Spiral Classics: From the English Midlands to the World

I started Spiral Classics in 1992 as a mail order business. My first task was to decide on a name for the new business. My partner pointed out that the groove on a record is a spiral. And I’ve always been fascinated by Celtic art, which inspired my logo. Record dealing was rather different in those days. I advertised in Gramophone magazine, International Classical Record Collector and other places and sent out a printed catalogue regularly by post. Nowadays I have a website designed by my web guru son and his wife: https://www.spiralclassics.co.uk. It delights me that you can now search my stock list in so many different ways. You can search for record codes, of course, and for a particular artist or conductor or piece of music. You can also search by category: for example, Conductors, Violinists, Pianists; and by repertoire: Chamber Music, Twentieth Century, Early and Baroque, etc. 

Most dealers that I’ve talked to started off as collectors themselves. I was never a collector; I came into dealing in classical music on vinyl from a different direction. I have always loved classical music and I am passionate about the sound quality of vinyl. At the beginning I had an enormous lot to learn; over the years I have met many wonderful collectors who shared their knowledge with me. I’ve acquired a wealth of information, and I’m delighted that the website has space for me to share a lot of this, so it won’t be lost. 

Collecting “Golden Age” English classical LPs 

My Guide to Collecting [click here] has two sections. The first is “Understanding Labels and Pressings”. Very experienced collectors know a lot about different labels and pressings of collectable LPs, but if you are less experienced, it can be difficult to be sure which to buy, particularly as not all sellers are consistent in their descriptions. 

The second section is “Information about Records, Recordings, Conductors and Artists”. I hope to add more to this section and I welcome articles from experts in different fields. 

The importance of record cleaning 

It includes an article on the importance of record cleaning, with my customers’ views on the record cleaning machines that they have. Back in the 1990s I realised that I needed to clean some of the records that came through my hands in order to properly assess their condition. I was delighted to acquire a second-hand and somewhat battered Keith Monks machine. I was very fortunate that in those days the original engineer who designed and built these machines was still working for the company, and he overhauled mine for me, adding some new parts. With the aid of my excellent assistant, Francis, the machine is still going strong. I had a new pump many years ago, and he has just renovated that for me with parts from the pump manufacturer. 

Reference guides for the collector 

There is also information on the reference books that I have found useful, which collectors may like to acquire from the second-hand book market. These include The Stereo Record Guide, in eight volumes, and The Gramophone Classical Record Catalogue, which was issued four times a year from 1954 onwards. 

Then there’s my Original Labels Resource [https://www.spiralclassics.co.uk/original-labels]. I’ve used the database of LPs that have been through my hands over thirty years to help establish the first label for many of the collectable English Golden Age LPs. 

Life before Spiral Classics 

I used to be a social worker, working in fostering, placing children with families who would look after them and love them, but I fell ill when I was 40 and on my recovery I decided to start a small part-time business. Well it was small and part-time when I started but it very soon grew. At first I thought I’d like to have a shop as I enjoy talking with people, but I found selling by mail order and now on the web suited me very well, and I still have lots of great conversations with record lovers. 

In the early days I advertised to buy collections and drove round the countryside acquiring records, but more recently I’ve stopped buying collections. For some years now I have been selling on commission. People arrange to bring or send me collectable and interesting records. I assess their condition and value and put them on my website. I then pay a proportion of the price after I’ve sold them. I much prefer this to buying collections. In my early days I used to agonise about the price I’d paid. Had I paid too much, would I make a loss? Or, more seriously, had I paid too little, had I been unfair to the seller? Now I don’t have to worry about that, nor do I have to carry values in my head. I can value each LP at leisure. 

Adventures of a record dealer 

This way of dealing has brought me some outstanding collections, as the seller can see what I’m asking for their records, and they know they are getting a fair share of the price. The great Decca producer Christopher Raeburn entrusted his collection to me. I visited him three times and had a wonderful time hearing his anecdotes of working with superb Decca performers. Another great man of the LP recording industry who entrusted his collection to me was Bill Newman, who had a marvellous collection of EMI pressed Mercuries (AMS), including test pressings, as he’d been responsible for them when he worked at EMI. 

Of course, it’s not only famous people whose collections I’ve handled. An elderly collector in Denmark sent me a parcel of fascinating LPs every few months, as his heirs had no interest in them and he wanted to know that they would go to record lovers who would treasure them. That was another big learning curve for me as many of them were very valuable European records that I’d never seen before. Among them was the most expensive item I’ve handled, the 7-LP set DTX 191/7, “Mozart à Paris”, which sold for over £8,000 in 2010. I’ve never had anything so expensive since. 

I pride myself on the care with which I assess the condition of each LP. I examine each one very carefully. I’m helped by my short sight, which means I can slip my glasses off, then look at the surface much more closely than people with perfect sight! If I see any marks which might sound, I play that part of the LP and count any ticks or clicks. I also play marks that I don’t think will sound, just to be sure. This is pretty time-consuming, so I’m never going to get rich! I think the reputation of Spiral Classics has been built on the care I take assessing and describing the condition of the LPs I sell. 

When I started Spiral Classics a relative who dealt in rare autographs advised me to deal only in expensive items, as I’d make more money with less work. I didn’t take his advice. There are so many wonderful LPs that aren’t particularly valuable but will still give a lot of pleasure to the new owner. In some ways I still work in fostering, only now it’s LPs that I like to find appreciative homes for! I love it when a customer tells me how delighted he is with a particular record he’s just bought from me. 

A global customer base 

I have customers from all over the world, as well as lots in the UK. Which part of the world has varied over time. At one point I had a big customer base in Japan, and I still have a number of Japanese customers who have been ordering from me since the early days of Spiral Classics. I’ve had customers from China, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. At present I have a lot of good customers in the United States. I used to have quite a lot of customers in Europe, but sadly Brexit has made importing from the UK much more expensive for them and my European customers are only slowly coming back. 

A few of my favorite things 

It’s wonderful having so much stock to sample, and sometimes I decide I just have to keep a record and pay for it myself! What do I listen to for my own pleasure? My own collection has a shelf for my favourite singers – mostly sopranos, mezzos, contraltos. In my youth I had ambitions to be a professional singer, and I am very selective about the voices I like to listen to: Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Janet Baker, Teresa Stich-Randall singing Mozart. Then there’s a long shelf of early and baroque music, mostly original instrument performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. Yes, there were fine original instrument recordings in the 1960s! And although I love the sound of the golden age analogue LPs, I don’t scorn 1980s digitals. Yes, the sound is different but sometimes it’s wonderful! What else? I love Barbirolli’s Sibelius and Mahler. Beecham’s Peer Gynt is a particular treasure. Then there’s the violinists. I grew up listening to Heifetz on 78s, and now I particularly love Grumiaux. As for composers, I always come back to Bach or Mozart. 

Westminster XWN-19046. Teresa Stich-Randall sings Mozart arias, accompanied by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under the direction of László Somogyi, recorded in the Mozart-Saal of Vienna’s Konzerthaus in June 1963. 

You’ll find that I sometimes put a “recommended” tag in my stock list. Most of them are my own favourites, but I also recommend piano recordings that my assistant Francis picks out, as he’s my piano music guru. 

Looking Ahead 

Where is Spiral Classics going in the future? Well, I reckon I’ve just acquired my last major collection. It’s going to take me a couple of years to get it all listed on my website. It’s a superb collection of great violinists, Martzy, Rabin, Oistrakh (nearly all his LPs), Ricci, Milstein, Szeryng and so much more. This collector was also particularly interested in the pianist Sviatoslav Richter. As well as lots of superb early stereos there are some outstanding monos, including a shelf full of Furtwangler and a fine collection of Toscanini. So many great performers of the golden age of LPs. But after that Spiral Classics will be winding down as I’m getting on in years. 

Do come and visit me at https://www.spiralclassics.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from old and new customers and having more fascinating discussions about LPs. 

More photos in Issue 6 – available in your subscriber account – on page 134.