and vinyl. By a twist of cosmic logic, some of the very good earlier stuff that has never been released elsewhere has no buyers in quantity.
But interest is growing. I was forced to give up my relatively cheap hobby of buying a box of old 78s and even older spiders because others started bidding against me and a two quid knockdown became a ten quid top bid. And they are not worth that. Also worth considering is that 78s sound appalling over a modern stereo without a mono switch. Why? Because you get different scratch and surface noise in each speaker and whatever remains of the recording is drowned out in the middle. A good graphic equaliser (12+ bands a channel) can pay dividends, but if like me you loathe and despise graphic equalisers, pick one up at a boot sale.
It's worthwhile. If you can get hold of the technology to play them without causing undue damage, and that's tricky because it is almost all secondhand unless you want to spend hundreds going on thousands, and you can get your 78's in decent nick they are an absolute joy. If you like fifties rock'n'roll you'll love it on 78 because it sounds fabulous, far better than vinyl or, pah, CD - it's easy to see why the prices are so high. You can get lucky at boot sales and auctions - so try it hep cats.
Chris Chadwick, EUG #29
